It’s no surprise we at Catalyst Ranch relish the announcement of Pantone’s Color of the Year. Vibrant color is, after all, a foundational design element for our spaces.
This year, however, the Color of the Year hits a little different. Pantone has declared 2023 the year of ‘Viva Magenta,’ and since magenta is the crown jewel of our signature shades, we can’t help but feel especially activated!
Pantone says Viva Magenta “welcomes anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit. It is a color that is audacious, full of wit and inclusive of all.” Honestly, we feel especially seen. Like the unique animals of the Chinese Zodiac, this Magenta spotlight activates us at Catalyst Ranch more keenly, makes us walk a bit taller…
What is Viva Magenta? Pantone has evocative language around it, and it’s fuel for creativity, served to us on a platter.
The ideas around this Color of the Year are apt fodder for some easy New Year reflection. Perhaps a magenta lens can provide a fun perspective and some new clarity on how we tackle 2023.
**Meeting clients, take note: The following questions include great strategic planning and teambuilding prompts for you and your collaborators.**
According to Pantone:
Viva Magenta “vibrates with vim and vigor … is brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.”
Thoughts for reflection:
- What “feeling” words does magenta evoke for you? Do you agree with the description given above?
- What color is brave and fearless to you? Is it perhaps another color altogether? What makes you feel that way?
- What areas in your life could use some renewed bravery and fearlessness?
- For our meeting clients: In the last year, with your team or within your organization, when and with whom have you witnessed bravery and fearlessness? How can you celebrate those teammates involved, and how can you set the stage for similar moments in 2023?
- For our meeting clients: What new narratives can or should be written this year? Where are this year’s opportunities for changing/improving/correcting course?
“In this age of technology, we look to draw inspiration from nature and what is real.
Rooted in the primordial, Viva Magenta reconnects us to original matter.
Invoking the forces of nature, [it] galvanizes our spirit, helping us to build our inner strength.”
Thoughts for reflection:
- What elements of the landscape in front of you—both literally and figuratively—resonate to you as natural, organic, real?
- What moments have galvanized your spirit? What aspects of those moments can we key into in 2023?
- What are you cultivating in your life that brings you more peace of mind, security of self?
- For our meeting clients: What feels primordial, true, original about the culture among your team? In what ways can you trace your latest successes and current dynamic to it?
- For our meeting clients: Relationships are natural. Personal connection is the context of culture. What activities or rituals reconnect your teammates to each other? How do you honor and revere those moments?
The dawning of a new year is a convenient time to make resolutions, but honestly any date can be Day 1 of a new resolve. And magenta may be as momentous as Pantone makes it to be, but you might be inspired by an entirely different hue. Take from Vivid Magenta what you will. This year or any other.
What is valuable from your experience seeing the color and reading evocative language about it? We hope there’s something there—a nugget or two of new observation for you to hold, for as much of 2023 as is useful to you.
Best wishes from all of us at Catalyst Ranch!
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