Ukrainian Pantone
The language of color
Article
Ukrainian Pantone is an alternative color palette created by designer Ira Hetman. It is an exercise in linguistics and perception at the same time.
As a starting point of her research, Hetman extracted dialectic names of colours from the Dictionary of Bukovinian Speeches. These colours were create the linguo-visual part of the palette: бурачковий (borage), сечовий (light-beige), кармазиновий (crimson), ружовий (rose), голенький (nude), травичковий (grass), бурмаристий (cold-beige), камінковий (dark-blue), вохра (ochre) та мурий (dark-grey).
The other part of colors is called Real Life and derives from the designer's perception and experience during the quarantine. "At that time, I would go out of the yard and take photos of things that caught my attention – a bright red car in the middle of the gray buildings. It would be such a status thing in the "criminal 90s", so I took the photo and called the color "elite." Alongside elite, the palette includes: панельний сірий (panel grey), цвіль на батоні (baguette mold), and нарядне бордо (festive burgundy).
As light and funny as it seems, Ukrainian Pantone udnerlines that color is one of the key featuries of identity. Therefore, it is important to use identity colors consistently. In case of Ukrainian identity, the two official colors are blue and yellow with the corresponding codes: #0057B8 and #FFD700. The use of wrong shades is so common that Shevchuk Buro even created a website presenting the official blue and yellow colors.
