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Pantone's 2018 color of the year is Ultra Violet

In 2018, purple will reign.
/ Source: TODAY

If only Prince were alive to see this.

Pantone announced in December that purple will reign as the color of the year in 2018 — specifically, the shade Ultra Violet, which comes from the melding of blue and red.

Pantone Color of The Year
Your color of the year for 2018: Ultra Violet. Pantone

"It’s truly a reflection of what’s needed in our world today," Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, told The New York Times.

Pantone hopes the blue and red, the colors used to designate America's liberal and conservative politics, can become a more harmonious purple.

"It’s also the most complex of all colors because it takes two shades that are seemingly diametrically opposed — blue and red — and brings them together to create something new," added Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone's executive director.

Pantone Color of The Year
Pantone signals Ultra Violet will everywhere in 2018, from fashion runways to cars to cosmetics. Getty Images

The announcement will certainly please Prince fans, who favored the shade throughout his career.

Pantone honored "The Purple One" in August with a custom hue called "Love Symbol #2." Prince died in April 2016.

Pantone's Color of the Year

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Pantone's Color of the Year

Purple will reign as the color of the year in 2018 — specifically, the shade Ultra Violet, which comes from the melding of blue and red.

Ultra Violet follows 2017's Pantone color of the year, Pantone 15-0343, aka "greenery," a spring shade that represented hope and a closeness with nature.

Pantone, which dubs itself "the global color authority," began naming colors of the year starting in the new millennium, searching the world for trending colors in everything from cosmetics to cars.

"We wanted to pick something that brings hope and an uplifting message,'' Eiseman told The Times.

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