Pantone honors Prince with new deep purple shade ‘Love Symbol #2’

by: Grace Fleisher Aug 15, 2017

Prince is undoubtedly one of modern music’s great chameleons, pumping out a veritable trove of work before his sudden death last year. A sublime artist with a seminal body of work that transcended boundaries — both racial and sexual — whilst challenging genres, artistic expectations and fusing disparate styles, unlike anything prior his purple reign along the way.

Undoubtedly leaving his subversive mark upon today’s popular culture, comes another stamp of the artist’s influence, as now, thanks to a deal between his estate and the Pantone Color Institute, Prince has his very own, stately shade — Love Symbol #2.

“While the spectrum of the color purple will still be used in respect to the ‘Purple One,’ Love Symbol #2 will be the official color of the brand he left behind,” a Pantone statement reads. Love Symbol #2 was inspired by the hue of his purple Yamaha piano Prince had planned to take on tour, before passing away April 21, 2016.

Its name is inspired by that Prince gave to his copyrighted symbol, which made its first appearance on 1992’s Love Symbol Album.

For an artist whose work offered the world new ways of seeing ourselves and those around us, it’s only right to recognize his sublimeness with a chromatic pinpoint.

Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute, touched on the development and meaning of the shade in a statement by the company.

“We are honored to have worked on the development of Love Symbol #2, a distinctive new purple shade created in memory of Prince, ‘the purple one.’ A musical icon known for his artistic brilliance, Love Symbol #2 is emblematic of Prince’s distinctive style. Long associated with the purple family, Love Symbol #2 enables Prince’s unique purple shade to be consistently replicated and maintain the same iconic status as the man himself.”

See Love Symbol #2 below.