Any good graphic designer knows the new, hip graphic and industrial design colors are dictated by the fashion world. Last night the fashion world proclaimed the colors for Spring 2005. Download them here.

Simultaneously evoking the Mediterranean Sea and the American Southwest, soft Blue Turquoise topped the list of colors at New York Fashion Week’s Spring 2005 collections, according to Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries.

Exclusive Spring 2005 swatches palette. Download below.

Begonia Pink appeared as a languidly alluring gown at Ralph Lauren, lingerie layers of lace and chiffon at Betsey Johnson, and an elaborately gathered taffeta skirt at Oscar de la Renta, while red-orange Flame burned up a charmeuse halter dress at Zac Posen, layered dresses at Calvin Klein, and a wrap jumpsuit at Behnaz Sarafpour.

The 2005 colors follow a trend in recent Spring lineups:  2002 saw a blast of highly saturated, mid-tone colors in a tight complementary square. Those same hues returned in Spring 2003, but desaturated and darkened. Keeping with the desaturation trend but leaping into more uplifting brightness, this year’s colors break out of the complement all together.

”Color for Spring ‘05 is wildly divergent,” notes observed Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “The mix is dramatic—like throwing confetti and seeing where it lands.”

Returning to the limelight since its last great hoorah in the Eighties, Pink is coming back strong. Evoking multisensory impressions of bubble-gum, begonias, and Grandma’s lipstick, pink is reaching new heights of popularity, including as the new signature color of New York. Says Eiseman, pink is “still fresh and relevant.”

Hot off the runway, download your new Spring 2005 colors in a pre-built swatches file—exclusively on [1] Quark VS InDesign.com

[2] 2005spring-CS2.zip (545b) (Mac & Win) Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) palette for all Creative Suite 2 applications

[3] 2005spring.zip (115k) (Mac & Win) Contains .ai, .eps, and .aco, versions of the swatches palette for use in pre-CS2 versions of Adobe and other products; in .zip format for Windows & OS X.

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