The Pantone Color Institute has released a new standardised custom colour inspired by the purple piano Yamaha made for Prince.
Prince’s custom Yamaha grand piano
Pantone Inc. is an American company best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS). This is a comprehensive spectrum of predefined colours each given a unique reference number. A designer will choose a colour from a swatch book and specify that colour’s unique reference to printers / manufacturers etc. The Pantone Matching System thus ensures colour consistency across all materials and finishes.
The Pantone Color Institute, a division of Pantone Inc., works with companies to maximise the potential of their brand’s colour.
Yamaha’s Paint Job
In 2016 Yamaha Entertainment Group (Franklin, Tennessee.) delivered a specially commissioned purple grand piano to Prince’s Paisley Park mansion in Minnesota. It was hoped that the piano would be used by Prince on the remaining dates of his “Piano and a Microphone” tour. Reports say he loved the piano. He first played at the dance party he threw at Paisley Park the Saturday before he died.
The piano is a heavily modified Yamaha production grand, and includes a special internal tone generation system to provide a second audio source. This output was EQ’d to Prince’s specific requirements.
Prince asked Yamaha to match the colour of the piano to a couch in his home. The couch actually featured three different purples and Yamaha finally settled on a purple that was a mix of the three.
The above promotional video shows three silver jump suit clad models blatantly flaunting every health and safety regulation whilst purple-izing the piano!
Pantone Colours
The Pantone Color Institute, in conjunction with The Prince Estate, chose this final colour to represent and honour Prince. The colour is identified by his famous “Love Symbol #2”.
Pantone: Love Symbol #2
This is not the first time Pantone have formulated a custom colour for a celebrity from the world of entertainment. Jay-Z has a special shade of blue, and the Minions even have their very own Minion Yellow.