YEAR: Ultra Violet A

It would seem that Prince has been spending his time in the great beyond whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the color gods. That has to be the reason.

Because in yet another nod to the legacy of the Purple One (and David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix) and as an acknowledgment of life’s great complexities — creativity, originality, ingenuity, the cosmos, intuition, the third-eye chakra and the depth of the unknown — Pantone has chosen what it calls ultra violet as its color of the year for 2018.

“This shade is one of nonconformity,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, N.J. “People are looking for ways to display creativity.”

The color, Eiseman