Pantone has just debuted a new art installation in London—and it was all yellow. A large-scale public artwork has been unveiled in Wembley Park, near Wembley Stadium, to mark the 25th anniversary of Coldplay’s hit single Yellow.
The installation, titled Yellow 25, is a collaboration between Wembley Park and the Pantone Color Institute, transforming the area’s Spanish Steps into a visual tribute to the song. It also coincides with the band’s upcoming 10-night residency at Wembley Stadium as part of their Music of the Spheres world tour, which began in March 2022 and will end in London on September 8th.
The Spanish Steps connect Wembley Stadium with the OVO Arena Wembley, a central and well-traversed walkway. For Yellow 25, each of the 58 steps has been assigned a shade from the Pantone Matching System, a color order system referenced by various industries to manage color from design to production. Yellow 25 starts with muted tones and progresses to deep golds.
“Color, just like music, is a very emotional form of communication,” Jane Boddy, creative director, Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement. “We were inspired to explore how sound and color can work together to express the feeling of Coldplay’s iconic Yellow, and how the emotional journey of the song could be visually represented through the steps at Wembley Park.”
Coldplay’s Yellow was first released in the U.K. on June 26, 2000, becoming the band’s breakthrough single. Head of cultural programming at Wembley Park, Claudio Giambrone, told Wallpaper that the district is “shaped by music and shared experiences,” adding that the project reflects the song’s legacy and the area’s role as a live entertainment hub.
The steps have been used for other projects in recent years. In 2024, Frank Styles produced a mural for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. The stairs will be free to the public until an unspecified date, with the exception of the 10 days reserved for Coldplay concert ticket holders.
