The Grateful Dead have teamed with global color authority Pantone to create two new colors inspired by their iconography.
The colors, Grateful Red and Stealie Blue, were created using scans of an original pressing of the band’s 1973 Bear’s Choice live album. It was also the first time The Dead used their iconic Stealie aka Steal Your Face skull and lightning bolt logo.
Both colors, which have been used throughout The Dead’s six-decade career, are part of a new merch collection that includes Grateful Red and Stealie Blue paint can-dles, as well as T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and more.
“The Grateful Dead’s visual iconography is unmatched in the music world,” David Lemieux, Grateful Dead legacy manager and archivist, says. “These shades of red and blue are uniquely and identifiably Grateful Dead icons on their own. To now have two Pantone colors immortalizing these shades of red and blue as the official colors of the Grateful Dead is a huge honor.”
“Just like the music of the iconic Grateful Dead, color can evoke emotions and feelings that can engulf you into a different world,” Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, adds. “Memorializing and standardizing the iconic colors that showcase the band’s originality and ensuring their legacy lives on through a visual language, is both meaningful and inspiring and we are proud to be a part of it.”
The Grateful Dead Pantone merch line is available now.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.