What are Pantone Colors and How are They Decided?

“Color is the first thing you see.

It’s the first thing you connect to.”

– Laurie Pressman, Pantone Color Institute

The first color wheel was created by Sir Isaac Newton over three hundred years ago in 1706. Earlier systems organized colors in various forms, including tables and charts. However, it was Newton who arranged the primary and secondary colors – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet – into a natural progression on a rotating circular design. Flash forward to 1963 when the Pantone Color Institute invented a universal color language known as Pantone Colors.

What Are Pantone Colors?

Color is one of those aspects of our lives that is ever present, and yet the variations or importance of colors are sometimes overlooked by casual observers. By nature, I tend to be a creative person and I marvel in the amazing colors found in the world around us. I have a good understanding of color, the color wheel, and different color schemes. I had heard the term “Pantone colors”, and yet I knew nothing else about them prior to a graphics for social media class I took last year (2018). So, what are Pantone colors?

Typically, when people talk about Pantone colors, they’re referring to a specific, identified color in the Pantone Matching System^® (PMS). This is a proprietary, standardized color system used across several industries, which describes colors by an allocated number (e.g. “PMS 19-2431” aka “Boysenberry”). The word “Pantone” comes from the company that invented the system, Pantone LLC. The Pantone system is now largely accepted and relied upon by manufacturers, printers, designers, artists, and others. Think of it as the standard language for communicating color(s) from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer.

How do Pantone Colors Work?

The Pantone Matching System^® standardizes over 1,100 colors and assigns each color a number and a name. By using the Pantone system, people in different locations can refer to the same color by knowing only the number that identifies it. This systematic approach helps manufacturers, printers, and others to avoid mistakes, such as color deviation, between the design and the finished product. As long as a factory or printer has the right Pantone number for the color(s), the color will match the product’s specification.

The Pantone Color Institute understands the importance of color and its mission is to be the world’s leading color expert. Per the Pantone website: 

“It all started in 1963, when Pantone revolutionized color communication by inventing a universal color language. For the first time, brand owners and designers had confidence knowing their printers could understand and achieve the color imagined. Today, we’re your partner for color in design, offering tools for color-savvy industries from apparel to packaging.”

Famous and Trademarked Pantone Colors  

Tiffany & Co., Starbucks, Coca-Cola. These are just some of the companies that have trademarked the signature color of their brands. Tiffany Blue, a robin’s egg blue, is PMS 1837 and was the first Pantone color to be trademarked. Besides Starbucks’ pine green (Pantone 3298) and Coca-Cola’s red (originally Pantone 484), other brands with trademarked colors are Target’s red, McDonald’s gold and red, and Mattel’s Barbie pink.

Many companies have at least one iconic color that is integral to their brands. Some of these colors are trademarked using the Pantone Matching System^® while others are simply iconic for the respective brands. In 2014, to celebrate its 50^th anniversary, Pantone released an infographic to show “A Rainbow of Brands”. According to the infographic, “color influences 50 to 85 percent of customer purchasing decisions and it is the first thing a consumer will notice about a brand’s logo.” The colors in a logo convey different emotions, ranging from dramatic to timeless, bold to fun, or regal to natural – to describe a few.

The idea for this post came during a recent visit to Knott’s Berry Farm, an amusement park in Buena Park, California. Knott’s is famous for its boysenberries and uses the iconic boysenberry color in its logo, signage, and park decor. Although the Knott’s shade of boysenberry is not trademarked, shades of purple are considered both regal and enchanting. In the Pantone Matching System^®, PMS 19-2431 is also known as “Boysenberry”. With a history dating back to 1920, spending a day at Knott’s, also known as “America’s first Theme Park”, could be described as enchanting, but I digress.

How is the Pantone Color of the Year Decided?

In recent years, Pantone announces its “color of the year” with fanfare and it then makes its way into the worlds of fashion, design, and decor. So, how is the Pantone Color of the Year decided? Twice a year, Pantone holds a meeting with a select group of international color consultants who are invited to discuss the hues you will see in the near future. In 2012, Tom Vanderbilt was invited to attend one of these meetings and featured it in an article titled, “Sneaking into Pantone HQ – How color forecasters really decide which hue will be the new black.” To avoid influencing the discussion, Vanderbilt’s identity as a journalist was kept secret and he was introduced as a representative of X-Rite, which is Pantone’s corporate parent.  

The meetings are usually held in Europe. The room environment is purposely simple, even drab, and sparse – so as not to influence the color mood. In addition, the Pantone meetings are traditionally secret, however, for the purposes of this article, Vanderbilt was invited on the condition that he not reveal the colorists’ identities with the exception of Pantone’s Color Experts – David Shah and Leatrice Eiseman. Over the course of two days, the colorists each pitch a palette concept that they believe will be dominate in a future season. The concepts are loosely organized around a theme, which has been chosen in advance. The results of these meetings are published in PANTONEVIEW, a nearly $800.00 USD publication that is purchased by a wide-range of companies in design, fashion, and floral industries.    

Color forecasting is nearly as old as the fashion industry. In the late 19^th century, color cards issued by French textile mills were snapped up by their American counterparts, eager for ideas and direction. Vanderbilt describes the meeting as a “high-concept show-and-tell fused with a cultural anthropology seminar”. Equipped with props that range from eggs to paper dolls, the colorists participating in the meeting pitch their color concepts intertwined with theoretical descriptions. The discussions range from being detailed and precise to vague or high-level references. 

Pantone’s Color of the Year Through the Years

For over 50 years, Pantone has been – and continues to be – the global authority on color. From the psychedelic ‘60s to the earthy ‘70s, and from the vibrant ‘80s to the nuanced ‘90s, color has been an “integral part of how a culture expresses the attitudes and emotions of the times” (Source: Pantone’s Celebrate Color Infographic). Starting in 2000, the Pantone Color Institute has selected a “Color of the Year” that then makes its way into the worlds of entertainment, art, fashion, decor, and design.   

Color migrates into our daily lives – and the Color of the Year is no exception. The announcement of Pantone’s Color of the Year each December has become a much-anticipated event. The 2019 Pantone Color of the Year is a shade of coral pink and yellow-orange called “Living Coral” (PANTONE 16-1546).

Vision boards on Pinterest and Instagram make their way around social media as folks seek inspiration for integrating the new color palette. People are willing to get creative and try out these new colors. “The more disposable the item, the more experimentation there will generally be with color,” states Tom Vanderbilt in his article. For “Living Coral”, a palette exploration features the various ways the color can be integrated with other colors and how it also influences marketing trends in fashion and home decor.

Another shared refrain in the color community is that colors are sticking around longer. In the past, colors used to hang around in popularity for seven to ten years and the movement for a longer ebb and flow with colors is returning. One example of this trend is the “rose gold” phenomenon that took over fashion, including the Disney theme parks, in late 2017. Rose Quartz, a similar hue, was Pantone’s 2016 Color of the Year. Rose gold remain a fan favorite through 2018 and into 2019.

How to Bring Pantone Colors into Your Everyday Life

Now for the fun part – bringing Pantone colors into your everyday life! If you’d like to add some color to your world, consider following Pantone on its various social media profiles. Official Pantone swag is available on the company’s website in the accessories and lifestyle section. Pantone’s Instagram feed is a visual wonderland of color! If you’re interested in the business side of Pantone, you may want to follow the company on LinkedIn. Pinterest is another resource for color inspiration, and the 2019 Pantone selection is focus of many boards, including one by Justine Leconte.

Travel: The Pantone Hotel

If you’re planning a European vacation, consider booking a stay at The Pantone Hotel in Brussels. Opened in 2010, this 59-room boutique hotel offers guests full-color immersion during their stay. Each of the seven floors are designated a different color and the rooms feature giant Pantone color swatches that hang as artwork on the walls (Source: Condé Nast Traveler). Guests can sip coffee from a Pantone mug during the hotel’s buffet breakfast, then hop on a Pantone bike and head out to explore Brussels.

Pantone: The Game

If you’re more a stay-at-home and play board games type of person, then Pantone: The Game is for you! Created by Scott Rogers and released in 2018, this board game combines visual recognition of characters from pop culture with swatch cards based on Pantone colors to see if the “artist” – or the player whose turn it is – can stump the other players. This game is for ages 8+ and can be played with 2 to 20 players. To better appreciate how the game is played, this video overview or recap on how to play may be helpful. If you really get into playing this game, be sure to follow the Pantone Game Fan Page on Facebook.

A Visit to the Pantone Color Factory

Wouldn’t it be amazing to go on a field trip to the Pantone Color Institute?!? Thanks to the internet, we can visit from the comfort of home! YouTube has a quick video with some highlights of a visit inside the Pantone Color Factory (December 2015).

In October 2017, Dr. Sanjay Gupta visited the Pantone Color Institute and interviewed Laurie Pressman, vice president of Pantone Color Institute, about the importance color plays in our everyday lives. This approximately 6-minute interview titled “Red with rage? Green with Envy? Have the blues?” from the “Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta” series shares the basis of Pantone’s Color Matching System^® (CMS) and the physiological aspects of color.

As Laurie Pressman from the Pantone Color Institute stated in the segment with Dr. Gupta, “Color is the first thing you see. It’s the first thing you connect to.” 

If you’d like to read more about Pantone colors, check out these resources:

• How Pantone Created a Universal Language for Color
• How Pantone Branded a Color and Built a Cult Following
• How Many Pantone Colors are There?
• How does Pantone Create a New Color?
• How to Create Pantone Colors in Your Designs

Are you familiar with Pantone colors? Do you use them in your work, home, or life? Looking forward to hearing from you in the comments!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”