Pantone Color of the Year: How One Color Announcement Changes Fashion, Design, and Culture

Every December, the design world holds its breath. Not for a new iPhone release or a blockbuster movie premiere, but for something that might seem surprisingly simple: a color announcement. Pantone's Color of the Year has become a cultural phenomenon, influencing everything from fashion runways to kitchen cabinets, from tech products to wedding themes.

In 2026, they chose Cloud Dancer, an ethereal white. In 2025, it was Mocha Mousse, a warm brown. Before that, Peach Fuzz, Viva Magenta, and Very Peri.

But here's what makes this fascinating: Pantone isn't just picking pretty colors. They're reading the global zeitgeist, translating worldwide cultural trends, social movements, technology shifts, and collective emotions into a single shade that somehow captures what millions of people are feeling, often before they even know they're feeling it.

So how does a color company predict what the world wants? And why does anyone care?

What Is Pantone, Anyway?

Before we talk about the Color of the Year, we need to understand what Pantone actually does.

Pantone LLC is a color standardization company. They created the Pantone Matching System (PMS), which is essentially a universal language for color. When a designer in Tokyo says "Pantone 185 C," a printer in New York knows exactly what shade of red they mean, down to the precise tone and saturation.

This matters more than you'd think. Before standardized color systems, telling someone "make it blue" was useless. What kind of blue? Sky blue? Navy? Turquoise? Everyone's monitor displays colors differently, printers interpret differently, and fabrics dye differently. Pantone solved this by creating physical color swatches that everyone could reference, ensuring that the blue on your screen matches the blue that gets printed, sewn, painted, or manufactured.

The company has been around since the 1960s, but the Color of the Year program is relatively new. It launched in 1999, with Cerulean Blue selected as the color for the year 2000, the new millennium.

Why Create a Color of the Year?

The Pantone Color of the Year program started as an educational initiative. According to the Pantone Color Institute, they wanted to "engage the design community and color enthusiasts around the world in a conversation around color" and "draw attention to the relationship between culture and color."

The idea was to highlight how global events, social movements, technology, and cultural shifts are expressed through color. When people feel anxious, they gravitate toward certain colors. When they're optimistic, they choose others. By identifying these patterns, Pantone could predict which color families would dominate design in the coming year.

What started as a somewhat obscure industry announcement has become a global phenomenon. Today, companies from Apple to IKEA pay attention to Pantone's selection. The Color of the Year influences product launches, marketing campaigns, fashion collections, interior design trends, and even food and beverage products.

It's also brilliant marketing. Every December, Pantone gets worldwide media coverage, reminding everyone that they're the authority on color. The announcement generates thousands of articles, millions of social media posts, and endless conversations about what the color means and whether people like it.

The Selection Process: Color Anthropology

Here's where it gets interesting. Contrary to popular belief, Pantone doesn't just gather some designers in a room, look at a wall of swatches, and pick whichever one looks nice. The selection process is continuous, global, and surprisingly rigorous.

A team of about 40 color experts from around the world makes the decision. This team includes Leatrice Eiseman (Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute), Laurie Pressman (Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute), color consultant David Shah, and dozens of other professionals with expertise in design, trend forecasting, color theory, and cultural analysis.

Pressman has described the team as "color anthropologists." Throughout the year, they travel the world observing color trends and influences across multiple industries and sectors, including fashion, entertainment, art, industrial design, technology, social media, travel destinations, upcoming sporting events, and socio-economic conditions.

They're looking for patterns. When multiple unrelated industries start gravitating toward similar color families, that's a signal. When new technologies enable certain colors to be produced more easily or displayed more vividly, that matters. When social movements adopt specific colors as symbols, that influences the collective unconscious.

As Pressman explained, "There's reasons why people gravitate to certain color families when they do. For us, it really is zeroing in on a color family that we see bubbling up across all areas of design, and then from there, drilling it down into the color that we see."

The process isn't about personal preferences or commercial agendas. Team members approach the selection objectively, looking at research and trend data rather than their own favorite colors. As Eiseman notes, "we love all of our colors equally."

It's Not One Meeting, It's a Yearlong Conversation

Another common misconception is that Pantone picks the color at a single meeting late in the year. In reality, the decision evolves through ongoing dialogue among the global team throughout the entire year.

Pressman described it as "one long, continuously flowing conversation among a group of color-attuned people." Team members share observations, discuss patterns they're seeing in their regions and industries, analyze data from consumer behavior research, and gradually build consensus around which color family feels right.

By the time they announce the Color of the Year in early December, the decision has been months in the making.

The Name Matters Just as Much as the Color

Once they've selected the color, naming it becomes critical. The name needs to immediately conjure an image and a feeling. It needs to resonate globally and convey the message Pantone wants to send about the color's significance.

"Names immediately conjure up an image and a feeling," Pressman explains. "We want to make sure that the name of our Pantone Color of the Year resonates and can easily and intuitively convey the message we are looking to send."

This is why we get names like Cloud Dancer (suggesting lightness, altitude, and rising above chaos), Mocha Mousse (evoking comfort, indulgence, warmth), Viva Magenta (bold, lively, unconventional), and Living Coral (life-affirming, connected to nature).

The naming process requires its own research to ensure the name works across languages and cultures. The Color of the Year is global, so the name needs to make sense and evoke the right emotions whether you're in Tokyo, São Paulo, Dubai, or Stockholm.

Looking Back: 26 Years of Color Predictions

Since 2000, Pantone has selected 29 colors (some years featured two colors).

Let's look at some notable selections and what they represented:

2000: Cerulean BlueThe first-ever Color of the Year was chosen to represent the new millennium. This sky-blue shade was meant to evoke inner peace and spiritual fulfillment as the world entered a new era. Research showed that looking at blue could reduce blood pressure and heart rate, making it a calming choice for uncertain times.

2001: Fuchsia RoseFollowing the September 11 attacks, Pantone went bold with a bright pink-purple that symbolized femininity, power, and sensuality. It was a defiant choice in the face of tragedy.

2006: Sand DollarThis neutral beige was chosen during economic uncertainty. Unlike the bright, bold colors that came before and after, Sand Dollar reflected concern about the economy and a desire for stability and natural, organic simplicity.

2013: EmeraldThis luminous green was meant to represent growth, renewal, and prosperity following the 2008 financial crisis. It signaled optimism and new beginnings.

2016: Rose Quartz & SerenityFor the first time, Pantone chose two colors: a soft pink and a gentle blue. The pairing reflected the increasing fluidity around gender identity and expression, showing that traditional boundaries were blurring.

2020: Classic BlueSelected just before the COVID-19 pandemic, this deep, calm blue was meant to evoke the "vast and infinite evening sky" and "open a world of possibilities." In retrospect, its timing was almost prophetic as people sought calm during unprecedented upheaval.

2021: Illuminating & Ultimate GrayThe second dual-color selection paired a bright, hopeful yellow with a solid, resilient gray. This combination captured the duality of pandemic life: hope for the future alongside the reality of enduring difficult circumstances.

2022: Very PeriThis was groundbreaking. For the first time, Pantone created an entirely new color rather than selecting from their existing library. Very Peri, a periwinkle blue with violet-red undertones, represented the transformation happening as digital and physical worlds merged.

2025: Mocha MousseThis warm brown reflected a desire for comfort, nurturing, and simple pleasures. It elevated brown from "humble and grounded" to "aspirational and luxe," challenging perceptions about what's sophisticated.

2026: Cloud DancerThe most recent selection is a soft, ethereal white, the first time Pantone has chosen white. It represents a desire for clarity, calm, and a fresh start in a chaotic world. It's about simplification and finding respite from overstimulation.

The Impact: From Runways to Living Rooms

The Color of the Year isn't just a fun announcement. It has a real economic and cultural impact.

Fashion designers time their collections to incorporate the color. Interior paint companies create special palettes around it. Tech companies release limited-edition products in the shade. Wedding planners build themes around it. Graphic designers use it in branding. Food and beverage companies even create products inspired by it (remember when everything was Millennial Pink?).

Pressman notes that people who doubted past selections often see those same colors dominate retail within months. "I recall Tangerine Tango (2012) meeting with some trepidation, but by spring, everyone was clamoring for the hue," she said.

The Color of the Year becomes a shorthand for the moment in time. When someone says "that's so 2013," they might be thinking of Emerald green. "That's peak 2016" could reference Rose Quartz and Serenity. The colors become part of how we remember and categorize cultural eras.

The Criticism: Is It Just Marketing?

Not everyone is convinced that Pantone's process is as sophisticated as they claim. Critics argue it's primarily a marketing tool designed to keep Pantone relevant and remind people of their color standardization system.

The skeptical view goes like this: Pantone has a vested interest in getting everyone talking about color because that's their business. By creating an annual spectacle around color selection, they ensure their brand stays top-of-mind for designers, manufacturers, and consumers. The Color of the Year program is essentially a year-end PR campaign.

There's some truth to this. The program does benefit Pantone commercially, and the media coverage is invaluable. But that doesn't necessarily mean the selection process isn't legitimate or that the predictions aren't accurate.

Others question whether Pantone is reading cultural trends or creating them. When every major brand rushes to incorporate the Color of the Year, is that because people naturally wanted that color, or because Pantone's announcement made it a self-fulfilling prophecy?

It's likely both. Pantone identifies emerging trends, and their announcement amplifies those trends, which then accelerates their adoption. It's a feedback loop where observation influences reality.

Why We Care About Color

The reason Pantone's Color of the Year resonates is because color genuinely affects us psychologically and emotionally.

Colors can calm us down (blues, soft greens) or energize us (reds, bright yellows). They can make spaces feel larger (light colors) or more intimate (dark colors). They carry cultural meanings that vary across societies. They're associated with memories, seasons, and feelings.

When Pantone selects Cloud Dancer for 2026, they're not just picking a white. They're identifying that people are feeling overwhelmed and craving simplicity, clarity, and calm. The color becomes a visual representation of that collective mood.

This is why the Color of the Year sparks such debate. People have strong opinions about colors because colors make them feel things. When Pantone chooses a shade you don't like, it can feel like they're misunderstanding the moment, or worse, telling you that your preferred aesthetic is wrong.

The Bottom Line

Pantone's Color of the Year is part trend forecasting, part cultural analysis, part marketing genius. It's a team of experts observing global patterns and distilling them into a single shade, then giving that shade a name that helps tell a story about where we are and where we're going.

Is it scientifically rigorous? Not exactly. Is it subjective? Absolutely. But that doesn't make it meaningless.

The Color of the Year works because it gives us a way to think about the cultural moment we're living through. It starts conversations. It makes us notice how color influences our choices and our moods. It reminds us that design matters, that aesthetics matter, that the visual world around us shapes our experience in ways we don't always consciously recognize.

And every December, millions of people around the world pause to consider what a single color says about who we are and what we need. That's pretty remarkable for something that started as a design industry educational program 26 years ago.

So whether you love Cloud Dancer or think Pantone should have gone bolder, you're participating in exactly the kind of cultural conversation the program was designed to create. And that might be the whole point.

Sources

Pantone. (2024). Choosing the Pantone Color of the Year. Retrieved from https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year/choosing-the-pantone-color-of-the-year

Pantone. (2023). Announcing The COLOR OF THE YEAR 2023 Pantone Viva Magenta 18-1750. Retrieved from https://pantone.net.au/pages/pantone-color-of-the-year-2023

TIME. (2025). Pantone Chooses White as Color of the Year for the First Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/7338176/pantone-color-of-the-year-2026/

ELLE Decor. (2025). You Won't Believe What Pantone Just Named Color of the Year. Retrieved from https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/color/a69613379/pantone-color-of-the-year-2026/

Distractify. (2025). Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year Is a Dreamy Breath of Fresh Air. Retrieved from https://www.distractify.com/p/how-does-pantone-pick-the-color-of-the-year

Domestika. (2024). How Is the Pantone Color of the Year Chosen? Retrieved from https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/5918-how-is-the-pantone-color-of-the-year-chosen

House Beautiful. (2025). Every single Pantone Colour of the Year from 2000 – 2026. Retrieved from https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/g25463774/pantone-colour-of-the-year/

WWD. (2024). All of Pantone's Color of the Year Predictions Since 2000. Retrieved from https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/pantone-color-of-the-year-predictions-since-2000-photos-1234677986/