So who is Pantone Incorporated? Graphic designers are familiar with the various Pantone products that help designers make color choices, particularly in print design. These products are designed to produce beautiful and accurate color and include products such as the Pantone Color Guide and the Pantone Matching System. Many printing presses utilize Pantone colors that are special inks created and provided by this subsidiary of X-Rite. Pantone colors allow designers to make very specific color choices that print consistently every time. Pantone matching chips of color allow graphic designers to choose from a fan-like book with hundreds of colors.
Pantone Matching System and CMYK
Founded by Lawrence Herbert in 1963, Pantone is considered a worldwide authority on color. Instead of printers trying to achieve consistent colors using the industry standard of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), the Pantone Matching System allows designers to choose colors that they know will print consistently every time. Pantone's special inks allow pure color to be used on press rather than having the color built from scratch.
Pantone Products Aimed at Designers and Part of Branding
Pantone colors are used by graphic designers, interior designers, textile designers and industrial designers. Pantone has also branched into retail merchandise such as stationery, travel gear and rainwear. Pantone makes an adorable birch laminate chair in the shape of a bent Pantone color chip for $549. Pantone also makes USB Flash Drives in various sizes available in 15 different Pantone colors. Many corporations want these custom Pantone colors to ensure branding effectiveness. A unique color scheme begun in print then has to translate to web design and remain consistent in the switch from CMYK to RGB.
Color Forecasting
More famously, Pantone is known for its color forecasting. While this may sound a bit like astrology or palm reading, Pantone every year announces a Color of the Year. For 2009, the chosen color is Pantone 14-0848 named Mimosa, which could be colloquially termed as an egg yolk yellow. From the website a quote by Pantone Color Institute Executive Director, Leatrice Eiseman: “The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance. Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.” Really? Can a color inspire innovation? Absolutely.
Color of the Year
Many industries including the fashion and cosmetics industries use the Color of the Year as visual queue for future creations. Color forecasting by the Pantone Color Institute also operates in reverse in that Pantone keeps an eye out for what colors fashion designers are using and reports back on recurring color themes. Color can reflect the current culture in which we live.
Pantone is branding itself brilliantly, creating new products not only for graphic designers and marketing partnerships that will assure their colorful foothold in the industry for years to come.
 |
