Introduction:
The experiments conducted by Sir Isaac Newton in the late 1600s revealed something that forms the basis of our current understanding of color. They revealed that light could actually be broken down into the seven major colors : VIOLET, INDIGO, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED.
Let’s explore a little about colors, shall we?
How to organize colors?
Now, as we know, colors are everywhere. We can see a color everywhere around us. Colors are very essential and are widely used in many industries like fashion, textile, graphic design, interior design, any design for that matter, lifestyle, entertainment etc. The world is vibrant with colors.
They give us the ability to differentiate, organize, choose, explore things, also to add variety and beauty to life. Life without colors is very boring.
Image source : https://images.app.goo.gl/w2b1xTJstxbwF2gC9
The easiest and the most convenient way to organize, understand, visualise and experience colors, is the basic color wheel. It provides a basic understanding about the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. It also gives us an idea about the monochromatic , dichromatic ,complementary, tetrad color schemes.
But a confusion arises here. One may say a particular color is purple and the other may say lavender. There is no clear list or an organized table of colors. We know that every color has its shades, tones, tints. So, how do we differentiate between the hues, tones, tints and shades of a color?? How can this be practical? If one says coral pink, the other one might say light orange. Can a particular shade of a color have an acceptable name all over the world? Pantone has got your back.
What is Pantone?
Pantone is a liability company which is well known for its world famous Pantone Color Matching System (PMS), headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. It was started in the 1950's as a printing company, however it was renamed as Pantone by Lawrence Herbert after purchasing the company from its initial owners.
The word pantone means – all colors. The word is formed by combining two words, pan and tone. In 1963, Pantone introduced something for which it is famous all over the world today- the Pantone Color Matching system.
What is the pantone color matching system?
Suppose, a designer has used turquoise green in his design. When he asks for the turquoise green dye at the shop, the vendor hands him a teal green dye. This confusion arises when we don’t have a standard system of colors which is accepted and used all over the world.
Just like we use standardized units like kilometer, kilogram for measuring distance, weight etc, this pantone matching system has become a standard system of colors for anyone who is looking for a particular shade/tone of a color. Now designers, graphic designers or printing officers exactly know what shade of green they want, and how that exact color will look on a paper /cloth.
So what is this color matching system? How does this work?
Pantone has curated a system of colors, which has a list of the numbered color swatches of different shades of different colors. Each shade of a particular color has a designated number, and a name.
This color matching system makes it so easy for people who are in the design industry or any occupation related to color for that matter. These pantone colors have become a language for communication of colors for everyone.
This helps a designer/ an editor look up a color in the pantone color matching system and after finding the exact shade that he wants, he can easily communicate that particular shade of the color using its unique number, with a manufacturer from any corner of the world. The manufacturer can then use that unique number to find out the exact color and print it. For example, Pantone 18 – 4247 TCX is called Brilliant blue. Any other shade of blue, doesn’t have the same number.
To limit the differences that could occur between the digital media and the practical print media, Pantone has introduced its color finder tool, which allows designers to print the pantone digital color swatches for practical usage.
Pantone Fashion, Home + Interior system ( FHI )
Pantone caters to the fashion, home and interior design industry with its Pantone Fashion, Home + Interior (FHI) System.
As there is a need for different color patterns and palettes for different industries, pantone offers this FHI System which includes many swatch cards and references codes relevant to the industry needs which help the industry expert to get accurate color swatches.
Now the FHI System has more than 2600 colors which are widely used by experts in the industry. The pantone color Institute is a place where brands, designers, printers, manufacturers, work together to build a color cohesive community and use pantone’s ultimate color knowledge to explore colors and color psychology more.
This pantone color language supports multiple industries and is used in diverse aspects of textiles, pigments, coatings etc. There is much hassle that a designer has to go through if pantone didn’t exist. Pantone is a global color matching expert because of the consistency it offers. Even though investing in the pantone color guides is expensive, many designers and industry experts do it because these colors will be the same and will be relevant even after decades.
So the results and benefits outweigh the expenditure. The color guides are immensely useful when it comes to the design industry. With different shades of colors trending these days, designers can use the pantone color guides to experiment and explore the range of that particular shade or color and create diverse explorations.
What is Pantone color of the year?
Majority of us might be familiar with this specific term – Pantone Color of the year.
The term was introduced by the Pantone color Institute in the year 2000 which came as a new concept for the creative and marketing world.
Pantone started deciding a color for every year after studying in detail about the trends , fashion industry, textile and marketing industry. The first ever Pantone color of the year 2000 was Cerulean. It was also called the color of the millennium.
From 2007, this aspect, color of the year has been very influential for the creative industry as it has so much effect on designers, brands, influencers, manufacturers. Since then, the trend forecasting aspect of the pantone company has gotten much attention. Many people look forward to the declaration of the pantone color of the year in December every year.
There is much excitement regarding this. Thousands of brands, designers use the pantone color of the yeatheir design collections and this plays a major role to get an overview of how next year’s color trends could be. This also affects consumerism as many people tend to buy the products in that particular color of the year.
Pantone also puts much effort in marketing and promoting the color of the year. This year the Pantone colour is Viva Magenta. Vivid, beautiful and brimming with energy, this colour is an absolute beauty!
Source: google
Blog written by: Sravani Mahalakshmi