Pantone® Colour of the Year 2026
For the first time in years, I’m disappointed with the Pantone® colour of the year!
Cloud Dancer 11-4201
It’s white! And not even a nice white! To me, it feels like the ‘experts’ ran out of time and panicked to pick a colour. Has Pantone® run it’s course? Have they given up?
They aren’t the only trend predictors on the block and many had picked a teal colour to be leading the way in 2026.
Pantone®, stands by its white decision. “Cloud Dancer expresses our aspiration for a future free from toxicity and excess,” stated Lee Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone® Color Institute, the global colour forecaster.
“Cloud Dancer is a soft, lofty, and airy white shade chosen to represent a desire for peace, calm, clarity, and a fresh start in an overstimulated world, acting as a versatile, serene base for design.”
Whether it is a cop out or a blank canvas, it makes me think about the end scene of Back to the Future 3. One of the characters has a note from the future which fades away. She asks what it means. Doc Brown replies: “It means your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.”
Maybe Cloud Dancer can be the calm backdrop as we add our own colour to 2026.
#COY2026
