Pantone's Controversial 2026 Color of the Year Choice Explained
- - Pantone's Controversial 2026 Color of the Year Choice Explained
Jordana ComiterDecember 6, 2025 at 8:15 AM
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Courtesy of Pantone
Pantone Color of the Year 2026: Cloud Dancer. -
On Dec. 4, Pantone announced its 2026 Color of the Year: Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201)
The company said the hue symbolizes "a calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection"
The shade has sparked an online debate, with many claiming it shows a lack of creativity and cultural insensitivity
Pantone has chosen its 2026 Color of the Year — and it's sparked quite the online debate.
On Dec. 4, the global color authority introduced the defining shade of the year to come: Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201), which they described on Instagram as a "lofty white neutral whose aerated presence acts as a whisper of calm and peace in a noisy world."
The company's vice president, Laurie Pressman, said in a 2023 interview that the Color of the Year initiative — which has taken place annually since 1999 — was created as an "educational program" to "engage the design community and color enthusiasts around the world in a conversation around color."
"We wanted to draw attention to the relationship between culture and color," Pressman continued. "We wanted to highlight to our audience how what is taking place in our global culture is expressed and reflected through the language of color."
This year, however, the selected hue is proving especially divisive. Many people have criticized the choice from both creative and cultural perspectives, with one Instagram user commenting on the announcement that it is "painfully tone-deaf."
Here's everything to know about the Pantone 2026 Color of the Year controversy.
What is Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year?
Courtesy of Pantone
Pantone Color of the Year 2026: Cloud Dancer.
Pantone's 2026 Color of the Year is Cloud Dancer (PANTONE 11-4201), which they wrote on Instagram symbolizes "a calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection."
It is the first time the company has chosen a shade of white for the Color of the Year.
They described the shade as "a billowy white imbued with serenity" that "invites true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe."
The company wrote on Instagram that the color "drifts between light and ethereal, a living calm that invites renewal, vision in serenity and creative release."
They elaborated further on the choice on their website, writing, "In a world where color has become synonymous with personal expression, this is a shade that can adapt, harmonize, and create contrast, bringing a feeling of airy lightness to all product applications and environments, whether making a standalone statement or combined with other hues."
How is Pantone's Color of the Year chosen?
Pantone
Pantone's Colors of the Year for 2024, 2023 and 2022: Peach Fuzz, Viva Magenta and Very Peri.
Pantone relies on a global team of color specialists to choose each year’s hue, drawing on a wide range of influences — including film and television, art, fashion and design trends, emerging technologies and materials, as well as social media and major upcoming sporting events.
"Anything and everything taking place in our culture during the year can influence our Pantone Color of the Year selections for the upcoming year and each source carrying a different weight from year to year," Pressman said in the interview on their site. "If you look back to 15 years ago, technology would have played an infinitesimal role. Today that is no longer the case."
She said that although Pantone Color Institute members come with "different perspectives," they are "always able to come to a consensus."
Why is Pantone facing backlash for its Color of the Year choice?
Courtesy of Pantone
Pantone Color of the Year 2026: Cloud Dancer.
Public reactions to Pantone's choice for 2026 Color of the Year have been mixed, with many people critiquing it from a creative and cultural perspective.
"Choosing the color white during this social and political climate really says something…" Jason Rhee, a designer and creative at the Rheefined Company, commented on the Instagram announcement, per NPR.
Meanwhile, another user wrote that the choice shows a "lack of creativity" and a "disconnect from the artistic and design communities."
"In a moment when color is used to express culture, diversity, emotion, and innovation, choosing a white-based shade feels tone-deaf at best," they continued. "At worst, it unintentionally aligns with cultural and political symbolism that many of us find deeply troubling."
From a creative standpoint, many people are also debating whether or not white is even a color at all.
"I wonder if the folks at @pantone were told, as I was when I was a child, that white is not a color... It's the absence of it," one person wrote on X.
Has Pantone responded to the backlash for its Color of the Year choice?
Courtesy of Pantone
Pantone Color of the Year 2026: Cloud Dancer.
Shortly after the 2026 color was announced, Pressman told The Washington Post that "skin tones" did not factor into this at all.
"With [2024's] Peach Fuzz and [2025's] Mocha Mousse, people were asking if this was about skin tones. And I think we were going, 'Wow, really?' " she said. "Because, for us, it’s really about, at such a basic level, what are people looking for that color can hope to answer?"
Executive director of Pantone Color Institute Leatrice Eiseman addressed the critiques of a perceived lack of creativity while speaking with The Washington Post, saying that it was not a matter of "defaulting to white."
Rather, the shade is meant to signify a blank canvas "opening up new avenues and ways of thinking," she said.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
