Pantone is an American company that revolutionized the color standards market and established itself as the most used color system in the world.
You may not know exactly what it is, but you’ve probably heard about Pantone. And more than that, you know that it is something related to colors and trends. And it’s not wrong, but we’ll explain exactly what Pantone is and how the company standardized the international color system.
Pantone is an American company, founded in 1963, which became known worldwide for developing a codified color organization system. The so-called Pantone color system or Pantone Scale is the company’s main follower, but not the only one.
Therefore, the company expanded its business and also established itself as a consultancy and trend creation company. It is no coincidence that each year’s trend color is chosen by Pantone.
Therefore, today we will learn more about the history of Pantone, and how its color system influences industry trends.
A Pantone
Today, the company Pantone is much more than just a color language system. Despite the brand having codes and names for every possible and imaginable shade, it managed to expand its business beyond its color system.
In 1963, the brand began to create a system of graphic standards aimed mainly at design professionals. However, from the year 2000, Pantone managed to consolidate itself as a global system through several marketing campaigns. Nowadays, the brand operates in other areas. In addition to the Colors of the Year, there is also the Pantone Color Institute, Pantone Hotels, Cafés and a multitude of items such as mugs, shoes, iPhone keyboards, makeup collections and many others.
The company’s greatest asset is knowing how to reinvent itself, which is why it has managed to become the most famous and widely used universal color language throughout the world. And it had competition, but not even Munssell System and RAL managed to achieve the popularity and authority in the market like Pantone. The company has more than 10 thousand color patterns, which are used in various materials, from printed materials, coatings, to textiles, among others.
Company history
Pantone was created in 1950, but as a printing company in the city of Carltadt, in the American state of New Jersey. At the time, the company specialized in supplying colors to the cosmetics, fashion and medicinal industries. In 1956, Lawrence Herbet began working at the company and soon identified the difficulty of design professionals, advertising agencies and typographers in communicating and defining exact colors.
So, due to this difficulty, it was common for many errors to occur when it came to replicating exact shades. Therefore, Herbert insisted that to solve this problem, there must be a way to standardize it. Knowing this, and after purchasing the company in 1962, the businessman launched the first color system, the PMS Guide, in 1963.
Therefore, from the first PMS Guide, which had only 10 colors, it was possible to create an objective and numerical language. This way, any printer in the world could reproduce the color exactly. It was a completely revolutionary tool at the time.
In the following decade, the company had sold more than 100,000 color catalogs. Nowadays, estimates point to a total of printed matter reaching the millions. Therefore, it has become the most used standardized brand in the world.
Expansion in design
The graphic standards portion corresponds to 70% of the company’s entire income. However, Pantone also has other businesses within the design market.
One of them is in fashion, in 2016 the company improved its special palette for the fashion industry, including 210 new colors. She also partnered with Base Design agency which resulted in a new fashion and home line. In fact, the partnership lasting almost a decade resulted in several successful advertising campaigns.
Color Institute
The company also founded the Pantone Color Institute, to offer a consultancy service to designers and brands on the power and influence of colors. Pantone’s consultancy service is one of the most reliable in the world, used by companies in all segments of fashion, manufacturing, electronics, etc.
And since its foundation and the beginning of consultancies in 2000, Pantone has partnered with large companies such as Tiffany and Tealeaves, directing creations and creating customized colors. A very well-known example of this are the Minios, characters from the Despicable Me films. The yellow color of the animals was developed exclusively for the films.
Furthermore, it is the color institute that defines the color of the year, and the global predictions related to the shade.
Pantone universe
Another part of the company’s profits comes from Pantone Universe and licensed products. We’re talking about mugs, travel bags, toothbrushes, coffee makers, diaries, notebooks and many other things. And this is a market that is growing.
It was a way that the brand found to reach other audiences, in addition to designers. After all, everyone likes color and what’s in evidence.
Innovation
The company never stops investing in innovation. One of the most ambitious proposals was the launch of an application in 2009. The MyPantone App was launched costing 10 dollars, and its purpose was to extract an exact color palette from photos.
In 2012, the company launched a skin tone swatch book, which opened the door to a new market. Based on this book, the company entered into a bold partnership with the cosmetics brand Sephora, developing an electronic device capable of capturing the color of the face to help customers when choosing their makeup tone.
Color System
The PMS (Pantone Matching System), or simply Pantone color system, is the most used method for generating colors in the world. To give you an idea, it can create different tones, metallic and fluorescent effects, including various shades of CMYK.
In this system, each color is unique and has its own code, which works as a kind of color identity. This code almost always consists of three or four numbers and a letter, which can be C or U. Therefore, the C means coated, therefore, the paper on which the color will be printed will have a special coating. The letter U means uncoated, that is, it has no coating.
It seems like a simple detail, but in reality it is essential for the final result to be as expected.
Pantone Color of the Year
Every year, in December, the Pantone Color Institute chooses a color that will be trending and chooses it as “Color of the Year”. It all started in 1999, when the first color of the year, “cerulean”, was chosen. This color was chosen to represent the beginning of the millennium, marking a time of peace and prosperity.
So, every year the company maintains the tradition of choosing a trend color. This year, the color chosen was “classic blue”, a color that conveys calm and confidence.
However, the choice of these colors is not made randomly. To arrive at the definitive choice, many months of trend analysis, cultural research and influence on the market are required. In addition to a study based on color psychology. All of this is taken into consideration to choose a shade that will have such relevance, not only in design.
Therefore, the color of the year dictates trends in all areas, from decoration, fashion, beauty to the consumption of products and services in general.
Anyway, what did you think of this article? In fact, take the opportunity to also check out the color trends for 2020.
Sources: Dracco Salt Agency Follow The Colors
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