This December, the Pantone Color Institute announced its Color of the Year for 2026. Each year, the company recruits a team of “color anthropologists” who attempt to summarize the cultural zeitgeist in a single shade. For 2026, they settled on PANTONE 11-4201, or Cloud Dancer, a “billowy white imbued with serenity”.
Pantone began naming Colors of the Year in 1999, nominating Cerulean to represent the inspirational “limitless of a new century”. Since then, the global team has continued to surveil the global sociopolitical and aesthetic climates, including “new technologies, social values, art collections, travel destinations”, and the “overall mood or feelings designers and consumers are feeling throughout the year”.
The company’s pick for 2026 is arguably less about the individual strength of the shade. Cloud Dancer is a neutral off-white meant to “[provide] a refuge of visual cleanliness”. Pantone argues that the color’s versatility “provides scaffolding for the color spectrum, allowing all colors to shine”. It’s a blank canvas—a fresh start.
Meanwhile, the public’s reaction has been largely derisive. Critique stems from a sense of cultural dissonance and unoriginality. One artist on TikTok posted a compilation of vibrant oil pastel pieces captioned “sorry pantone but i have to disagree”, garnering hundreds of thousands of likes. “Eerie choice of color from Pantone, in this climate” reads one comment. Another user feels “It’s like the paint equivalent of the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad”.
Interior designer Lily Walters offered her own Color of the Year in response: Deep Plum, a color that looks like “when something burns down and you don’t rebuild the same version of your life”. Users feel Pantone’s white is a timid pick; it tries to make a statement about the contentious global sphere but falls short due its noncommittal nature. “Depth over neutrality, intention over default”.
2025 as a year was marked with significant political violence and general unrest. Those who put weight into the color selection feel slighted. One user says “color is used to express culture, diversity, emotion, and innovation”. At best, “choosing a white-based shade feels tone-deaf”; at worst, “it unintentionally aligns with cultural and political symbolism” many find disturbing.
Some agree with the company’s reasoning. Others find it ridiculous to put any weight into the choice at all.
Personally, I think Pantone’s choice falls short of its potential. From my perspective, this year saw a resurgence of color and saturation in fashion and design. Choosing a shade of white feels less like a blank slate and more a bland fade into the new year.
With that being said, I don’t find Cloud Dancer offensive. I do hope to carry forward the relaxed, harmonious energy the color promises.
I’m curious to see how Pantone’s Color of the Year will emerge and develop in the design and fashion worlds. But I don’t think there’s a need to put any significant weight into the company’s color selection. New Years is a great opportunity for personal reflection and transformation. There are so many ways to add color into our own lives – that will certainly be my focus for 2026.