Cloud Dancer Named 2026 Pantone Color of the Year

CARLSTADT, NJ – The Pantone Color Institute announced its pick for the 2026 Pantone Color of the Year on Wednesday, December 4, 2025. Next year’s color is PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, a billowy white imbued with a feeling of serenity.
The Pantone Color of the Year educational program was launched in 1999 by the Pantone Color Institute with the intention of engaging the design community and color enthusiasts around the world in a conversation about color. “We wanted to draw attention to the relationship between culture and color,” stated Pantone Color Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman in an interview on the organization’s website.
The Pantone Color Institute describes PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer as “an ethereal white hue which serves as a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society rediscovering the value of measured consideration and quiet reflection. A breath of color whose vaporized and aerated presence gently illuminates and enlightens, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is a whisper of calm in a noisy world.”
“At this time of transformation, when we are reimagining our future and our place in the world, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer is a discrete white hue offering a promise of clarity,” stated Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “The cacophony that surrounds us had become overwhelming, making it harder to hear the voices of our inner selves. A conscious statement of simplification, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences.”
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