Pantone Colour of the Year: “Cloud Dancer”
“Is this a joke?” That was the question collectively asked by designers, creatives, artists, and fashionistas around the world in response to the just-released Pantone “Colour of the Year.”
When I heard that Pantone had announced their Colour of the Year for 2026, called Cloud Dancer, I was, of course, intrigued, especially having just released my new book Watermelon Blue: Rethinking Your Relationship with Colour and being currently immersed in all things colour. Now, I am not by nature a negative person, quite the opposite, and anyone who knows me would agree. However, I found myself caught in a swirl of frustration at the idea that one organisation could once again dictate a colour for the whole world for an entire year. And of all things, white, because one look at it and we can all agree: it’s white, no matter what they call it. It made me question, once again, the “authority” of these trend proclamations and how easily we can be guided, almost imperceptibly, into accepting what’s presented as the colour of the moment.
This year’s pick, Cloud Dancer, a soft, billowy white, is described by the Pantone Colour Institute as “a lofty white neutral whose aerated presence acts as a whisper of calm and peace in a noisy world.” (Insert eye roll here, have I mentioned it’s WHITE?) Then I step aside and return to what colour really means, minus the hype, the marketing, and, let’s face it, the brainwashing. Trust me when I say, you will soon see this “shade” in home décor, clothing, accessories, everywhere. That is until the next colour of the year is announced.
If you’ve read Watermelon Blue, you know I feel colour isn’t a decree rather a conversation, messy, ever-changing, alive. Pantone’s Cloud Dancer may arrive wrapped in statements of serenity and calm, but at the end of the day, it’s still just white.
Pantone says this white is meant to give clarity, to offer a fresh start, “a conscious statement of simplification.” But colour, as I know it, is rarely simple. It doesn’t wait for a press release to tell it how to feel. It shifts with light, memory, emotion. It bursts into life on a turquoise bead once tumbled through foreign soil, or glows quietly on a soft-hued shell button passed down through generations. Colour has a way of revealing things you didn’t realise you were feeling — often before you’ve found the words.
In Chapter 5 of Watermelon Blue, I talk about the enormous influence Pantone has on the colours we see around us, how their annual choice trickles through fashion, home décor, product design, even the car industry. It’s everywhere. We start seeing a colour more often, and before long, it feels familiar, comfortable, almost expected. That gentle pull toward what’s trending is something I find fascinating and more than a little unsettling. The idea that a single organisation can declare what colour the world should adore for twelve months has never sat comfortably with me.
When I wrote Watermelon Blue, https://www.reneeblackwelldesign.com/product/just-released-my-new-book-watermelon-blue-re-thinking-your-relationship-with-colour-wb500-copy/ it wasn’t to push back against Pantone, but to open a wider door. I wanted to explore the living, breathing nature of colour, how it gathers meaning from our experiences, the places we wander, the objects we treasure. The way unexpected combinations spark joy, or how a colour can transport you instantly to a moment long gone. The book is not about rules, and certainly not the “rule” of colour of the year.
So while the design world forecasters rally around Cloud Dancer this year, I’ll be doing what I always do, looking through gemstone boxes, contemplating bead combinations, letting a particular turquoise or pearl whisper louder than trends, or allowing a vintage button with the faintest shimmer to steal the spotlight. Colour is my joy.
What says you? Renée
By the way, here is the link to the official Pantone website announcement: https://www.pantone.com/hk/en/articles/press-releases/pantone-announces-color-of-the-year-2026-cloud-dancer
