Written by Laura Gomez. Graphic by Aubrey Lauer.
This 2025, Pantone decided the Color of the Year is Mocha Mousse: a cool brown tone that fits within the neutral palette. But what does this mean? What impact does it have on what we design? And why is Pantone the one choosing it? These are some of the facts we’re going to dig into in order to understand how this brand has become the dictator of trends across multiple industries.
It all goes back to 1963, when Pantone revolutionized the market by launching the Pantone Matching System, an innovative tool to standardize color through a proprietary numbering system, allowing for accurate color matching across multiple materials. This was a turning point in the industry, making color a mutual language all around the world.
Pantone’s color language covers multiple materials including printing, textiles, plastics, pigments and coatings, with over 10,000 color standards. This makes sure that brands can display their identity consistently across different forms of media. It also makes workflow easier and more compatible for designers worldwide.
The Pantone Color Institute says, “Pantone provides a universal language of color that enables color-critical decisions through every stage of the workflow for brands and manufacturers.”
And so, as it became the common color-matching system used by everyone, from an analog color book to a software plugin, it was only in 1999 that they launched the first Color of the Year: Cerulean. A soft, greyish baby blue that started this trend-setting tradition, shaping the way the market evolves each year and serving as a clear representation of cultural shifts and visual elements in the content we consume.
“We wanted to draw attention to the relationship between culture and color. 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.” — The Pantone Color Institute
But how does Pantone pick the Color of the Year? According to an interview with Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute, a global team of color experts go around the world looking for new color influences, drawing from all kinds of creative industries, from film to fashion, and taking into account socio-economic factors that influence culture and lifestyles. In other words, anything and everything taking place in our culture during the year can influence the Pantone Color of the Year.
“There’s also a misconception that we gather a bunch of color influencers in a room one day and emerge with the decision. Instead, it’s one long, continuously flowing conversation among a group of color-attuned people all along the year,” says Laurie Pressman.
She explains how the team discusses color psychology and trend research, seeking to connect the mood of global media with a color family. Then they go further to identify the perfect shade for the message they want to convey, and if it doesn’t already exist they create a new color in the system, as they did for the first time in 2022 with Very Peri.
“The name of the color also needs to help tell the story. Names immediately conjure up an image and a feeling.” — Laurie Pressman
With this narrative built around the Color of the Year, Pantone aims to provide the industry with a smart tool — an insight that reflects what people are looking for, a way to express a consumer mood or attitude that resonates in the market. It creates a macro-level global lifestyle trend, foreseeing what is likely to happen in the immediate future.
The team claims the objective of the program is not to push a certain color or directly increase sales but they’ve noticed that these colors tend to gain popularity once they are integrated into the cultural mindset, sometimes becoming even more influential the following year. The goal is to help companies and consumers better understand the power of color and how its expressiveness can influence perception, translating into a more successful design strategy that boosts consumer engagement.
For companies, it has become a factor in the decision-making process for targeting audiences. For consumers, it’s a way to become more conscious of the impression they make through color, how it alters their mood, their daily routine and how others perceive them. And for designers, it’s the perfect tool for communication and visual engagement.
Color is the first thing we see and the first thing we connect with, it’s a common language and with each color’s unique voice it helps design pieces become more expressive, timely and relatable.
“Color can say what words cannot.” — Pantone
Laura is a Graphic Design M.A. student with a professional background in branding and editorial design. When she’s not creating new content for District, she’s probably at Forthside Park, running, drawing, having a picnic, or simply soaking up the sun. She’s Colombian, so she takes her coffee really strong.
