pantone

ISSUE 10

Dec 24, 2025

Pantone is often top of mind when talking about color. It is the most direct language with which visuals are shared. 15,000 named samples make Pantone the largest library in the world, and the first to be used globally across industry (print, textiles, digital). Pre-1962, colors were communicated using physical swatches or subjective descriptors – now we have codes. I am sure people had better eyes prior to the codes.

*King of Color pantone documentary (2025)*

Systematize the visual experience was brilliant. Pantone makes so much money. It is the apex of color and capitalism. I’m not sure I’d buy Heinz Ketchup if the bottle was the wrong shade of red, or go into a Seven Eleven if the awning looked off. Most chains standardized their global presence using Pantone.

color of the year alternatives (I cannot imagine having to pick just one)

Color of the Year is by far the company’s weakest offering. Reductive to an aggregating extent, a publicity stunt. I’m not the first to say off-white was bizarre for 2026 (although maybe that’s the point!). Pale blue, lilac, chartreuse, red apple red, marty supreme orange — these are shades I see everywhere! What about you?

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS

I spent this morning sticking cloves into oranges *pomanders*. For a few days every year many of us cosplay characters in a Dickens novel. Victorian England invented mine (and maybe your?) version of Christmas.

The first example of a christmas tree in england: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the 1848 cover of Illustrated London News

Christmas trees, caroling, advent calendars, nut crackers, and mistletoe — all examples of Queen Victoria’s England repackaging German folk traditions. Charles Dickens then set the holiday’s emotional tone as a time of renewal in A Christmas Carol (1843). The industrial revolution codified holiday decorum. Hallmark, Amazon Prime, and Netflix really messed things up.

Greeting cards are a highlight of the season. Victoria & Albert Museum director, Henry Cole, sent the first in 1843. The museum subsequently amassed an archive of Victorian communication. A few examples: