Meeting Chroma the Great: Pantone, From Chemistry to Fashion and Back by Saturated Space

Meeting Chroma the Great: Pantone from Chemistry to Fashion and Back Again Margaret McCormick for Saturated Space

Walk into any art supply store and there are certain expected products: paint, brushes, sketchbooks, etc. but just beyond these materials, usually towards the cash register, is a collection of (for lack of a better word) tchotchkes. Though these are no ordinary tchotchkes, for they proclaim: “I’m a designer!” and as such are correspondingly expensive. Yet amongst all these colourful mugs, bags and iphone cases there is one company inspiring covetous desire above the others: Pantone. Pantone is the definitive authority on colour for designers, architects, and printers, all while remaining that most elusive adjective: “cool”.

Pantone’s selfdesignation as the warden of colour is somewhat reminiscent of a children’s book from 1961, The Phantom Tollbooth. In the story, a bored young boy (Milo) enters into a magical world that encourages exploration and education. Towards the climax, Milo meets “Chroma the Great”, the master of colour and “only sane man left in the kingdom”2 . Yet as is the way in moral parables, the boy attempts to usurp Chroma, fails spectacularly and flees, leaving the sky in chaos. It is a lesson in responsibility and deference to knowledge. 1

Images from “Pantone Accessories” Pantone.com http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/category.aspx?ca=33. (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 2 Norton Juster, The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth (New York: Knopf Publishing, 2011) 120125

But what happens when Chroma, or in the real world, Pantone, isn’t the only game in town? How does “the authority” stay “the great”? The answer is one of chemistry and marketing, of perceptions and impressions, and it begins, as most things do, in the past. The Wonderful Wizard of TiO2 Before Pantone was Pantone ®, it was a relatively small commercial printing company in Carlstadt, New Jersey3 . In 1956 the operation hired a recent chemistry graduate with medical school ambitions for parttime work: Lawrence Herbert.4 Six years later, Herbert found himself as head of the Ink and Printing Department with enough extendable cash to purchase the remainder of the company outright. (By this time Herbert’s ambition had shifted from medicine to manufacturing.) So it was in 1962 the company became “Pantone”. Up until this point, colour standardization was a messy subject. Indeed in 1941, the American Society for Testing Materials held a symposium dedicated just to colour, attempting to define a method of consistent reproduction.5 Eventually stating that “So far, the work seems to be promising, but it has not gone far enough to say anything more about it than that.” 6 Twenty one years later, Herbert resolved the longstanding issue and cemented his company’s future with a groundbreaking creation: the Pantone Matching System (PMS). The PMS organizes colours to an alphanumeric code that printers can match on a standardized basis. In theory, and arguably practice, if a code is given to two unrelated commercial printers on either side of the world, they will produce the same outcome. In one fell swoop, Pantone established itself as the Greenwich Mean Time of the colour world: the PMS GMT. It was a scheme only a scientist would have devised. By reducing the previous industry expectations of 60 pigments to a much lower number (some sources have listed 10, while Pantone’s 6 colour printing process is listed as US patent 5,734,800)7 , Herbert restricted control 3

Carlstadt is also the home of the novelty drink YooHoo. The New York Times, March 2, 1975. found on the New York Times Archive Website “ People/Buisness; Yoohoo: A Carlstadt Success Story” New York Times Online (Accessed December 12th, 2013) http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0913FA3B5C107B93C0A91788D85F418785F9 4 “Lawrence Herbert Biography” Pantone History. http://kr.pantone.com/popups/aboutus/lhbio.htm (Accessed December 30th, 2013. ) 5 “American Society for Testing Materials Symposium on colour 1941” (Presentation for ASTM, Baltimore MD July 1941) Selections available online via googlebooks. Google Books.com, “Syposium on colour 1941” http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GS2HKpthgwcC&pg=PA44&dq=colour+standardization&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sTqjUo6UNYeqhQf2 0YGABw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=standardization&f=false (accessed December 12th, 2013) 6 Mr. W. T. Pierce “Discussion” from “American Society for Testing Materials Symposium on colour 1941” (Presentation for ASTM, Baltimore MD July 1941) page 2225. Selections available online via googlebooks. Syposium on colour 1941” Google Books.com, “http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GS2HKpthgwcC&pg=PA44&dq=colour+standardization&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sTqjUo6UNYeqhQf2 0YGABw&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=standardization&f=false (accessed December 12th, 2013) 7 “Pantone’s Marketing and Usage Rules” Pantonebr.com Rules as of January 2010 [FRM7.2LIC01 012010] http://www.pantonebr.com.br/normas_pantone.pdf (accessed January 1st, 2014)

and regulated results.8 No more “close enoughs”, which also meant a more efficient use of supplies. Products would be printed right the first time. Everytime.

The most famous case study of Pantone’s early success is that of Kodak. In the 1960s Kodak noticed that a strong percentage of their film was not selling in certain areas. An anomaly surely, as the product was exactly the same everywhere. Soon it was found that even though the product was brand new, the packaging looked old: some boxes were a radiant bright yellow, while others were more of a mustard colour. It was determined that the inconsistency had been brought on by the use of areaspecific printers, so when Kodak switched to the PMS, their profits went up significantly and Pantone was on its way.10

“Quick History, Pantone”, Apartment Therapy.com http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quickhistorypantoneretrospec163877(accessed December 12th, 2013) 9 Image from “The Remington Site” Soundfountain.com http://www.soundfountain.org/rem/remcovart.html (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 10 “Patone Company History”, Funding Universe.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/pantoneinchistory/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 11 Swatch Image from “Pantone Mimosa” Pantone.com http://www.pantone.com/images/pages/20633/image2.jpg (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 12 Kodak images from “Quick History, Pantone” Apartment Therapy.com http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quickhistorypantoneretrospec163877 (accessed January 2nd, 2014)

It was a solution very much of its age. The instant and mass communication of television, particularly colour television, let people know what something “should” look like. So naturally having consistency in colour and image would be essential to large scale manufacturing. To frustrated advertising agencies, the PMS fan must have seemed like a catalogue of possibilities enthusiastically proclaiming “look for the Pantone seal of freshness! IT’S THAT EASY”. So easy in fact that massstandardization of colour and printing would be wryly referenced by Andy Warhol in just a few short years. Through the PMS, Pantone became a great friend to designers, but in reality, its one true love was business. By taking colour away from subjectivity to a specific place on a pointed spectrum, Pantone helped to create branding in its most capitalist sense. If originality is only as good as its perception, having Tiffany Blue, Coke Red and UPS Brown is like printing money itself.13 In fact, the PMS was such a strong balance of a regulation and customization that would go conceptually unrivaled for almost forty years.

However Lawrence Herbert was not the first to invent packaged colour standardization. In 1931, Le Corbusier created a series of standardized “soft pastels and brights” to be produced by 13

“Quick History, Pantone”, Apartment Therapy.com http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/quickhistorypantoneretrospec163877(accessed December 12th, 2013) 14 Image from: “Pantone Celebrating 50 years” Pantoneart.com, http://pantoneart.com/blog/?p=401, posted May 29th, 2013 (accessed December 20th, 2013)

Salubra, a swiss manufacturer.15 16 Frank Lloyd Wright oversaw a similar collection for Schumacher Paints in 1955. 17

Though while both precedents had their relative successes, they were ultimately limiting. As the work of specific people, with specific intents the colours had the inescapable burden of vision, demanding submission to achieve success. What Herbert, and subsequently Pantone, did differently was not to highlight colours by a certain set of aesthetics but to create a tool for their manipulation and production. It was a humble approach and forged Pantone’s fairly passive public persona, that is until the first wave of their massive expansion in 1977, when the company went public. The move changed their average yearly revenue from around $2 million in the 1970s to approximately $500 million by the mid 1980s.20 It was at this time that Herbert and company began to eye the world of fashion to keep expanding their colour fan choices: “We had a consultant who would get a committee together and find out, for example, what colours are showing up in Milan, what colours are showing up in Paris,” [Herbert] recalled. “It seems that a lot of designers all decide that coffee brown might be a good colour in the same year.”21 Almost as a reflection of this research, Calvin Klein is rumored to use a Pantone chip in his kitchen to indicate what colour his coffee should be.22

Alice Rawsthorn “His True colours” New York Times Magazine Online. Published Sept 28th, 2010, http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/histruecolours/?_r=0 (accessed December 15th, 2013) 16 Le Corbusier would repeat the technique in the 1950s one he entered into his “Baton Brut” phase. ibid. (accessed December 18th, 2013) 17 Schumacher’s Taliesin Line of Decorative Fabrics and Wallpaper (Published by E.W. & Co. Sample Books, Chicago, 1955). Diane Maddex, “Frank Lloyd Wright’s House Beautiful”, Hearst Books (London, UK) 2000, page 36 18 Image from Alice Rawsthorn “His True colours” New York Times Magazine Online. Published Sept 28th, 2010, http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/histruecolours/?_r=0 (accessed December 15th, 2013) 19 Image from “Schumacher Paints” Steinerag.com, http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%20Pages/Schumacher.htm#Paints (accessed Dec 15th, 2013) 20 “Patone Company History”, Funding Universe.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/pantoneinchistory/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 21 Pagan Kennedy, “Who Made That Pantone Chip” New York Times Online . Published February 22nd, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/whomadethatpantonechip.html?_r=0 accessed December 15th, 2013) 22 ibid.

23 The Pantone of the 1980s was looking to fashion for inspiration, a mirror image of the company to come, but it wouldn’t get there too fast. The game suddenly changed, dangerously and irretrievably because when the digital age hit Pantone, it hit hard.

The Once and Future King In 1991, the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) colour selection grid became the digital standard in graphic design with the release of Photoshop 2.0.24 CMYK took the same systematic colour understanding of PMS but brought it into a contactless world. Further, the function of Photoshop was fairly user friendly so individual users felt more confident in their own work, rather than paying professional printers. This newfound confidence affected the industry so much that by the mid90s “typesetting as a separate trade and function had ceased to exist.” 25

Image from “Pantone Coffee colours” Redbubble.com http://www.redbubble.com/people/naf4d/works/4233501pantone4coffee4c?p=sticker (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 24 “Adobe Company History”, Funding Universe.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/adobesystemsinchistory/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 25 Paul Sherfield “My Adventures with ISO 126472 and colour Management” blog post for “Missing Horse Graphic Arts Consultancy” posted November 9th, 2012 http://www.missinghorsecons.co.uk/wordpress/2012/09/myadventureswithiso126472andcolourmanagement/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 26 Image from “CMYK Printer Test” Presentation Magazine.com http://www.presentationmagazine.com/cmykprintertestpage8048.htm (accessed January 2nd, 2014)

As personal printers became more and more affordable, colour printing was becoming the medium of companies like LaserJet or Dupont, with its “DuPont Digital Cromalin” Standard. For its part, Pantone was attempting to join the party before they were washed away, first by partnering with NeXT Computer Inc., Adobe, Bitstream, Deneba, MultiAd Services, Quark, and Ventura from 1991 to 1992. The following year, they expanded their brand with AGFA, Aldus, Corel, Gold Disk, LinotypeHell, and Serif.27 These partnerships were joined by their own attempts to regulate the computer printing system including the Pantone Open Color Environment (POCE), Color Systems CrossReference Software and ColorDrive, “a desktop colourmanagement program free of specific applications.”28 The partnerships had varying degrees of success, but all of them were certainly gambles. For the first time in Pantone’s history, it had to work for its prestige. The people who were buying computers were not necessarily “industry people” but they suddenly had access to industry tools. What did it matter if the product was Pantone or not? If it looked good, that was enough. Knowing that at any moment a new technology could overtake their position, Pantone shot in all directions, violently attempting to save themselves. Salvation finally came in 1996, when NeXT Computer Inc. was purchased by Apple and formed the basis of the new Mac OS. The partnership meant that Pantone could still be relevant to the growingly popular Macbook set. So much so, that all CS editions of Photoshop post 2005 have colour plugins for Pantone specifically.29 However the lesson Pantone learned was that relying on specific industries and technology is a dangerous game. It was much safer to make people love them and follow it from there: a charmingly machiavellian solution to a practical problem.

“Patone Company History”, Funding Universe.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/pantoneinchistory/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 28 Ibid. 29 “Adobe Company History”, Funding Universe.com, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/companyhistories/adobesystemsinchistory/ (accessed December 12th, 2013) 30 Image from “Pantone Xmas Balls”, Seletti.it, http://www.seletti.it/objects/pantone/pantonexmasball.php (accessed January 2nd, 2014)

In 2007 Pantone was purchased by XRite, a former xray equipment production company that also focuses on colour measurement with Hebert staying on as President and COO (Chief Operating Officer).31 32 Though by this time, in the wake of the digital age, Pantone had changed. The company had shifted its ambition from being the secret knock of design to seizing the throne outright. It was about survival as much as dominance, for now the two were linked as one.

A Technicolor Tomorrow Pantone also has its rivals for colour theory in the early 2000s. When Colours was released under the direction of Birkhauser Publishing in 2001, it could boast submissions from Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Norman Foster and Alessandro Mendini, with all contributors focusing on the relationship between colour and architecture. Colours maintains that colour creates a visceral impact on the viewer and condemns the overly white structures of the 1980s as being snobby and limiting. Ultimately the book determined that designers could no longer ignore an environmental factor that carried such weight. As Koolhaas phrased it “the future of colour is bright.”34 Further, in all the writings is the subtle but accepted notion that colour as a packaging agent of ideas is a thing. “The idea of a ‘range’ has become tiresome and uninteresting. Paint now seems brutal as colour is given by glass, plastics, artificial light, translucencies and transparencies, a kind of universe quietness and disappearance” 35 31

Lawrence Herbert is now retired. His daughter, Lisa Herbert remained on as vicepresident of consumer licensing. Pagan Kennedy, “Who Made That Pantone Chip” New York Times Online . Published February 22nd, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/whomadethatpantonechip.html?_r=0 accessed December 15th, 2013) 32 “About Us XRite to Acquire Pantone, Inc. Extending Reach in the colour Industry” Pantone.com, 2007 Pantone Press Release Archive http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20479&ca=10 (accessed December 12th, 2013) 33 Image from “Pantone Visa Card” Pantone.com https://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=20748&ca=33 (January 2nd, 2014) 34 Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, Alessandro Mendini, Colours (Geneva Switzerland: Birkhäuser Publishing, 2001) Excerpt from Koolhaas Essay, ‘The Future of Colours is Looking Bright” page 56 35 Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, Alessandro Mendini, Colours (Geneva Switzerland: Birkhäuser Publishing, 2001) Excerpt from Koolhaas Essay, ‘The Future of Colours is Looking Bright” page 56

And to the credit of the argument, the world had gone distinctly quiet in terms of colour range towards the end of the 20th century. Only a few years prior to Colours, Richard Meier had proclaimed that: “...White is the light, the medium of understanding and transformative power”36 The bulk of the book seeks to counter this assertion, with individual colour samples submitted by OMA employees, ranging from bright and defiant to textured and passive, without overarching or obvious schematic objective. In its own coy way, Colours is a strict reaction to the packaging of colour as “Designer” (even though it gives the initial appearance of the opposite). The content is not intent on the glorification of an individual aesthetic and argues that the selections are not dogma, but a particular, individual affiliation within a diverse medium. To that end, the organization is specifically unorganized: a hodgepodge of personality from a certain population, looking in turns serious and expressionless in black and white photos. It was a moment where the discussion on colour was not controlled or prescribed but suggested as a topic of conversation. However, it was not to last. At least not commercially. Turn to the Left, Fashion! As Colours was being written, Pantone made a radical change in their marketing by introducing the “Color of the Year” with the first selection being “Cerulean Blue”. Naturally, it came with a design statement to match: "Surrounding yourself with Cerulean Blue could bring on a certain peace because it reminds you of time spent outdoors, on a beach, near the water associations with restful, peaceful, relaxing times. In addition, it makes the unknown a little less frightening because the sky, which is a presence in our lives every day, is a constant and is always there," 37 38 Some of the later colours consist of Fuschia Rose (2001), Aqua Sky (2003) and Tiger Lily (2004). Each selection arriving with a whimsical explanation as to what the colour means to that year. Thought the most conflicting to be portrayed as a “fashion trend” is 2002’s True Red which was chosen as a patriotic nod to the September 11th attack.

Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, Alessandro Mendini, Colours (Geneva Switzerland: Birkhäuser Publishing, 2001) Excerpt from Gehard Mack Introduction Essay, “Between Surface and Space: Colour in Architecture” page 13 37 “Color of the Year 2000 Press Release Archive 1999 Pantone” Pantone.com, http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20194 (accessed December 12th, 2013) 38 This statement, by the way, would only be relevant if you live somewhere with consistently nice weather.

Arguably the chief figure for the “Color of the Year” promotions is Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute. Where Herbert anchored Pantone as a product divisible by chemistry, Eiseman’s work is cross section of psychology, market research and trend watching. “So we do a lot of homework and we look at art collections and is this colour playing into the world of art? What is happening as far as the big soccer matches in Brazil? Where is the home country? Is this colour indigenous to that country? We look at the, of course, the fashion industry is always an important indicator and we're certainly seeing a lot of that for spring fashion and we're starting to see indications of the colour in not only women's fashion, but in men's fashion as well. So there are lots of indicators that lead us to the “Color of the Year”.40 Also stating that: “People are fascinated by it [the Color of the Year] and start to look for it or find ways to use it. It doesn’t necessarily mean the whole world will love it, as everyone has personal likes and dislikes — but when they become more aware of the colour, it challenges them to find a place for it. It always starts with touches first — in fashion, it could be a pair of sandals, a piece of fun jewelry, a pair of tights, or a scarf, and then what happens is they often want to get more of it.”41 This frivolous impression of what the “Color of the Year” does stands in contrast to a Slate article

Image from “Pantone Color of the Year” FreshDevelopment.com http://freshdevelopment.com/blog/The_colour_of_the_Year_2013_in_Web_Design#.UsRUy6JXpg (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 40 Scott Neuman “Pantone's 'Orchid' Is A Purple Hue That Doesn't Seem The Same” WJCT News , Public Broadcasting Service membersupported station, Jacksonville, Florida. Posted December 6th, 2013 http://news.wjct.org/post/pantonesorchidpurplehuedoesntseemsame (accessed December 12th, 2013) 41

“Best Job Ever Pantone’s colour Specialist” Modlcloth.com Blog, published January 29th, 2013, http://blog.modcloth.com/2013/01/29/bestjobeverpantonesleatriceeisemancolourspecialist/ (accessed December 20th, 2013)

from 2012 which painted Pantone’s research gathering as if it were a meeting of the Illuminati. 42 “Twice a year, in some European capital, in a room purposely chosen to be drab and sparse—so as not to influence the colour mood—[David] Shah gathers a stable of colourists, each of whom works with his or her own country’s national colour groups (who traditionally have worked with textile companies and others to set colour standards), as well as consulting with companies ranging from Airbus to Zara to Union Carbide.”43 Indeed, since the introduction of the “Color of the Year”, Pantone has partnered more publically with fashion designers and merchandisers than any other of its manufacturing labels. Particularly in the seasonal “Pantone Fashion Guide”, a packaged colour scheme which is provided to designers in exchange for their creative indorsement by presenting a similarly coloured ensemble. The Spring 2014 collection, for example, has submissions from BCBGMAXAZRIA, Ella Moss, Nanette Lepore, Christian Siriano and Juicy Couture.44

More than once similarities have been drawn between the “Color of the Year” and a scene from the film version of The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep, as a thinly disguised Anna Wintour, dresses down Anne Hathaway’s dismissal of two similarly coloured pink belts, and thereby, the fashion world. Emphasizing with sinister sharpness: “You think this has nothing to do with you?”46

For those desirous of a conspiracy theory can note that the 2014 Color of the Year “Radiant Orchid” was hinted at by a 2013 interview with Eisenman when she claimed her favorite colour was “purple” “Best Job Ever Pantone’s colour Specialist” Modlcloth.com Blog, published January 29th, 2013, http://blog.modcloth.com/2013/01/29/bestjobeverpantonesleatriceeisemancolourspecialist/ (accessed December 20th, 2013). 43

Tom Vanderbilt “Sneaking into Pantone HQ: How colour forecasters really decide which hue will be the new black.” , published April 27th, 2012 http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/design/2012/04/pantone_colour_forecasts_are_they_accurate_.single.html (accessed December 15th, 2013) 44

“Pantone 2014 Spring Report” Pantone.com, http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/default.aspx?season=spring&year=2014 (accessed January 1st, 2014) 45 Image from “Pantone 2014 Spring Report” Pantone.com, http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/default.aspx?season=spring&year=2014 (accessed January 1st, 2014) 46 The Devil Wears Prada. DVD. Directed by David Frankel. 20th Century Fox, Los Angeles, CA. 2006

While the question of “what does this has to do me?” is, by its logic, inescapable, the more pertinent question remains of “what does this have to do with Pantone?”

When Pantone’s competition wasn’t actually any competition they were able to base their reputation on delivery. But as the threat of obsolescence loomed over the marketplace, the company began to refer to itself as an authority rather than a manufacturer. This was the moment with the product stopped being enough to sell itself. The name is what matters now. Pantone went from tool to trendsetter, subsequently becoming an agent for monoculture in design: declaring certain colours to be “trending” and getting leading designers to confirm their selection. Though this authority is, as all authority is, a manifestation of perception. The Emperor's new colour scheme. While Pantone still makes a fine product in a commercial sense, what is troubling about its current marketing is just how religiously it’s followed and embraced. Design is seen as a valuable commodity only as a font of originality. Pantone’s marketing, however, encourages creatives to be in want of a tyrant, angling itself as the benevolent, if conflicted, monarch.

Images from “Pantone 2014 Spring Report Designers and Influences” Pantone.com http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr/default.aspx?season=spring&year=2014&from=hpbanner, (accessed January 2nd,, 2014) Radiant Orchid Examples

“Do These People Come To You?...They Must. I Have Never Gone To Them.” Pantone’s balance of authority, ego and product is another indicator of the current climate for selfpresentation (and selfpreservation) in design. Pantone as it paints itself now could just as easily be a Starchitect: a mix of friendly assistance with a cool, aloof veneer. But one that depends solely on consumer appreciation of critical acclaim. For example, would the Frank Gehry collections for Tiffany48 or Michael Graves Target teapots49 ever have been made without a vast reputation behind them? Probably not. 50 The argument can be made that brandname design has been around since the invention of the modern architectural profession in the Renaissance.51 The powerful want something that is aligned with their taste and are ready to present those who deliver to the masses. This is probably why the June 3rd, 1956 episode of ‘What’s My Line’ required panelists to wear blindfolds while identifying Frank Lloyd Wright: people knew his face as much they knew his work. But Wright found himself in the public eye because respected academic institutions had made him their icon, he had been made king by the kingmakers. But now the powerful and the masses are the same thing. And while the idea of Wright linking his sketches to ArchDaily’s Tumblr and trolling for Facebook likes is absurd, that’s what's expected of designers now. Why be a teacher when you can be a socialmedia sensation?

So it was that product and ego in design had a strange exchange of machinery in the digital age. What makes a reputation is now a matter of blips on thousands and thousands of dashboards rather than an ultimate catharsis delivered to a singular powerful entity. Individual satisfaction and obscurity may be cooler but it certainly isn’t the focus anymore. In 2014, if a designer wants to survive they have to be likeable, or at least digitally accessible, to be marketable. Which matters now, apparently. Some have indicated this to be the death of the critic, but instead it just proves the old adage: everyone’s a critic. Under this reign, Pantone becomes the kindling of Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr53 as well as a 48

Levent Osler, “Frank Gehry Jewelry Design Collection for Tiffany and Co”. Dexigner.com, April 14th, 2006 http://www.dexigner.com/news/7786 (Accessed January 27th 2014) 49 “Final Collection of Michael Graves Design Collection Arrives March 2014 Febuary 7th, 2012” Target.com Press Room. http://pressroom.target.com/news/finalcollectionofmichaelgraves02072012 (Accessed January 27th 2014) 50 Buildings could also just be a bigger version of this reputational advantage. 51 Mario Carpo, The Alphabet and the Algorithm (Cambridge MA:MIT Press, 2011) 1429 52 Images are screen shots from “Frank Lloyd Wright What’s My Line” YouTube video, 9:03, posted by “Crepehanger47” September 17th, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZliXx8kIQ. Shots taken at: , 6:57, 7:09 and 1:06 respectively. 53 “Best Job Ever Pantone’s colour Specialist” Modlcloth.com Blog, published January 29th, 2013, http://blog.modcloth.com/2013/01/29/bestjobeverpantonesleatriceeisemancolourspecialist/ (accessed December 20th, 2013)

goto for makeup and fashion trending. Presenting itself not as an ego, or individual (which can fall in and out of favour) but as “an authority”. The company seems ground its future interests into what are considered traditionally feminine scopes, but as a genderneutral variable. This move might be specifically meaningful as an indication of the growing number of female designers, but more so, it is an alignment with the “cooler” aspects of commercialism.

Golden Calves and Moleskin Notebooks One of the side effects of Pantone’s branding change is its shift from timeless organization to the fleeting, the temporal, and having to maintain that notion indefinitely. For example, in 2011 Pantone released Pantone: The Twentieth Century in colour, a book which explores the century with over 200 works of art, advertisements, products and more. 56 What the book does not overtly imply (and what reviews from its release don’t seem to note) is that Pantone didn’t exist until over halfway through the century. So really this is an example Pantone’s attempt to seem authoritative, a company that has simply always been. Moreover this is not the twentieth century as it happened, but Pantone’s twentieth century, a coffee table book which simplifies complicated decades of major change into what can be sold to consumers.

Image from “Barbie Collector Pantone Pink” Barbie Collector.com, http://www.barbiecollector.com/shop/doll/pinkpantonebarbiedollw3376 (January 2nd, 2014) 55 Image From “Pantone Radiant Orchid 2014” Sephora.com Blog, http://theglossy.sephora.com/articles/785 (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 56

Imogen Carter, “Pantone: The 20th Century in colour by Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker – review” The Guardian Observer online, published November 13th, 2011 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/pantone20thcenturycolourreview (accessed December 15th, 2013)

Is it fun? Sure. But it’s also flippant. Colour in this sense is glossy, perfect and a little bit mean: something perpetually new. If appliances, clothes, etc. are anything other than the prescribed selection, their owner can be somehow passe. If, however, the food processor is this year’s colour, then one can be secure in the cleverness of their acquisition. As if that were enough to stave off the inevitability of its obsolescence. This constant consumerism is a lot to ask of a global community trying to recover from intense economic hardship. Correspondingly, there was some criticism regarding the 2013 “Color of the Year”, Emerald. As Tactic Marketing’s blog surmised: “What’s that you say? Did I hear you com ment on the irony of a year ush ered in by a near fall off a fis cal cliff being given the colour of money, pre cious stones, and growth?”58 Though later in the post Tactic took a more solicitous turn: “Pan tone has given design ers an insight into where the gen eral design mood may be this year, tak ing into con sid er a tion the cul tural move ments, his tor i cal prece dents, and gen eral ethos of the 59 news and con ver sa tion tak ing place.” In its essential quality, the “Color of the Year” is a snapshot, but a snapshot of world where people are buyers. It’s politically aware, but only so far as it can sell it. It is capitalism in its most effective and yet indifferent way: the replacement of a perfectly good colour with a new one. 2014’s Radiant Orchid is said to emanate “great joy, love and health” and sounds almost like a fortune teller who has been well tipped. 60 And in fulfillment of the prophecy, “Radiant Orchard” will most likely be the colour of many a dress, mug and wall until its replacement rolls in just before 2015. In this, Pantone has successfully created its own need. A colourful Ouroboros.

Images from “Amazon.com Preview Pantone: The 20th Century in colour” Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/PantoneTheTwentiethCenturycolour/dp/0811877566/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1388600973&sr=82 &keywords=pantone (accessed January 2nd, 2014) 58 “Pantone Color of the Year 2013” Tactic Marketing Blog. Tacticmarketing.com, publised January 4th, 2013 http://www.tacticmarketing.com/blog/pantonescolourof2013emerald20130104 (accessed December 19th, 2013) 59 ibid. 60 “Radiant Orchid Pantone Color of the Year 2014” Pantone.com http://www.pantone.com/pages/index.aspx?pg=21129 (accessed December 27th, 2013)

A sympathetic take would be to see Pantone’s business plan as escapist. Life it hard, people fall out of love, the days get colder, and bills need to paying, but what never disappoints? A fun, bright purple watch! Like a temporary balm for something more troubling. A brief antidote to struggle and mortality. Though in a way Pantone’s current cult of personality cheapens what the company first sent out to be, a tool for design, not its control. The colour equivalent to the likes of Burberry or Ugg: beginning in practicality but hurtling towards catchphrase. Categorizing Emotion The critical pass that Pantone seems have garnered, from its products to its self presentation, is in part generated by the notion of colour being inherently visceral and personal. For this reason almost more than any other, colour selection is a tricky endeavor, a crosssection of physical response and memory. The colour of a childhood kitchen is only affectionate if the time spent in it was happy and to their credit, Pantone does take their selection seriously. Though its concerning when the selection becomes a crutch, a shorthand for originality, a nuanced kind of massnarcissism. Pantone is not at fault for this scheme, indeed quite the opposite. They saw a gap, created a need and filled it. The fault, if there is one, is on the blind acceptance of design authority. Much like in the Phantom Tollbooth, Chroma makes wonderful sunsets, sunrises, comets and thunder but his power comes from the idea that no one else can do what he does. When Milo tries, he fails because he lacks training, if he’d had it, things may have turned out differently. Chroma would not have been the only master. 63 Yes, Pantone is the current authority on colour but only as long as it insures its place as the fetishist of colour. It can no longer escape back to the purely technical. Those gates are closed. The direction the Pantone of the early 2000s took gave the company a lot more power, but also a lot fewer exits. It would seem that, in the end, our queen reigns but she does not rule. 61

Image from “Radiant Orchid Pantone Color of the Year 2014” Pantone.com http://www.pantone.com/pages/index.aspx?pg=21129 (accessed December 27th, 2013) 62 Image from “Pantone Hotel Pictures Brussles” Pantone Hotel.com http://www.pantonehotel.com/en/pictures (January 2nd, 2014) 63 Norton Juster, The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth (New York: Knopf Publishing, 2011) 120125

Image from “JC Penny Pantone Collection” JCPenny.com http://www.jcpenney.com/bedbath/bathrugsbathmats/pantoneuniverse%25e2%2584%25a2bathrugs/prod.jump?ppId=pp50 02325221&topDim=Categories&topDimvalue=pantone+universe&dimCombo=Categories%7C&dimComboVal=pantone+universe%7 C&currentDim=Categories&currentDimVal=pantone+universe&colourizedImg=DP1206201217133968M.tif (accessed January 2nd, 2014)

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