Pantone, a global leader in colour expertise, has introduced PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer as Color of the Year 2026. A billowy white imbued in serenity, Cloud Dancer encourages true relaxation and focus, allowing the mind to wander and creativity to breathe, making room for innovation.
“Similar to a blank canvas, Cloud Dancer signifies our desire for a fresh start. Peeling away layers of outmoded thinking, we open the door to new approaches. An airy white hue, PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer opens up space for creativity, allowing all our imagination to drift so that new insights and bold ideas can emerge and take shape,” says Laurie Pressman, Vice President, Pantone Color Institute.
Inspiring Well-being and Lightness
With its expansive presence, Cloud Dancer invites a space where function and feeling intertwine to build atmospheres of serenity and spaciousness, providing a refuge of visual cleanliness that inspires well-being and lightness.
“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. The cacophony that surrounds us has become overwhelming, making it harder to hear the voices of our inner selves. A conscious statement of simplication, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute.
Versatile Shade
The Pantone Color of the Year 2026 is a key structural colour whose versatility provides scaffolding for the colour spectrum, allowing all colours to shine. In a world where colour has become synonymous with personal expression, this is a shade that can adapt, harmonise, and create contrast, bringing a feeling of airy lightness to all product applications and environments, whether making a standalone statement or combined with other hues.
Seven Colour Harmony
PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer harmonises beautifully with colours across seven palettes, all of which can be used in real-time within Pantone Connect. Available as a mobile app, on the web, and as an extension app for Adobe Creative Cloud, Pantone Connect makes capturing, curating, and designing with Pantone Colors easy and efficient.
“To help you bring PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer into your designs, we’ve created seven colour palettes featuring this year’s special shade,” says Pressman. “Each of the palettes conveys a distinctive feeling and mood and easily crosses fashion and accessories, beauty, home interiors, industrial design, and graphic and multi-media design applications. Within each of these seven colour stories, we also included suggested colour harmonies, all of which you can download and share using Pantone Connect.”
The Pantone Color of the Year programme, which began in 1999, has evolved into a cultural phenomenon, aiming to reflect and express the “prevailing mood” and attitudes of our global societies through colour.
