Pantone 2026: A masterclass in "Less is more” - or just less?.

After the rich, caffeinated buzz of 2025’s Mocha Mousse, Pantone has decided we all need a lie-down. Enter Cloud Dancer (11-4201): a "billowy, balanced white” which Pantone has nominated as its colour of the year for 2026. To the dreamers at Pantone, it’s a "whisper of calm" for a noisy world. To some commentators interviewed by The Guardian, it’s a PR minefield. To those at jfd? It’s the colour of a blank InDesign document when the deadline is in twenty minutes. 

Choosing a white as the "Colour of the Year" is a bold move. It’s like a chef winning an award for a plate of steam, or a musician releasing a silent track and calling it "minimalist electro". In a world dominated by AI-generated perfection and digital clutter, Pantone is essentially telling us to 'command z' and start over. While we appreciate a bit of breathing room on the page as much as the next agency, we can’t help feeling that "Cloud Dancer" is the ultimate design cop-out. It’s the palette of a fresh start, sure - but it’s also the pigment of a "Page Not Found" error. 

People of a certain generation will remember the 90's smash hit play 'Art' and all of the fuss over a blank white canvas - 'is it or isn't it?' being the axis of the discussion. I'm getting strong echoes of Nigel Havers et al as I peer at Cloud Dancer.

At jfd, we’ve always been partial to a bit more... colour.

For us, the antithesis of this year’s "nothingness" remains the 2012 icon: Tangerine Tango. It was arguably the brightest, most unapologetic orange Pantone has ever crowned. It didn't whisper; it shouted. It had the kind of high-energy, high-impact positivity we look for in a new year - a hue that demands action rather than meditation.

If 2026 is officially the year of white, we’ll be the ones in the corner holding onto our swatches, waiting for the saturation to come back. And I can't help but think Cloud Dancer will be fleeting and not enduring. Whizzing across the sky, perhaps, and leaving those of us who prefer colour to pick our favourites from the rainbow that's revealed when the clouds part.