Pantone introduces 294 New PMS Colors with a team of superheros
I remember being amazed that at one point in human history, we did not have a word for the color blue. I had to go and search for an article to support this thought because I was so certain I didn't make it up - This summary is a really fascinating look at the history of how humans came to see "blue" as anything other than a slightly different shade of light.
I think of this every time I hear about Pantone adding "new colors" to their already expansive library. The reality is that no color is "new" - unless you're MIT, who accidentally invented the Blackest Black, which absorbs 99.995% of light. It's not as though we didn't know that the 294 new colors in this Pantone release existed. We just didn't have a global standard for them yet.
Pantone enlisted artist and illustrator Carly Monardo to create a team of superheroes using the colors from their newly added swatches - and the results are the four adorable heroes you see in the image above. Bash, Kinetta, Stellknight, and Zephire - the Pantone Team.
According to Pantone, these new colors were developed to help better coordinate with designers working across multiple mediums - specifically with their Fashion, Home & Interiors guides, with specific focuses in neutrals like grays, tans, olives, blues and blacks. This is particularly intriguing to me - as neutrals and grays are among the most difficult colors to regulate when it comes to digital printing!
I wonder if they have a PMS color for MIT's Blackest Black yet?
Learn more about Pantone's Newest Color Swatches by visiting the sites below: