Is Pantone's Colour of the Year White?

Every year Pantone announce their Colour of the Year. This year's choice, Cloud Dancer   'a whisper of tranquility and peace in a noisy world' , has caused some controversy with many feeling white isn't even a colour. But is it white and is white a colour?

Firstly, Pantone isn't a paint mixing colour system, it's a colour matching system mainly used for printed materials.  But the debate seems to have particularly raged amongst the interior design community.

Pure white is not on the colour wheel used by artists and designers, it is rather achromatic and is a blend of all colours.  The white on a computer screen a mixture of red, green and blue.  White in paint is generally made of titanium oxide and most colours added to it have a base red, blue or yellow.

But Cloud Dancer isn't truly white, it certainly isn't pure white, more a shade of white.  Variations on white have been popular for a while, you only have to look at a Farrow & Ball or Dulux colour card to realise how many there are.  All these colours are a combination of primary colours mixed together and toned right down with a white base. 

When choosing a colour to paint the shop, I went Dulux Egyptian Cotton which is not dissimilar to Cloud Dancer.   I've used it lots of times as a go to neutral, and felt it would be a great background to any product I sold in the shop.  It works with almost everything, so I find it surprising Pantone have used it as their main colour rather than part of their palette.  

So my feeling is, although Pantone's colour of the year is a great base colour, it is a bit boring!  Yes, there is certainly a place for a peace in this world, but adding a bit of colour and fun wouldn't be a bad thing either. 

Footnote: Pantone is a colour matching system predominantly for print rather than paint colours.  The interior design community usually work with NCS – Natural Colour System® which is rooted in science, reflecting how we perceive colours. Using codes, you can describe colour on any surface, whether it's fabric or paint.  You can see their forecast for 2026 and beyond here