Pantone has named “Cloud Dancer” as its Color of the Year for 2026. Described by the company as a “billowy white imbued with a feeling of serenity,” the selection reflects a cultural shift toward stillness, reflection, and creative renewal.
Pantone is known as an authority on color, as its naming system is used by designers across the world. The Color of the Year designation is widely followed across the design industry and has become a reference point for trends in fashion, interiors, and consumer products.
Announced today from the company’s headquarters in Carlstadt, New Jersey, “Cloud Dancer” marks a notable departure from the more vibrant tones often chosen in previous years. The soft, ethereal white is positioned as a response to what Pantone calls a “frenetic society rediscovering the value of measured consideration and quiet reflection.”
“In a time of transformation, when we are reimagining our future and our place in the world, Cloud Dancer is a discrete white hue offering a promise of clarity,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, in a statement. “The cacophony that surrounds us has become overwhelming. A conscious statement of simplification, Cloud Dancer enhances our focus, providing release from the distraction of external influences.”
Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, added that the selection reflects “our search for balance between our digital future and our primal need for human connection.”
The choice contrasts sharply with the colors of the past two years. In 2025, Pantone selected “Mocha Mousse,” a creamy pale brown that evoked a return to nature, according to the company. The year prior, it chose “Peach Fuzz,” a soft orange tone centered on comfort and compassion. While those colors emphasized emotional warmth and pleasure, “Cloud Dancer” shifts the focus inward, embracing calm and offering, in Pantone’s words, a “blank canvas” for new thinking and creative possibility.
