OUGD404 - Pantone

Pantone came about as the printing company of M & J Levine Advertising, founded by the Levine Brothers. Shortly after he was hired, employee Lawrence Herbert found a way to organise the company's inks and pigments using his chemistry degree knowledge. After making a profit running the printing department he bought out another struggling division and subsequently renamed it Pantone.

The Pantone Colour Matching system devised by Herbert is mainly used in printing as an effective and consistent way to match colours. Deriving from only 14 basic colours, the system now contains over 1100 colours. These colours are all numbered, and this is the method used to describe and reference them. The standardised colours allows designers and printers etc to refer to the Pantone system to check consistency throughout the production process. 

Pantone even releases how each colour can be made in RGB and CMYK by releasing the values for each colour in the models.

As a product, the colours are presented in swatch guides available to buy. The pages of the guides contain colour swatches, often a colour in varying tints and tones. The swatches can then be used even by the smallest of designers.

Whereas CMYK is suitable for printing such as full colour photographs, Pantone colours should be used in designs. There are examples of use across the world, from flags to logos. For example the designated colours for the Union Jack (excluding white) are as follows:

Even Barbie has a designated Pantone colour: 219C. This pink is used across Barbie's branding, in logos and packaging.

I think the invention of Pantone has revolutionised the way we design, especially given the shift in recent years from hand crafted designs to the digital age of computers and desktop publishing. By creating a coherent and standardised system for every colour imaginable the production process has become easier and more efficient.