PANTONE Color of the Year 2026: Cloud Dancer

Every year since 1999, Pantone's Color Institute has selected a shade to capture the cultural zeitgeist, helping designers and businesses anticipate upcoming trends. This annual announcement influences everything from fashion to interior design. That includes your print marketing materials.

For 2026, Pantone has chosen Cloud Dancer, a balanced shade of white with equal parts cool and warm undertones. This marks the first time the company has selected white as its Color of the Year. The institute describes Cloud Dancer as a "calming influence" and a symbol of a desire for fresh starts in our increasingly chaotic world.

Why Cloud Dancer Matters for Your Print Projects

Cloud Dancer's aerated presence acts as a whisper of calm and peace. For businesses, this translates to print materials that feel clean, sophisticated, and refreshingly uncluttered. Unlike stark white, Cloud Dancer offers warmth and approachability while maintaining professionalism.

Incorporating Cloud Dancer Into Your Designs

The beauty of Cloud Dancer lies in its versatility. Here's how to use it effectively:

Background elegance: Use Cloud Dancer as your primary background color for brochures, catalogs, and displays. It provides breathing room for your content without the harshness of pure white.

Textural opportunities: Cloud Dancer shines when paired with specialty finishes. Consider soft-touch coatings, embossing, or textured papers that add dimension. A product brochure utilizing Cloud Dancer, combined with subtle embossing, creates a sense of understated luxury.

Strategic pairing: This shade works beautifully with natural tones—warm woods, sage greens, terracotta—and provides elegant contrast against bold accent colors in your brand palette.

Minimalist layouts: Let Cloud Dancer support clean, spacious designs. Think generous margins, carefully chosen typography, and purposeful negative space that guides the eye naturally.

Premium positioning: Cloud Dancer elevates perception. Use it for upscale product packaging, event invitations, or annual reports where sophistication matters.

The key to the most effective, professional use of Cloud Dancer is to let it breathe. Avoid overwhelming it with busy designs or competing colors. Instead, embrace the simplicity and clarity this shade offers. Your customers will appreciate the visual respite on their desks, on their walls, and in their mailboxes.