Ode to Lawrence Herbert and his PANTONE ® color system

ode-to-lawrence-herbert-and-his-pantone-color-systemYou’ve heard, the phrase “all the colors of the rainbow” before. If asked to name those colors, you’d probably say: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Well that’s true, if you’re coloring one with a Crayola 8 pack. But as you know, there are SO many more colors in the rainbow … thousands more. Color is an integral part of packaging. Color influences us in many conscious and subconscious ways, and <a href=http://blog.containerandpackaging.com/2009/05/color-psychology-picking-right-color_19.html>picking the right color</a> for your packaging is key to its success. Everyone perceives color differently. Not only are the mechanics of everyone’s eyes different, but so are their color naming skills. For instance, women typically have a larger color vocabulary than men. Not always, but generally. I’m sure you’ve had a conversation like this before … <blockquote>HER: So what do you think of this dress? HIM: It’s nice. HER: I love this color. I think it looks great with my eyes. HIM: Yeah, that’s a nice green dress. HER: Green? This? No, no, honey. This is chartreuse.</blockquote> HIM isn’t stupid, HIM’s not unrefined, HIM just calls that color green and she calls it chartreuse. We all have a different type of green come to mind when we say: chartreuse, kelley, forest, lime, spring, and so on. In the packaging and design world I have conversations like this all the time: <blockquote>CLIENT: So I wanted it to be orange. DESIGNER: What kind of orange? Like the fruit … or more like a tangerine? CLIENT: I don’t know … what color is a tangerine? DESIGNER: Well … uh, it’s orange with a little more yellow in it. CLIENT: Huh. DESIGNER: Right. Ok, is there a sports team that uses the orange you like? CLIENT: Oh yeah! I really like BSU’s orange. Let’s do that.</blockquote> This is why DESIGNER loves Lawrence. In 1963, Lawrence Herbert, developed the PANTONE color system, “an innovative system for identifying, matching and communicating colors to solve the problems associated with producing accurate color matches in the graphic arts community” (see <a href=http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx>pantone.com</a>). Thanks to Lawrence, CLIENT can just tell DESIGNER, “Make it PANTONE 1645.” End of story. Both are happy. Both know exactly what that orange looks like. <a href=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/sam/blog/PantoneBook.png><img src=https://www.containerandpackaging.com/sam/blog/PantoneBook.png alt= border=0 /></a>Lawrence wasn’t only smart … he was brilliant! He made it possible for us to have these kinds of concise conversations at the nominal fee of $120. Pictured left is an example of a PANTONE color book. Yeah, they’re expensive, but if you work a lot with color, it’s a great resource to have. There are several different kinds of books, targeted toward different industries. The one we use most frequently is the PANTONE Matching System or PMS. An unfortunate acronym, true, but that’s what it stands for. You’ll often hear professionals ask, “What’s the PMS code?” They really want to know what PANTONE color you want. The PANTONE color system is pretty sweet, and the more it’s used the faster and more accurately we can communicate. I’m not suggesting that we go around saying, “Howdy neighbor, your lawn is so 581, who do you use to treat it?” or, “Your eyes are so 283.” No, that would take all the fun out of these dysfunctional color conversations we love.