Golden anniversary for Pantone

Colour counts for brands

Colour is the first thing consumers notice about a brand’s logo and is estimated to influence between 50 and 85% of consumer purchasing decisions. Establishing a specific brand colour (or colours) can provide an imprimatur – a mark of distinction – that makes the brand memorable, an important factor in today’s competitive marketplace.

Of the top 100 global brand logos, 32 have two or more colours in their design with the most popular combination being blue, red and white.

For single colour logos, black leads the pack with 20 brands, followed by blue with 18 and red with 16.

Pantone has been a part of this vibrant world of colour for the last 50 years, but what will we see in the next 50 years?

With society in perpetual change, there will be a continuous merging of design and colour influences from East and West. We will see a raft of new global brands and with that a changing sense of colour.

Enter the Third Industrial Revolution

The 21st century has ushered in the Third Industrial Revolution, including new digital processes, online collaborative manufacturing services, and the arrival of new materials.

Leading the way is 3D printing, in which colour plays an important role. Not only is 3D printing changing the scale of production and costs of innovation, it’s enabling mass customisation. 3D printing and generative design go hand in hand, and increasingly people will be able to scan an object and reproduce the exact colour themselves.

This scientific age has also introduced nanotechnology, robotics, bio-engineering, artificial intelligence and bio-informatics. An exciting aspect will be colour and nanotechnology. Just imagine how colour will interact with a technology that allows us to break down and rebuild design and materials.

Colour is a fundamental element in the human experience. Chronicling the distinct changes in colour over the last five decades allows an exploration of the context within which colour has unfurled its rainbow of symbolism and history. And as we look forward to the next 50 years, with new technologies and manufacturing processes becoming embedded, colour will continue to fascinate as it manifests itself in, so far, unimagined ways.

Limited-edition of Pantone Plus

As part of Pantone’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Pantone has unveiled limited-edition Pantone Plus series packaging. The Plus series is a complete colour communication system that fulfils the analogue and digital workflow needs of graphic design, print, packaging, web design, animation and video professionals.

‘In celebration of Pantone’s 50 years of colour inspiration, we designed special anniversary edition packaging and covers for the Pantone Plus series,’ explains director of corporate marketing, Giovanni Marra. ‘The Pantone Matching System sparked a revolution in colour management and inspiration. We can’t wait to see how the Plus series shapes the next 50 years of colour,’ he adds.

The limited-edition Pantone Plus guides and books feature metallic covers and a 50th anniversary logo.

Additionally, the Pantone Formula Guide and Pantone Color Bridge sets are packaged in a 50th anniversary gift box.

Value bundles, including Pantone Essentials and Portable Guide Studio, have redesigned carry cases that store up to nine Pantone guides. The Reference Library was also redesigned and elegantly displays the entire Plus series library.

Based on the original, released in 1963, Pantone Plus includes a complete collection of colour tools that support creativity from design to production. These include 1 677 colours, Pantone Color Manager software, a Lighting Indicator page and ColorChecker Photography Target.

The powerful Pantone Color Manager software integrates Pantone colours into popular design software including Adobe Creative Suite 6 and QuarkXPress 9, while giving users the ability to create custom Pantone colour profiles for accurate colour reproduction and visualisation.

A new Lighting Indicator page, reformulated for better performance, ensures ideal lighting conditions for colour evaluation. The ColorChecker Photography Target, included in Color Bridge, helps with digital image colour correction.

The South African connection

The limited-edition Pantone Plus series guides and books are available immediately and can be purchased through the South African distributor, Kear Graphic Supplies, whose association with Pantone dates back to 1992.

According to MD, Roger Kear, the Pantone brand has a very strong following in South Africa, particularly in the advertising industry. His company supplies the full Pantone range, including the fashion and home palettes, but concentrates mostly on the graphics side.’

Roger is committed to encouraging system users to upgrade their colour kits regularly. ‘It’s our mission to reverse the tendency to hold on to books for years on end,’ he comments. ‘Paper deteriorates with age and colours fade. Often it takes a costly printing mistake before the customer decides to buy a new edition. Many opportunities are missed if someone is using an old guide. Every prepress and print professional needs to stay up-to-date. Desktop software applications and computers are replaced automatically and this attitude should also apply to Pantone guides, too,’ he insists.

The team at Kear Graphic Supplies is focused on personal service and timeous supply.

www.kear.co.za