Coloring the Future

Scholastic Art: What is your job?

Leatrice Eiseman: I am the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. I forecast color trends and advise businesses on the best colors for their products and branding. I also help select the Pantone Color of the Year.

SA: What is Pantone?

LE: Pantone provides tools that allow people to communicate easily about color. For example, a textile manufacturer can instruct a dye house to dye a textile in Pantone 1-2-3-4, and the dye house will check its Pantone guidebook and know exactly what color to dye the textile.

SA: What is color forecasting?

LE: Color forecasting is making a research-based analysis of what colors will become popular in the future. To forecast colors, we do a wide variety of research. We look at upcoming movies, at the artists being showcased in museums, at sports—especially during an Olympics year—at trends in fashion, and many other things. 

SA: How do businesses use color forecasting?

LE: Using popular colors will make products more appealing to customers. We also consider the message a company wants to send. A bank might want to convey the message that it is reliable. So, within what we know will be popular, we will pick colors that convey that feeling for their branding.

SA: What is the 2017 Color of the Year?

LE: The Color of the Year symbolizes the public mood. People today are more concerned than ever about preserving nature. So we chose Greenery as the Color of the Year for 2017. It symbolizes nature, but it also has the psychological effect of refreshing us and lifting us up. 

SA: What skills make you successful?

LE: Being a good communicator is key. I can create the most beautiful color combinations, but then I have to validate my choices to my clients. I also have to be good at research, finding credible studies on the psychology and symbolism of color.