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Pantone's Color of the Year is a highly anticipated event in the world of design, influencing trends across fashion, interiors, and branding. Each year, Pantone's chosen color sets the tone for creative industries, shaping palettes in various industries. But did you know that Pantone's color compendiums are rooted in ornithology and natural history? This connection between birds and Pantone's colors shows how the study of the natural world has played a pivotal role in shaping the modern design landscape.
Click on to find out how it all started with birds.
Robert Ridgway, an ornithologist and artist at the Smithsonian's United States National Museum from 1886 to 1929, faced a unique challenge: describing the vibrant birdlife across the US.
Each bird presented a new challenge, from their striking plumage to subtle color variations, all of which he aimed to capture with scientific accuracy.
Ridgway needed to convey the exact colors of birds, such as the vibrant reddish orange of an American robin's breast or the wine red of a purple finch.
Each shade had to be distinct, consistent, and descriptive enough for anyone reading his work to visualize the bird as if they had seen it themselves.
Describing colors accurately wasn't as simple as it seemed. Shades appeared different depending on ambient light, nearby hues, or even the viewer's perception.
These challenges made Ridgway's task of creating a universal standard for bird coloration both necessary and revolutionary for the field of ornithology.
To address this challenge, Ridgway created two color dictionaries containing over a thousand hand-painted swatches.
These ranged from mustard gold to peacock blue, meticulously crafted to ensure consistency. This work not only solved his own problem but provided a foundation for future color systems.
Ridgway's lasting impact is evident in his creation of the first common vocabulary of color.
He provided naturalists and others with a universal tool for communication. What began with birds quickly expanded to art, science, and industry.
Accurate and detailed color descriptions are essential for proper bird identification, as subtle differences in hue can be key to distinguishing between similar species.
For example, blue jays, bluebirds, and indigo buntings are all blue birds, yet each has distinct shades that need detailed, consistent terminology.
Even with detailed guides, human perception adds complexity to identifying colors. Biological variations in vision mean individuals might see and interpret colors differently.
Ridgway's work accounted for these challenges by creating a standard reference that could guide naturalists regardless of individual differences in perception.
Ridgway's artistic talent also played a key role in his success. Alongside his wife Julia, he created detailed sketches and paintings of birds, capturing their unique traits.
His illustrations not only documented species but also contributed to the rich artistic tradition of natural history illustration.
While color dictionaries existed before Ridgway's time, they were often incomplete or not suited for naturalists. Ridgway's work benefitted from advancements in chemical dyes, which provided consistent, vibrant colors.
This new technology allowed him to create a more accurate and reliable resource than previous efforts based on botanical dyes.
In his 1886 book 'A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists,' Ridgway and his wife painted entire pages with precise colors and cut them into swatches for uniformity.
This process ensured that, for example, olive green looked exactly the same in every copy, making his guides a standard for color identification.
Ridgway expanded his work in 1912 with 'Color Standards and Color Nomenclature.' The guide organized shades in a spectrum, from pure white to black, enabling users to match hues precisely.
The book became an indispensable resource for naturalists, designers, stamp collectors, and even food colorists, cementing Ridgway's legacy.
Ridgway's color guides remain essential for understanding nature’s diversity, helping scientists, artists, and enthusiasts appreciate the subtle beauty of color in the natural world.
By the mid-20th century, industries like printing and advertising faced challenges similar to Ridgway's.
They needed consistent and distinctive color standards to maintain brand identity and ensure uniformity across different media, regions, and production methods.
Lawrence Herbert recognized this gap in the 1960s and founded Pantone. His Pantone Matching System built upon Ridgway's principles, scaling them for industrial use.
The system became the standard for color matching, influencing fields as diverse as fashion, marketing, and digital design.
Pantone's Color of the Year celebrates the power of color, a concept rooted in Ridgway's pioneering work.
While Pantone shapes modern design, Ridgway's legacy lives on, capturing and communicating the beauty of the natural world.
Sources: (National Geographic) (NPR)
See also: How colors influence your mood
Why Pantone has a color of the year (It all started with birds)
This is how birds and science shaped a global color trend
LIFESTYLE Nature
Pantone's Color of the Year is a highly anticipated event in the world of design, influencing trends across fashion, interiors, and branding. Each year, Pantone's chosen color sets the tone for creatives everywhere, shaping palettes in various industries. But did you know Pantone's color compendiums are rooted in ornithology and natural history? This connection between birds and Pantone's colors shows how the study of the natural world has played a pivotal role in shaping the modern design landscape.
Click on to find out how it all started with birds.