Package design is all about colors. What makes a package stand out, what makes a customer feel good about a product, most importantly what makes a customer buy a particular product.

Pantone is almost synonymous with color. One of the things that Pantone does is forecast what colors will be “in” in the near future. They also come up with new colors that they hope will be “in”.

I’ve worked with Pantone color swatches a fair amount over the years but never knew how they were chosen and designed. Just read an interesting article in Slate about twice annual meetings that Pantone has to do this. It does make me wonder if they are forecasting the market or dictating to the market but it is well worth to read.