An update of a popular blog post from 2016

Every year since 1999, a Pantone shade is selected as the Color of the Year by the Pantone Color Institute. The purpose of this program is to “engage the design community and color enthusiasts in a conversation around color, highlighting the relationship between color and culture. Pantone selects a color each year that captures the global zeitgeist—the Color of the Year express a global mood and an attitude, reflecting collective desire in the form of a single, distinct hue.”

For 2025 the choice is Mocha Mousse, described as “a warming, brown hue imbued with richness. It nurtures us with its suggestion of the delectable qualities of chocolate and coffee, answering our desire for comfort.”  Words such as indulgent, lush, sensuous, rich and grounded are used by various designers in describing it.  The complimentary color palette that accompanies Mocha Mousse perhaps not coincidentally looks like the new Colors of the World skin tone crayons debuted by Crayola in 2020. 

As retailers, we generally see more products featuring the color of the year as our vendors turn to the Color Institute for guidance in color trends. The idea of setting a standard color also means that designers can use a palette likely to coordinate well with products from other lines.

The influence of the Pantone color of the year may be limited in the gift industry, but the selection does usually reflect popular trends of the time.  “With color and context so intertwined, there really are reasons why a color family or individual color comes into prominence when it does,” Pantone states. “For the most part, the popularity of a color is symbolic of the age we live in.” You may not decide to carry new products only in shades of brown and cream, but it pays to look for some merchandise that follows the Color Institutes’s goal of reflecting what is taking place in our global culture at this specific moment in time.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder