‘PANTONE’S Colour of the Year’ often sets the emotional tone for what lies ahead. Announced toward the end of each year, it quietly reflects how the world feels and, perhaps, where it is heading.
We moved from Very Peri (2022) to Viva Magenta (2023), then Peach Fuzz (2024), followed by Mocha Mousse (2025).
Some choices felt bold, others comforting, but few prompted reflections quite like Pantone’s selection for 2026.
When I woke up to the news that Cloud Dancer, a shade of white, had been named the Colour of the Year, I laughed. During my degree years, whites, greys, and blacks were considered neutrals rather than colours.
After years of trying to be everything, everywhere, all at once, perhaps we have finally run out of colours to burn.
Looking at the recent rains, with no graceful cloud dancers in the sky, I could not help but wonder whether Cloud Dancer is really a colour or a quiet cry for help.
A design-world SOS wrapped in a neutral swatch.
It almost felt symbolic, as though the world had nothing left to choose from, which might explain why the sky seems to be crying so often these days.
Then, I had to play devil’s advocate.
Pantone described Cloud Dancer as representing a fresh start, a clean slate, and a moment to exhale.
Perhaps it reflects a deeper need for reset. A figurative CTRL+ALT+DELETE after the exhaustion of 2025, or even the years before.
In a world that is overworked, overly online, and constantly stimulated, Cloud Dancer may be reminding us to slow down, take a breath, and begin again.
With global exhaustion setting in, desaturation may have been necessary. Subtlety is suddenly desirable.
Cafés are returning to minimalist aesthetics, and the “quiet luxury” movement is gaining momentum. Flaunting brands no longer matters; what matters is knowing your worth.
Maximalism now feels like a visual version of an inbox with 200 unread emails.
For businesses and organisations, Cloud Dancer reads less like a colour trend and more like a strategic signal.
After years of rapid change, constant visibility, and performative growth, many organisations are rethinking how they operate, communicate, and lead.
The shift towards restraint and clarity mirrors a broader movement in leadership and branding, moving away from noise and urgency and towards purpose, focus, and sustainability.
Sometimes, the strongest organisational reset does not come from doing more, but from intentionally doing less.
But here’s the question: does a global clean slate bring us together, or does it wash away what makes us different?
Minimalism is undeniably attractive to brands. It signals clarity, confidence, and control, where qualities may feel especially reassuring in uncertain markets.
A soft white palette could suggest restraint, refinement, and universality but when minimalism becomes the global default, it risks becoming something else entirely: a shortcut that dilutes identity.
Diversity, after all, is not meant to be watered down. While white can soothe, it can also homogenise branding when context is removed.
I often think about the intricate motifs of Pua Kumbu, or the vivid colours and carvings found in Chinese temples, in which visual embellishments also function as systems of meaning.
They transcend values, histories, and belief structures long before a logo or tagline ever could.
Yet when branding trends scale globally, nuance is often the first casualty.
Symbolism is simplified, cultural references are softened, and we are only left with something safe, recognisable and increasingly interchangeable.
Cloud Dancer may symbolise new beginnings, but it does not hold a universal meaning, which is precisely its power. White signifies joy in some cultures, grief in others.
It represents rebirth and closure, purity and mourning, celebration and loss. A colour that exists at both ends of the emotional spectrum.
For brands operating across cultures, this raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: when we choose neutrality, are we being inclusive? Or evasive?
In branding, white functions as negative space the pause between messages, the breathing room that allows meaning to surface rather than compete.
It is not emptiness, but restraint. As we move into 2026, Cloud Dancer invites brands to rethink subtraction as a strategic act: not to erase identity, but to make space for it.
As I reached the end of this piece, surrounded by more than thirty open tabs on my taskbars, something clicked. If even a colour can be reimagined, brands can too.
Progress does not always come from louder campaigns or constant reinvention, instead, it comes from designing with intention, and building brands allows room for differences, cultural specificity, and thoughtful restraint.
When the laptop finally closed, Cloud Dancer felt less like a trend and more like a mindset, that in an increasingly crowded brand landscape, the most powerful move may not be to say less, but to say what matters and mean it.
● Jasmine Ng Kia Mian, School of Design and Arts, Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus
Dsiclaimer:
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune. The writer can be reached at mvoon@swinburne.edu.my.
