Pantone’s animal-inspired palette
If you’re looking for a colour for your brand or product, your first thought may be to glance through the Pantone colour guide and see what fits. But did you know each of these colours has an individual name, including a large number named after animals?
What is pantone?
Pantone is best known for its universal colour-matching system. It is used to standardise colours, so specific hues can be colour-matched on your products. The idea was conceived in the 1960s when Larry Herbert, working for a printing company in New Jersey, was frustrated with trying to communicate customers’ colour choices. This led him to come up with a numbered colour system which we now know as the Pantone Matching System (PMS). Pantone is world-renowned with users across the globe and has over 2,000 colours available from simple whites through to deep blacks and everything in-between.
Animal-inspired hues
As of 2024 the PMS features thousands of colours, including some great animal named ones; we have listed some of our favourites below.
Exotic
Some exotic animals have matching exotic hues! Orange Tiger – a bright shade of orange, Lounge Lizard – a bright lime green, and Blue Morpho – a medium-dark shade of cyan named after a butterfly of the same name.
Birds
Some wonderful vibrant colours such as Bluebird – a medium-dark shade of cyan, Goldfinch – a medium-light shade of yellow, and Parrot Green – a medium-light shade of green are all named after species of birds.
Farmyard
Then we have farmyard animals; Goat – a medium-dark shade of grey, Duck Green – a medium-dark shade of green, and Black Beauty – a shade of black named after the novel and horse!
Pets
Finally, we have colours named after more conventional pets; so Plum Kitten and Rabbit – both being medium-dark shades of grey, and Chocolate Lab – a medium-dark shade of brown named after a popular colour variant of the much-loved labrador dog.
As the image below shows, they demonstrate the range and depth of this colourful palette of animal tints.
Pantone printing
As you can tell, we love Pantone colours and can print any of these unique animal shades on your product packaging or marketing print – and thousands more! Drop us an email to find out how we can help. To learn about the full Pantone colour library visit their website.