You might be wondering, what was Pantone's Color of the Year back in 1987? The truth is, the Pantone Color of the Year tradition as we know it, with its global pronouncements and trend-setting influence, didn't quite exist in its current form back then. However, the very essence of what Pantone celebrates – the precise and evocative use of color – has a surprisingly deep and feathered history.
It's fascinating to trace the lineage of Pantone's annual color picks back to a rather unexpected source: birds. Specifically, the meticulous work of an ornithologist and artist named Robert Ridgway in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ridgway, working at the Smithsonian, was tasked with the monumental job of describing the vast diversity of bird life in the United States. And to do that accurately, he needed to get the colors just right.
Think about it: a bird isn't just 'blue.' It's the rich, almost iridescent azure of an indigo bunting, or the softer, sky-like hue of a blue jay. Describing these subtle, yet crucial, differences was a significant challenge. Ridgway tackled this by creating detailed color dictionaries, filled with hand-painted swatches. He published volumes like 'A Nomenclature of Colors for Naturalists' in 1886 and 'Color Standards and Color Nomenclature' in 1912. These weren't just academic exercises; they were essential tools for naturalists and ornithologists trying to identify and document species. Imagine painstakingly matching a bird's breast to a swatch, or a finch's wing to a specific shade of red.
What's truly remarkable is how these early efforts, born out of a need to catalog nature's palette, laid the groundwork for the modern color industry. The advent of more consistent chemical dyes around that time also played a role, allowing for reproducible color standards that botanical dyes couldn't always provide. Ridgway's dedication to creating a common vocabulary for color, ensuring that 'olive green' meant the same thing whether you were in New York or California, was revolutionary. His handmade books, where each color swatch was meticulously applied, ensured that every copy was, as one admirer put it, 'exactly to standard.'
This commitment to defining and standardizing color eventually evolved, leading to the development of the Pantone Color Institute in the 1960s. So, while there might not be a specific 'Pantone Color of the Year 1987' to point to in the way we think of it today, the very idea of Pantone's influence on color stems from a deep appreciation for the nuances of color, a passion ignited by the dazzling array of birds and the dedicated individuals who sought to capture their true colors.
