X-Rite Color Blog

According to autolist.com, over 80% of cars produced today are white, black, or some shade of gray. It’s not necessarily because bright and bold colors are more difficult to produce and match than their grayscale counterparts, they just take longer to get through the inspiration and car design process.  Believe it or not, producing a new auto color can take up to five years before it makes it to the showroom floor. It’s a long, tedious process for designers, paint...

Last week Pantone announced the Pantone Color of the Year 2020 - Very Peri (PANTONE 17-3938). The Pantone Color of the Year announcement isn’t just important for designers. Since this color will set the stage for upcoming trends, brand owners should also take notice to capitalize on this trending color. Bring Very Peri to Market, Fast. Is Virtual Design the Answer? The fashion and apparel industry began embracing virtual design years ago. Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Burberry, ...

2020 forced manufacturers to rethink the way they work. Around the globe, COVID put a hard stop on the travel required to approve prototypes and delayed the shipment of physical samples. Many brands started looking for ways to use digital color samples to keep production moving but struggled with the inability to replicate how a color sample would look on a prototype. The PANTORA desktop application closes this gap. With PANTORA, users can capture or import spectral samples and store, manage, vi...

Virtual reality has re-imagined the art of apparel and footwear design. 3D design programs like MODO, KeyShot, CLO, Browzwear, Optitex, and Lectra augment the creativity of color and material designers to virtually construct patterns and render realistic 3D garments.  This is exciting technology for brands that want to reduce waste for a greener footprint and accelerate design to keep up with fast fashion. However, designers are notoriously tactile. They need to touch, feel, and gain a...