Pantone’s 2026 Colour of the Year — a nearly white shade called Cloud Dancer — has sparked conversation around what the world truly needs right now. While Pantone frames it as a “blank canvas,” critics argue it reflects a cultural shift toward minimalism that’s erasing the vibrancy of childhood. Backed by research in child development and colour psychology, we explore why colour matters more than ever — and why Chunky Munky Co. is taking a stand for brighter, bolder, more expressive childhoods.
Cloud Dancer: Why Pantone’s “Colour of the Year” Feels Like a Step Backwards
When Pantone announced Cloud Dancer — a soft, airy white — as its 2026 Colour of the Year, the world of design let out a collective, confused exhale. White? In a year marked by global strain, cultural complexity, and children growing up in the most overstimulated yet emotionally muted era ever recorded… we went with white?
Pantone frames the shade as “a blank canvas,” a symbol of clarity and peace. Critics, however, have been less forgiving: from The Guardian calling it “Pantonedeaf” to ARTnews describing the choice as “tone-deaf to global diversity and lived experience,” the sentiment is clear — the world wasn’t exactly begging for more blankness.
And for parents? For childhood? The choice feels even more out of touch.
A World Already Losing Its Colour
Trends over the past decade show a rapid rise in neutral-only aesthetics in nurseries, children’s clothing, and playrooms — a shift driven largely by social media feeds where beige, oatmeal, and off-white reign supreme. But what’s visually soothing for adults isn’t always developmentally supportive for children.
Research in Early Childhood Education, Applied Ergonomics, and Color Research & Application consistently finds that:
- Colour-rich environments support cognitive development
- Vibrant hues enhance memory formation
- Varied colour improves emotional expression
- Bold tones encourage creative and exploratory play
In contrast, overly-neutral environments may dull stimulation, limit curiosity, and reduce opportunities for sensory learning.
Children don’t learn in beige — they learn in contrast. They remember what stands out. They explore what sparks.
Yet here we are, normalising “calming minimalism” while forgetting that childhood isn’t meant to be curated. It’s meant to be experienced.
The Problem With a “Blank Canvas” Narrative
Pantone’s choice suggests a desire for purity, simplicity, and reset — all lovely in theory, but deeply disconnected from the reality children live in. A “blank canvas” sounds poetic until you remember that children aren't blank canvases; they’re creators, explorers, emotional beings trying to understand a world already full of complexity.
Whiteness in design is often framed as sophistication. But sophistication isn’t what a child needs — stimulation is.
And in a world where children’s self-expression is increasingly influenced by algorithm-friendly aesthetics, choosing white as the global symbol of our cultural direction feels like choosing silence at a moment that desperately needs more voice.
When Neutral Spaces Become Neutral Childhoods
Parents are being sold the idea that muted = modern. That colour is chaotic. That bright wardrobes distract from a “clean” home.
But the research tells another story: colour is one of the earliest non-verbal languages children use to make sense of emotion, environment, and identity. It’s a tool — not an inconvenience.
- Babies begin distinguishing colours by 4–6 months.
- Children form emotional associations with colours long before they have words for how they feel.
- Colour improves attention, engagement, and mood regulation.
To strip colour from childhood is to strip away agency, creativity, and self-discovery — all in the name of an adult aesthetic.
And that’s where Pantone’s pick begins to feel less symbolic and more symptomatic.
Our Belief: The World Needs More Colour, Not Less
At Chunky Munky Co., this isn’t just a design philosophy — it’s our mission.
We believe childhood should be vibrant, chaotic, expressive, and deeply lived-in. We believe in colour as a developmental tool, a confidence builder, a joy catalyst. We believe colour helps children feel more… themselves.
White might work for galleries.
But children are not art on a wall — they’re art in motion.
Neutral nursery trends may make a feed look cohesive, but they don’t necessarily support the little humans growing inside those rooms. And with so much of their world already curated, filtered, and flattened, the last thing children need is more visual silence.
They need red balloons.
Electric blues.
Cheeky yellows.
Contrasting stripes.
A world that shouts back, “You belong exactly as you are.”
Pantone chose a blank canvas.
We choose to fill it.
Final Thoughts
Yes... white can be calming. White can feel like a fresh start. But a “blank canvas” without colour isn’t just neutral — it’s empty.
In a time when so much of childhood, family life, and even identity is at risk of being sanitized for aesthetic conformity or social-media approval, giving up colour doesn’t feel like maturity. It feels like erasure.
So here’s to resisting the drift toward “soft minimalism.” Here’s to embracing texture, pattern, brightness, mess, and joyful disorder. Here’s to celebrating childhood — in full colour — because children deserve a world that honours their vibrancy, not dulls it.
If you believe, as we believe, that childhood should be full of colour, expression and life — then maybe it’s time to reject neutral by default. Maybe it’s time to colour outside the lines.