Pantone’s Color of the Year is a Comforting Shade of Brown

Pantone, the leading color authority, chooses a color of the year that reflects the global mood every December. Chosen by the design community and color enthusiasts, the new pick for 2025 is PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse, a warm and comforting shade of brown.

In a year of unrest and stressful news, this shade suggests comfort and nurturing with its quality of chocolate and coffee, according to a press release from Pantone. “Underpinned by our desire for everyday pleasures, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse expresses a level of thoughtful indulgence,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in the press release. “A flavorful brown shade, PANTONE 17-1230 Mocha Mousse envelopes us with its sensorial warmth.”

Why Mocha Mousse?
Besides warmth, the color reflects the need for harmony in the world, according to Eiseman. It was chosen to reflect the current needs of the global community, rather than just to reflect trends, reported TIME. If trends were the only consideration, the color of the year could have been brat green.

The team that chose the shade looked at social values, art, travel, and new technology to gauge the overall mood of the past year. “There [are] reasons why people gravitate to certain color families when they do. For us, it really is zeroing in on a color family that we see bubbling up across all areas of design, and then from there, drilling it down into the color that we see,” Pantone Color Institute vice president Laurie Pressman told TIME. “I always liken this team to almost like color anthropologists.” 

Mocha Mousse is a natural progression from last year’s color of the year peach fuzz which represented coziness and comfort. These shades that are found in nature are exactly what people are longing for.

Kicking off the new color of the year
To kick-off the 26th anniversary of the Pantone color of the year, the company is highlighting the color in events around the world. From London to New York and Mumbai to Shanghai, Pantone will be sharing color events in public spaces to make Mocha Mousse accessible to all, according to the press release.

The first stop of the tour was London and it unveiled its official partner; the lastminute.com London Eye. The London skyline was lit up in Mocha Mousse on December 5, 2024.

You can find the new color of the year in a myriad of places, from cell phones, fabrics, furniture, and even make-up.  This neutral color is genderless, practical, and versatile. The  good feelings of Mocha Mousse will be the new trending color for 2025.