How Pantone Colors Your World

You can wear them as high-fashion jewelry, eat them in marshmallow form, and wrap your packages in duct tape branded with their likeness. Their cultural currency is so strong that, in April, the color authority Pantone released a new color standard in their name—the first in three years. Who are they? Minions of course—those bright yellow, bespectacled, dungaree-clad characters from the Despicable Me franchise. Now they are the epitome of Minion Yellow—“the color of hope, joy, and optimism,” says Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.

In the grand chromatic scheme of things, Minion Yellow is a drop in an ocean of hues. Since 1963, Pantone has created more than 10,000 standard color chips, which designers and manufacturers use to ensure the same products are consistently the same color, no matter where and how they’re made. Anyone can make a new color—by mixing pigments in different amounts, or by tweaking the finish, gloss, or texture of the material they’re