The Year of Green

Pantone has selected emerald green as the color for 2013. I am pretty happy about that since I love all shades of green. If I were a "Steel Magnolia" I would say it was "my signature color." To say that I am happy about this comes from my personal love of the color and my artistic view of the world but to say I can be happy about it as a cake designer; not so much so.

Why?

It's a fair enough question with a not so complicated answer. You see, Pantone sets the stage for the color, assigning it a unique number so that whomever in the world that is planning to mix that dye lot will get the same color as everyone else thus making it universal and everyone is painting/dying/mixing by the same color palate.

Now, let's take this theory to any number of bridal shops in any part of the country. We don't need to name them because there are dozens and it's all going to be the same sort of answer in the end. When the bride chooses her bridesmaids gowns in her particular shade of green and gets her color swatch it WILL NOT say emerald green. It will have any number of lovely, ethereal titles - Sea Dragon Green, Deep Irish Green or what have you - but not one swatch will say emerald.

Allow this true example. Last spring I decorated a cake based on the color swatch provided by the bride's parents and it was a lovely shade of blue. It was a color that had to be mixed so that it would match and I would say it was spot on to the swatch. I arrive at the venue and set up and notice that the linens, bridesmaids dresses and coordinated floral arrangements all contain blue - but none of them match. Each and every shade of blue was different ranging from almost turquoise to sky blue meaning that the blue on the cake was its own unique shade at this point. Even though we were given a swatch and it all supposedly came from the same source it was not the same color.

All of that is to say that while Pantone is setting the color stage for the year and in most circles having that unique dye lot number will be exceedingly important it won't mean anything to those of us who will be working from color swatches of unusual names. Most of those colors cannot be ordered and must be mixed and that is difficult if large batches of color have to be done so that there is consistency.

So from my personal point of view I will say yay to the power or green.   My professional feeling on this wonderful announcement is that at least I'll get to work in shades of a color I love.