Pantone
Color of the Year 2026
Product & Lifestyle Section Campaign Imagery
Photography · Production · Post-production
Cloud Dancer - Product & Lifestyle Photography
Client
Pantone
Role
Photogaphy Lead
Scope
Protography, Production Support, Post-production
Deliverables
Product Photography, Lifestyle Photography, E-commerce Assets
Overview
For the PANTONE® Color of the Year 2026 campaign, I photographed a product and lifestyle image library for PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer.
The project covered a collection of limited-edition products designed around the year’s signature color – from clean, e-commerce-ready product imagery to lifestyle scenes that placed each object within a larger world of calm, focus, and everyday ritual.
The work was created to function both as individual product content and as part of a cohesive retail campaign across PANTONE’s Color of the Year product and lifestyle pages.
The Brief
The goal was to create a consistent set of images for the Cloud Dancer collection that could work across multiple online contexts:
- Product listing pages
- E-commerce thumbnails and detail views
- Color of the Year lifestyle content
- Editorial and promotional placements
Each product needed to remain clear and recognizable at a glance, while the larger image system needed to communicate the quiet, tactile atmosphere behind Cloud Dancer.
The Approach
Product Photography
For the product-focused images, the approach was clean and controlled: soft directional light, restrained shadows, minimal composition, and careful separation between the product and background.
The goal was to preserve material detail in the ceramic, paper, packaging, hardware, and textile elements while keeping the Cloud Dancer palette light, balanced, and consistent across the collection.
Lifestyle Photography
For the lifestyle imagery, the products were placed within three everyday narratives:
- Morning Ritual
- Creative Flow
- Everyday Calm
These scenes gave the collection a more human context without losing the precision of the product work. Rather than treating each item as an isolated object, the photography showed how the collection could live within moments of routine, focus, and personal space.
Soft blues, warm neutrals, textured surfaces, and natural materials helped create a visual world around the products while keeping the campaign centered on Cloud Dancer’s quiet, airy quality.
The Result
The final photography supported the launch of the PANTONE Color of the Year 2026 collection across product and lifestyle contexts.
The image set allowed individual products to function clearly as e-commerce assets while also contributing to a broader campaign world: one that translated a subtle color into a recognizable mood, lifestyle, and retail experience.
This project reinforced how much product photography depends on restraint. When the subject is a near-white color palette, small decisions in lighting, texture, shadow, and color balance become the story.