The Man Who Gave the World a Language for Color
As an artist, I have known the name Pantone for most of my creative life. We talk about Pantone colors, search through those familiar color chips and even wait each year to see which shade will be named the Pantone Color of the Year. But I realized I knew very little about the man who helped make all of that possible.
His name is Lawrence “Larry” Herbert, and his story is fascinating.
Herbert grew up in Depression-era Brooklyn and eventually went to work for a printing company called Pantone. At the time, matching colors accurately was surprisingly difficult. What one printer called red might not be exactly the same red produced by another printer somewhere else. Herbert recognized that the design and printing world needed a common language for color.
In 1962, Herbert bought the company, and in 1963 he introduced the Pantone Matching System (PMS). Instead of trying to describe a particular shade with words, a designer could specify a Pantone number and a printer or manufacturer could reproduce that same color. It was a wonderfully simple idea that changed printing, graphic design, fashion, manufacturing and countless other creative industries.
Today, Pantone’s color system is recognized around the world. Herbert eventually sold Pantone in 2007, but the system he developed more than six decades ago remains an extraordinary part of his legacy.
Here’s an example of the Pantone system used on one of my popular pincushion panels. I can specify these exact colors if I need something printed . 
The King of Color
Now his story is being told in a wonderful documentary called The King of Color.
Directed by Patrick Creadon, the 82-minute documentary introduces us to Herbert himself—96 years old when the film was made—and tells the story of how his idea brought order to what had once been a rather chaotic world of color. The film combines Herbert’s own recollections with archival material and animation and explores not only color, but creativity, entrepreneurship and the determination required to turn a good idea into something that can change an entire industry.
The documentary was released theatrically in December 2025 and became available for streaming in April 2026.
I find Herbert’s story particularly inspiring because he saw an everyday problem and thought, There has to be a better way. Then he created one.
For those of us who work with color, Pantone has become such a familiar part of our creative vocabulary that it is easy to forget someone had to invent that vocabulary in the first place.
Larry Herbert did.
And now, finally, the man behind all those little squares of color is getting his turn in the spotlight. Go Larry …he’s 96 years old.
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