Pantone Enables More Sustainable Design With WFH Solutions

As brands recognize the increased importance of a product’s sustainability, they have been looking for ways to decrease the environmental impact of their products. Some changes are low-hanging fruit, like adding post-consumer recycled material or removing plastic from packaging. But there are opportunities hidden in plain sight that can make a product’s design and development more eco-friendly, while also improving efficiency.

This is the case with Pantone’s latest partnership with men’s clothier Corridor, which has the NYC-based maker of contemporary American apparel leveraging the color expert’s newest technology to reduce the need for samples to be shipped across the world while maintaining accuracy.

Dan Snyder, the creator of Corridor, created a custom solution using Pantone’s Fashion, Home + Interiors (FHI) Cotton Planner, and Cotton Swatch Card standards along with the Pantone Connect mobile app. In addition to cutting down on waste and emissions associated with shipping samples, the technology also facilitates designers working from home as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that many designers have traded in the studio for their kitchen table, increased efficiency in their work processes is critical.

“Using the Pantone FHI system has doubled the speed of our design process and cut costs significantly," Synder said in a press release. “Normally, we would need 4-5 strikeoffs/dyes in order to hit our color. With Pantone, we typically achieve the color we need in the first dye lot. Additionally, using the Pantone Connect app in combination with swatch cards, we are able to clearly communicate with our dye house/factory on the agreed color and, as a result, have been able to reduce waste and carbon emissions by not shipping fabrics across the world.”

“While digital transformation has continually been a discussion, the industry needed to adapt faster than anticipated to provide a more efficient and sustainable process for the way we work today,” said Shantel Sullivan, Pantone FHI Product Manager, in the same press release. “Pantone is dedicated to creating an environment where designers can have integrated solutions that will enable them to easily shift between physical and digital design whenever and wherever needed.”

Visit Pantone's website to see the other ways they are enabling designers to work remotely.