After years of vibrant choices, the 2026 Pantone Color of the Year is Cloud Dancer—otherwise known as white. It’s the first time Pantone has chosen white for its annual color.
Pantone describes Cloud Dancer as a soft, billowy white symbolizing serenity, calm, and a fresh start in a chaotic world and offering a neutral backdrop for personal creativity and quiet reflection.
Deliberating on the use of white in communications
Of course, white is ubiquitous in customer communications. It is the standard backdrop to statements, letters, notices and other written communications.
Naming Cloud Dancer as the color of the year gives companies a chance to look at your communications with a fresh eye, considering how you are using white and in combination with other colors. After all, we all tend to take white for granted.
Strategic use of white
In modern communications design, white can convey professionalism and openness. Because white also can promote tranquility, it’s often used in settings to help people focus and think more clearly. In communications, too little white and too much text and images can overwhelm customers.
Used as a strategic design element instead of just the regular background, companies can facilitate comprehension, create a clear visual hierarchy, and guide the customer’s focus. This deliberate use of white transforms the document from mere transactional information into a clear, professional, and engaging customer touchpoint.
White + black
Of course, too much white can seem stark, cold or just boring. That’s where balance and complementary colors and images come in.
White and black are the classic combination, from tuxedos and photography to Oreos. In billing statements and other transactional communications, the contrast of black on white enhances readability while promoting an image of professionalism and authority.
Of course, a key reason that white and black have been the go-to in customer communications was printing cost. Until recently, color ink was considerably more expensive than black. With today’s dynamic variable color inkjet printers, color ink is just as affordable as black.
With printing costs not a factor, emails quickly moved from plain text to HTML versions that include full-color photos and other images as well as color added to messaging.
White + all colors
A powerful visual mixture in transactional communications is black and white with accent colors. This design can draw attention to a specific message or information, such as due date and amount due.
Using color to stand out in a white-and-black document can reinforce branding, improve message retention, and drive action. Red often connotes a sense of urgency and therefore may be appropriate for past due notices. Blue and green are meant to suggest trustworthiness and money, so they may work well for the amount due line in billing statements.
While digital billing statements resemble their print counterparts in the use of white, black and color, companies are creating other customer emails such as reservation confirmations to look like a postcard or brochure. They use color logos, eye-catching photos and other images and icons to capture attention and generate excitement about the upcoming trip.
Using all colors effectively
An omnichannel customer communications management platform makes it fast and easy to change document templates design to incorporate more white space and color and add to the selection of logos, images and photos in your content library.
To update communications with the best uses of white, black and other colors, customer communications professionals need to think through:
- Each communication’s purpose, i.e., bill, adverse action letter, welcome kit, HOA election materials, notice of rate/price increase.
- How all communications to the same customer fit together. Should all emails, text messages and printed communications have the same look, feel and tone? Should they match the website? What about grouping communication by look, feel and tone based on purpose—reservation vs. payment confirmation vs. bill, for example.
- Customer experience. Is it understandable or filled with jargon? Is font so tiny everyone needs reading glasses? Under what circumstances does each customer react better to color or B&W? AL tools are beginning to make this level of granular information possible to improve decision-making.
- Rate of completing the communication’s intended action, if any, such as pay the bill. A/B testing and data analysis can generate this useful information.
Communications experts also must factor in high customer expectations for key touchpoints such as billing. These expectations are built on all of a consumer’s other business encounters, online and offline.
Companies that stick to B&W and other traditional approaches because that’s how it’s always been done will find themselves increasingly out of step. More effective and memorable communications depend on treating color, including white, as strategic tool.
Contact us to learn more about the effective use of white, black and other colors in critical customer communications.
