I found an interesting article that addresses "why does Pantone get to decide?" and "how do they pick the color of the year?" HERE

Dorothy in Denver

I now know what is wrong with me. I am stuck back in 2002 with real red! I simply cannot get too much of that! It's like chocolate for my eyes.

As a long time publisher I already knew that Pantone originally became the printing industry standard because it enabled printers to print the exact ink colour specified no matter where in the world they were located. From ink the ease of matching colours exactly spread outward to paint to clothing to ... to the colours on the monitor you are looking at right now.

Here's a snippit from Wiki that explains it:

"
The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.
One such use is standardizing colors in the CMYK process. The CMYK process is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A majority of the world's printed material is produced using the CMYK process, and there is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK .[SUP][citation needed][/SUP] Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company's guides.
However, most of the Pantone system's 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts.[SUP][6][/SUP]
The Pantone system also allows for many special colors to be produced, such as metallics and fluorescents. While most of the Pantone system colors are beyond the printed CMYK gamut, it was only in 2001 that Pantone began providing translations of their existing system with screen-based colors. (Screen-based colors use the RGB color model—red, green, blue—system to create various colors.)[SUP][7][/SUP] The Goe system has RGB and LAB values with each color.[SUP][8]"[/SUP]


2014 is going to be HouseDragon's Favorite Colour Year! *LOL* :)

lovely color--for a quilt. i wouldn't be caught dead in it on my body. it makes me look dead. i'm still wondering who crowned pantone as the "authority" in choosing the color of the year. i know that they see the industry standard for color purity--but geez louise--pantone is the voice that makes decisions for us? it's like the bully who owns the bat, and threatens to take it home if we don't agree. i grow weary of self-proclaimed "experts" who crown themselves the king or queen of anything. and really--the color ways the last few years have not been an encouragement for me to place any more confidence in them. i'm just saying'...

If I see any more purple/orchid I will puke!

Falls in line with my favorite color purple.

I love all purples so I'll definitely use this color!

I think I'm out on this one

Well, it is one of "MY" colors. I could see a quilt for me in that color family.

Just remember if you do buy that radiant orchid print, get plenty of it. If you're like me, in a couple of years when you FINALLY get around to finishing that project you started in 2014 and run out of it, you won't be able to find it ANYWHERE. It will have been replaced by soothing seagrass or elegant amber. LOL, just sayin'....