Lawrence Herbert - The King of Color

Lawrence Herbert - The King of Color

Lawrence Herbert is the founder of Pantone, Inc., the world’s premier color standards company and color authority. As the creative force behind the development of color systems that have set the standard for global communication of color in a number of industries – printing, publishing, packaging, graphic arts, paint, plastics, coatings, computer, film, video, textiles, and fashion – Herbert’s life and work are explored in the book, The King of Color, written by Herbert with Linda Mead, co-author of bestselling-book, You’ve Earned It, Don’t Lose It with Suze Orman, and her own Investing With Giants.

As discussed in The King of Color, Herbert’s success in the printing industry was never part of his life plan. In 1956, out of the US Army for two years where he completed military service in the Korean War, Herbert had hopes of attending medical schools and was in search of a job that could fund such educational pursuits.

Holding a BA from Hofstra University, Herbert eventually walked into the New York City offices of Pantone Press in hopes of landing a position. At Pantone Press, Herbert not only found the job he sought, but also an education in printing, color dynamics and business insight, which soon developed into an idea that would revolutionize the world of color. As time passed at Pantone Press, Herbert noticed that color matching in the print industry was often fickle and unreliable. Print clients that requested one color, often times received the wrong variation. After a while, Herbert took it upon himself to change such inconsistency through the development of a system that would result in predictable printed colors at all times, anywhere in the world. Proving himself a skilled, determined worker and true visionary, Herbert abandoned his plans for medical school and eventually purchased Pantone Press in 1962, one year before developing a revolutionary color standards system.

The result? The Pantone Matching System. As The King of Color details, The Pantone Matching System took the world by storm, becoming the basis upon which he and his family would soon develop similar systems for plastic, fabric, electronics, paint and so forth, and consult with branding companies in creating their palettes.

Today, Pantone oversees its multinational company from an 80,000 square foot facility in New Jersey with branches around the globe, including locations in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Japan and India.

Herbert’s successes have garnered him the Hall of Fame Award from the New Jersey Advertising Hall of Fame and Gold Medal from Britain’s Institute of Printing. In 1995, the Association of the Graphic Arts presented Herbert with the prestigious “Power of Printing” Award. In 2001, Herbert received the Platinum Corporate Legend Award from Pratt Institute. Herbert has received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the university. In 1996, Hofstra University also inaugurated the Lawrence Herbert Distinguished Professorship Chair in his honor. Herbert serves on the Boards of the New York City Ballet and the American Film Institute and is a substantial supporter of many cultural institutions and health charities. He has received the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations Ellis Island Gold Medal of Honor and was appointed to the City of New York Cultural Advisory Board by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and to the New York State Council on the Arts by former New York Governor George Pataki. Most recently, Herbert has been named a Corporate Honoree by the School of American Ballet.

The King of Color
Written by Lawrence Herbert with Linda Mead
$24.95 USD Product No. DBR105