--- title: The "Minions" Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone description: This is color that will make a lot of people 'Happy' canonical: https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-20T12:54:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:55.028Z og:title: The "Minions" Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone og:description: This is color that will make a lot of people 'Happy' og:url: https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8478929bc1c22d59/6987ebd655a859ad59a89a66/press-release-pantone-minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pantone Minion Yellow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The "Minions" Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone twitter:description: This is color that will make a lot of people 'Happy' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8478929bc1c22d59/6987ebd655a859ad59a89a66/press-release-pantone-minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The _Minions_ Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Apr 20, 2015 12:54 PM UTC  Pantone Minion Yellow Pantone Minion YellowPantone by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Apr 20, 2015 12:54 PM UTC For the first time in three years, the Pantone Color Institute has revealed a new color — and it has some despicable origins. “Minion yellow,” inspired by the tiny creatures from the _Despicable Me_ franchise and the upcoming prequel _Minions_, is the latest addition to the company’s color matching system, which is used by designers and artists. The company says the color came about after Pharrell Williams, who [sings the song “Happy”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GLuydiMe4) from the _Despicable Me 2_ film, first came up with the idea and the Pantone team worked with animators at Illumination Entertainment to nail down the specific shade of Minion yellow. “Color is contextual and right now there is a desire for colors that are more vibrant and uplifting,” Pantone Color Institute vice president Laurie Pressman said in a statement about the new color. “This is especially the case with the yellows, so given the worldwide popularity of the _Minions_, it seemed only natural to name a color after a character for the first time in our history.” _Minions_ hits theaters on July 10. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/"},"headline":"The Minions Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone","datePublished":"2015-04-20T12:54:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:55.028Z","description":"This is color that will make a lot of people 'Happy'","url":"https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Design"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8478929bc1c22d59/6987ebd655a859ad59a89a66/press-release-pantone-minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8478929bc1c22d59/6987ebd655a859ad59a89a66/press-release-pantone-minions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pantone Minion Yellow","caption":"Pantone Minion Yellow","creditText":"Pantone","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3828041/minions-color-yellow-pantone/","name":"The Minions Get Their Very Own Color From Pantone"}}]}] ```