Pantone chose white. White! The best color pickers in the world landed on something that barely qualifies as a color. 

But white is, technically, the presence of all color. Every single hue lives inside it. So is their choice actually a fitting follow-up to the year we just had?

To recap, a few broad themes from the past year in marketing and communications:

  • It was certainly the year of rage bait. We learned to crank things out quickly and impactfully.
  • The AI craze rose and fell (a little). Novelty wore off; people and brands became more savvy about discerning when to use it.
  • Brands became multichannel by default: 5+ social platforms, newsletters and email marketing, podcasts, video...it was a lot of work to maintain.
  • Yet nothing seemed to take off as much, because algorithms were fickle and audiences were scattered everywhere.
  • We learned how to put ourselves on camera. Feeds became a sea of talking heads — all speed, density, and vertical framing.
  • Brand analytics and SEO tanked due to the rise of AI as a search tool. Users weren’t making it past the AI summaries.
  • Big brands got creative with partnerships and influencer marketing. Influencer marketing became a multi-billion-dollar industry.
  • Marketing turned into a game of curation. There’s now a tool or agent that can help you make anything instantly; taste became the differentiator.
  • Entertainment ruled. Every brand was forever chasing our very scattered attention. The ones that adapted to entertain found the most success, but meaningful connection was still required to bring people back.

2025 really was a year of plenty. So perhaps the all-color white is the perfect pairing. On a stark white webpage, the swatch looks very distinct and measured. It’s so clearly a choice, not an absence. If I were to paint my walls that color (which I would; it really is a beautiful white), it would make the room feel calmer.

PANTONE 11-4201 Cloud Dancer, the 2026 Color of the Year

A friend of mine, Margaret, went on a tangent in her Instagram Stories recently while sharing her gorgeous shots of the new Calder Gardens (which I still haven’t visited yet!). She pointed out how frustrating it is that our phones and platforms push us to film everything vertically. I agree. It’s a bummer that Instagram — the app that’s supposed to be so photo-forward! — is pigeonholing us into vertical aspect ratios. Our brains don’t even see the world that way; our devices just demand it. 

I used to love these video series: My Place from Apartamento/NOWNESS, Vox’s Earworm, and Chef’s Night Out from Vice/Munchies. They feel dated now (they were filmed horizontally), but the storytelling still feels so good because it seemed to just unfold organically. It wasn’t truly organic (the producers behind the camera were masters at their craft), but it was the inclusion of quiet moments, transitional moments, and actual space to think that made their content feel more organic and artful than what most of us are experiencing today. For years now, visual storytelling as a whole has become more lean, condensed, and straightforward. 

And that brings me back to last year, when I wrote that we should get weirder. Things were feeling too marketable and efficient and canned and glossy back then. We needed something more authentic, more textured. And we did, I think, get grittier. But we also got grimier and louder. 

Let’s Get Weirder in 2025
Breaking away from marketability
TincanAnne Marie Lindemann

Now I’m craving a shift towards craft, intention, and artistry. It could be in the form of a cloud-like shade of white. Or it could be something delivered at a slower pace. It definitely doesn’t mean quieter or more neutral, though. I’d like to feel calm, but I’d also like to feel confident in the spaces that I inhabit. What about you?

…Maybe a few more horizontal aspect ratios, too, if we’re nitpicking.

See you next year! ;)

Small Brand Notes

Before we close out the year, I’m curious about how things are actually going for all of you.

I’m not sure anyone had “LinkedIn becomes a cultural force” on their 2025 bingo card. It’s even harder to summarize the sheer number of micro-trends that have come and gone since January. But what, if anything, has made a lasting impact? It’s so hard to say. Are we doing it all right? No idea.

So, I put together a short survey to capture:

  • How you’re spending your time on marketing
  • Your opinions on which tactics are effective for growing a brand
  • What kinds of marketing content you personally consume

It’s a quick Google Form with three questions. You’ll fly through it.

If you’d like to participate: if you handle the marketing, own a business, or have a side project that requires getting the word out, I’d love for you to fill it out. If none of those apply, just skip question #1.

You can view the results live here, and I’ll also share some takeaways next month.

Take the survey →

I added a free Brand Questionnaire template to the blog. 

It’s the same one I use at the start of every client project to help me get up to speed on their brand and set the tone for the work to come. If you’re planning a diy website refresh or trying to get yourself organized for next year, this is a great place to start. 

Read about it and download it →

Last Scraps

  • Your story is important. I shared a core part of my personal story on Instagram last week: grief. And because I was writing this newsletter at the same time as that post (what is life, really, if not a hodgepodge of big emotional depths and the mundane), I wanted to mention it here, because it’s important to share your background story, even if it’s just a small two-sentence addition to the About page on your website. We’re all so eager to hear what makes you you.
  • Something to think about: the pairing of Lil Jon’s “Turn Down for What” and the Toys’R’Us float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was incredible. It perfectly captured the vibe I remember from walking into the store as a kid. While we don’t all have the budget to bring in a celebrity, what we can do is get curating. What are the cultural touchstones your audience relates to? What song could you add to your Instagram post that would strike a chord with your people and make the content even punchier? That’s just one example. Start with what your core audience knows and loves, and work out from there.

This is the season of checking in and reconnecting. If this newsletter made you think of someone, feel free to forward it along. Sharing it helps this little publication grow, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.