Designers can talk about colours like they’re people: bold, soft, flat, vibrant. As a dad of three under six, I don’t just work with colours — I live with them. My kids are my Pantone palette.
Pantone 6-Year-Old Boy: Bluey Blue
Strong, bold, always wants to be centre of attention. My eldest is Bluey Blue through and through. He’s demanding, full of confidence, and if you ask him who’s boss — he’ll tell you it’s him. His world revolves around Bluey, Roblox, and being right (even when he’s not).
In design terms, he’s that colour clients must have on their brand — even if it doesn’t match the rest of the palette. Unshakable, non-negotiable, and super handsome when used right.
Pantone 4-Year-Old Girl: Social Gold
My middle child is Goldie Locks in human form. Beautiful, bubbly, always chatty. She’s the kind of colour you want everywhere — warm, inviting, and somehow instantly makes everything look better.
She’s the social butterfly shade — the Pantone you use when you want the design to sing. At kindy, she’s already running her own little marketing department, organising friends like they’re campaign assets.
Pantone 2-Year-Old Girl: Shuffling Rose
The youngest is a whole different swatch. Beautiful, but fiery. Still bum-shuffling instead of walking, which means she’s fast in ways you don’t expect — like a rogue spot colour running off the press.
She’s demanding, loud when she needs to be, and absolutely impossible to ignore. She’s the accent colour that somehow takes over the whole job. You think she’s small in the layout, but when the final print comes back, all you see is her.
Final Proof
Together, they’re my personal Pantone deck: Bluey Blue, social Gold, and shuffling Rose. Individually, they’re chaos. Together, they make the full colour print run of my life. Messy, loud, occasionally misaligned — but honestly, it’s the most beautiful job I’ll ever produce.
Dad Point of Hue — Where CMYK meets ABCs.
✍️ Author: Rob Allen
Dad of three under six, wrangler of fonts, print runs, and bedtime routines. Writing from the messy overlap of design proofs and parenting fails.
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