"We often have to match colors from our dinnerware patterns," explained Peggy Riel, director of design, crystal, at Lenox, a leading manufacturer of tabletop and giftware. "Our vice president of sourcing had heard of the PANTONE PLASTICS color system, and our senior design did a little research. We were already using the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM for dinnerware, and thought we'd give the Plastics System a try."

The PANTONE PLASTICS color system provides a way for designers and manufacturers alike to accurately specify colors of their products. This comprehensive system contains 1,740 transparent and opaque color references including a complete range of chromatics, browns, grays, pearlescents, fluorescents, and metallics. The opaque selector contains over 300 colors cross-referenced to the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM.

"We ordered the PANTONE PLASTICS transparent selector and were able to start using the System right away, immediately integrating it into our workflow," Riel continued.

"The way color matching is traditionally done in this business is to find any sort of clear color reference, such as a glass bowl, and smash it into pieces. Fragments are then sent to overseas contractors. It's a very time consuming process because you have to go out and find the perfect reference piece.

"The PANTONE PLASTICS system is a much more efficient system for the whole industry. We match one of the chips to the color we need, then order multiple chips in that color to send to our manufacturers all over the world. This makes it easier for us to show people what we need, and saves time. We can even send chips to the people making our acrylic prototypes."

Riel uses the System to specify colors for stemware, crystal chargers, glass salad plates and bowls.

"We are using a lot of blues and earth tones, as well as many shades of red and green for holiday. There are enough colors in the PANTONE PLASTICS color system to find accurate matches. It's been a good system for us."