Artist Creates Delicious Smoothie Blends to Match Pantone Color Swatches

Recently, art director Hedvig Astrom Kushner embarked on a deliciously colorful project. “I make a lot of smoothies and discovered it works like mixing paint,” she told us in an email. Playing with this idea of smoothies as paint, Kushner found that adding a strawberry would yield a bright pink hue, while blending in some tofu softened the color's intensity. This got the designer thinking–is it possible to create a tasty smoothie in any Pantone color? Through her delicious experiment, called Pantone Smoothies, she's trying to find out.

To make these delectable drinks, the process is simple: Kushner buys colored paper from an art supply store, matches it to a Pantone swatch, and combines ingredients like bananas, mangoes, and avocados to reproduce a specific shade of a Pantone swatch. She then collaborates with photographer Michael Kushner to create appetizing images, which always include a neatly-organized shot of what went into the smoothie.

Kushner's Pantone Smoothie recipes are all available on the project's website, so you too can make your own colorful refreshments.

Pantone Smoothies: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Hedvig Astrom Kushner.

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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