Car Companies Match Colors to Country Moods

Automobile companies don't throw darts at color wheels to choose the shades to paint new cars. They turn to BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik) to spot the global trends and regional differences they match with the German company's technical ability to mix pigments and create new coatings. Looking ahead to 2018, BASF expects blue to be a hot color in the North American market. Not only is it calming, but it reflects a growing need to be connected to others and a community.

     Paul Czornij, head of design at BASF's Color Excellence Group, sees dual forces pulling at drivers in the global market and finds color shifting metallics an excellent way to express conflict. Metallic blues capture the tension between a car owner's emphasis on authentic self-expression and a fascination with the virtual world.

    In 2016,  BASF travelers in North America picked up a can-do, no-excuse determination to master the complex challenges of change. They considered combining two or more colors with metallics as a way to reflect this attitude and developed:

• Raingarden: Like a multipurpose smartphone serving as secretary, personal trainer, and medical monitor, this coating enables a soft metallic silver to appear subtly bluish or greenish depending on a viewer's angle.
• Primordial soup: Instead of a vague greenish-brown, Czornij connected primordial soup with the movie, music, and other personal preferences at the heart of an individual. Heart as seen by BASF colorists equals a deep, blood red color.
• Aerialist wish: A black which is silvery and mysterious is designed to capture the life young artists, designers, musicians, and professionals are bringing back to once undesirable downtown city centers.

     In Europe, black and deep red and green hues address a driver's need to hang onto a traditional identity and experience while trying to adapt to digital progress.

     In contrast, fresh light colors reflect the Asian-Pacific market's confidence in the future and traditional elegance. A sand beige metallic color and playful blue-greens are used to reveal optimism.

     Look at what you choose to wear today. What do the colors say about your mood?