How car colour designers sway your decision

By CARSIFU | 22 April 2016


MELBOURNE: Cars are so much more than just a mode of transportation. They are personal statements, and an extension of a driver’s style, values and interests. When buying a car, drivers look for something that moves them, and something they have an emotional connection with.

Whether you prefer striking blue, calm grey, fiery red or classic black, you can find the perfect colour for your car with Ford.

Ford colour designers offer an insight into how colours from part of the car-buying process. It's the colour designers' job to create colours of varying hues, shades and tones to ensure that customers can find the perfect colour for their car.

Ford says it has created nearly 60 different colours for more than 20 nameplates in the Asia Pacific. And that should be quite enough variety for consumers.



“There are many factors that dictate what colour a person chooses for their car and what emotions colours make them feel,” said Sofia Myrodellis, Colour and Materials Design, Ford Australia, whose job entails selecting fabrics and creating colours for Ford vehicles.

“People tend to gravitate to certain colours because of their personality, profession and even their culture and surroundings,” she said. “For instance, I personally prefer cars in more classic and always-on-trend colours like black and white, and we’ve found that the Australian market,
compared to markets in other countries, is more open to brighter and bolder colours for their cars.”

Ford says its colour spectrum goes beyond these traditional colours of the rainbow to capture an even broader range of emotions: From Diamond White to Cool White, Celestial Blue to Aurora Blue, Competition Orange to Tiger Eye, and even Ginger Ale and Archon Bronze.

Myrodellis explains that all of the colours she and her colleagues create come directly from the inspirations they gather from months of research. These inspirations could be designs they see at furniture fairs or global trend shows, or even things they stumble across on their own travels.

“We use all the information that we gather from these shows, futuring websites, fashion trends, natural evolution of current vehicle colours, and consumers’ and our own personal adventures to forecast what colours consumers will like years down the road,” she said. “We aren’t asked to
create a certain number of colours, but rather we implement colours that will suit our vehicle lineup and customers up to four years in advance.”

READ ALSO:
White is the world’s favourite car colour – again
Popular shades of blue
ford


Once a colour is created, designers turn their creative attentions to naming it. Many elements go into choosing a name, including the actual colour and the feeling it may evoke, and what vehicle it will be used on.

Jeffrey Liu, manager, Colour and Materials Design, Ford Asia Pacific explained the creation story behind Pride Orange, the hero colour for the Ford Ranger Wildtrak, which was developed by the Asia Pacific design team: “Pride Orange is a powerful and vibrant orange that is inspired by the rich and rugged aesthetics of the African savanna. The word ‘Pride’ itself is derived from the visual impact of a pride of lions – proud, strong and impressive. This is exactly what the customer should feel when driving the Ranger Wildtrak.”

Archon Bronze, hero colour for the Ford Escort sold in China, is another creatively named colour that was developed specifically for Asia Pacific by the regional design team.

“Archon is a word that was used to refer to one of the nine chief magistrates in ancient Athens – a strong and powerful ruler. And the bronze colour resonates with the gladiator armour and shield material used during that era,” explains Emily Lai, manager, Colour and Materials Design, Ford Asia Pacific. “Therefore, this colour has a warm and dark tone with a sparkling bronze highlight that glows and shimmers in the sunlight, giving it a luxurious yet sophisticated and powerful appearance.”

Keywords