Ludwigshafen, Germany — BASF has released its tenth Automotive Color Trends collection for 2020-2021 with a variety of shades and effects that show the way of modern automotive coatings.
The colours serve as an inspiration to automotive designers for vehicles that will be on the road in three to five years. The global collection, CODE-X, showcases, “everything from new, reimagined whites, to the darkest of jet blacks” while reimagining all of the colours in between.
The global key colours—warm beige, grayish-green, and coarse gray—may appear traditional, but the BASF coatings division by Zeitguised integrates textures and shades that modernize the look of these vehicles to help model the trends and values of society. In a year marked with unpredictability, “this collection represents the blend of the physical and digital worlds to stay hopeful and positive while coping with change,” said BASF.
North America’s key colours include Dark Seltzer, a medium-dark gray, with both texture and an uncertain hue. BASF said the key colour signals the new normal: “nothing is mundane; everything has an important story.”
Further, Redolent Red evokes not only a strong alliteration but also strength with its reddish-brown hue coupled with modern functionality.
The final colour in the North American scheme is Abstraction Blue; primary, simple and elegant to suit any texture, this colour’s versatility is in tune with how we envision adapting to the societal climate.
Moving toward the Eastern hemisphere, warm beige acts as a key colour for Europe, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA). BASF’s shade Pundits Solution appears neutral while featuring a gold sparkle effect which brings warmth, and positions the shade as uniquely different and distinctively younger.
EMEA’s key colour is coupled with Hiatus Gray, a coarse and metallic texture suggesting technological ideation, and Intron Green, a haptic mint-like green that has an explosion of texture.
“[The EMEA Region colours] want to have a radical impact without screaming that it is radical. They want to adapt society to them, which speaks to how we consume,” wrote BASF in its report.
Asia Pacific’s key colours reflect a positive flexible attitude for change, action, and the future. They are warm and emotional colours. They are not black or white, but more blurred and floating, like human emotion said BASF.
Social Camouflage, Asia Pacific’s key colour, aims to speak on how technology meets nature in the nuanced grayish-green colour, but also within society. The accent colours paired with the key Social Camouflage are Dream Fighter and Unknown Metal. The first is a subdued and comfortable intermediate orange with hints of pink and copper, while the second is a gray-influenced purplish colour that is basic, yet fascinating.
For BASF’s full 2020-2021 Automotive Colour Trends collection, click here.
