By Nancy Lockhart, Axalta Color Marketing Manager
We have had a fabulous time introducing Axalta’s North
American Automotive Color of the 2016 – Brilliant Blue – to the world. From our
kickoff at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, to
talking about it with Jeff Gordon and students at the University of Michigan
(Maize and Blue, Go Blue!) to discussing the shade’s hue and inspiration with
OEM customers globally, Brilliant Blue is a hot topic.
Personally, I have talked to more media, more customers and
more car color fanatics than I can count…and I hope it never stops! There is a
common question that comes up in many of these discussions: why blue?
The answer is part art, part research, part history and all brilliant.
On the art side, the Axalta team selected this mid-shade
blue that has both depth and vividness with slight turquoise highlights. It is
made with Axalta’s high-chroma Vermeera® technology. This multi-layer process
provides both an intense blue color and a unique sparkle effect. Pretty smart,
right? We wanted a formula that would catch your eye, and I would argue we got it
right.
Axalta’s annual Global Automotive Color Popularity Report provides
a variety of research. The report is the most comprehensive of its kind. The
2015 edition, which was released last fall, showed some facts about blue that
influenced our decision. For example, in North America, blue increased in
popularity to a total of eight percent of sales due to the increased use of the
color on compact/sport and intermediate/crossover utility vehicles. Meanwhile,
in Europe, blue came in at nine percent with a lot of interest in mid-shade
blues. Worldwide, blue remained steady over 2014, while other rich colors fell
off a bit.
We also referred to Axalta’s first 60 years of color
reporting in a report titled, Six Decades
of Colorful Automotive Performance. The exhaustive research that comprised
the report showed some historical good times for blue. From 1955 through 1958,
the most popular hue in the U.S. was blue. Yes, you read it correctly.
The.
Most.
Popular.
It repeated the win in ’60 and ’61, in ’66 and 67, from ’76
through ’79, 81 through ’83, and finally 85 through ’88. (On the contrary, in
’96 and ’97 blue didn’t crack the top five while a shade of green took the top
honors.) So blue does have a highlight reel and perhaps its rich history was
simply ready for a comeback.
So, that’s our recipe: four cups art, two parts research and
a full can of history get you Axalta’s North American Automotive Color of the
Year 2016.
We will continue to enjoy Brilliant Blue throughout 2016, then,
we’ll make way for a 2017 Color of the Year. And if history has anything to say
about, I am willing to bet that blue will make a come back again.
