Clariant Unveils Virtual Automotive Color Configurator

Clariant, a specialty chemicals company specializing in sustainable and innovative products, has released its new Automotive Design Colors 2025 Trend Book. Published biennially, it was noted that this year marks the first time an interactive digital version of the eagerly awaited Trend Book is available. The Trend Book, which demonstrates how color preferences have become standardized worldwide over the past 20 years due to globalization, reveals that white, which has been a favorite for 10 consecutive years, retained its title as "most preferred color" in 2020. According to another data point in the booklet, due to COVID-19 impacts, people began turning toward colors that evoke themes of joy, beauty and cultural sharing. Bernhard Stengel-Rutkowski, Technical Manager of Clariant's Automotive Coatings Division, commented on the subject: "The 2025 Trend Book, focusing on the theme 'Color meets culture,' helps us discover the inspiration and emotion that colors bring to our lives. We anticipate that bright tones and metallic effects will stand out across a wide range of color groups." [caption id="attachment_125314" align="aligncenter"] In Clariant's Automotive Design Colors 2025 Trend Book, color formulations that create synergy with current movement trends are anticipated. (Image: Clariant)[/caption]   Clariant listed these prominent color groups as follows: Everyday Renewed, containing tones that provide pleasure during business travel, Value-Driven Culture, featuring gentle colors for peaceful and sustainable coexistence on the planet, Fast and Curious, containing tones that express open-mindedness and confidence, and Rainbow Bridge, featuring groundbreaking, rule-defying bold colors. Clariant's organic pigments, which push the boundaries of traditional formula knowledge, help address some of the difficulties encountered in paint formulations brought about by new technologies. These challenges include how bright tones emerge when metallic effect pigments are combined with colored organic pigments, and how dark-colored vehicles can be better detected by LIDAR safety technology found in autonomous vehicles using infrared reflections.

Colors at Your Fingertips

Clariant is launching for the first time a brand new online and interactive Automotive Color Configurator alongside the virtual version of its Trend Book. Through this, customers are offered a collection consisting of 28 new trend color shades for automotive painting purposes.   Commenting on the subject, Stengel-Rutkowski stated: "Trend colors can be selected in the virtual environment and applied to different automobile models ranging from sports cars to family vans. Additionally, they can be viewed under very different environmental conditions such as neutral landscape, sunset, urban landscape or infrared vision. To make this visualization possible, we at Clariant scanned a painted panel and then converted the data obtained from it into a format suitable for visualization software. The Automotive Color Configurator also allows users to compile their favorite colors in a personal brochure without needing to share their personal data."   Clariant, which launched the groundbreaking Automotive Color Configurator, used its expertise in pigments and color formulations to pursue trends and transfer the resulting tones to the digital environment. You can see how Clariant's organic Automotive Coatings pigment series, especially the prominent Hostaperm® Brown HFR 01, Hostaperm Blue BT-729-D and Hostaperm Blue BT-728-D shades, create synergy with new gold, orange, red and black effect pigments by clicking the link.