Every year, designers from BASF’s Coatings division create a new color collection to inspire automotive designers around the world. This year, artificial intelligence was a major catalyst for the creation of BASF’s Automotive Color Trends’ ON VOLUDE collection for 2023-2024.
When designers deciphered the trend signals, they realized it was time to update colors. Non-classic automotive shades emerged, driving colors through a series of shifts that reflected a positive mood, focusing on lighter tones and exploring new, expressive color spaces.
The palette is called “ON VOLUDE” and offers exciting colors that also take an increasingly focused approach to sustainability and functionality. The new trends will be seen on the road or in front of homes over the next three to five years.
In South America “GRAÇA CALMA” is the key color.
It is a non-metallic warm solid gray with a strong creamy texture, conveying the search for well-being and balance with an optimistic and resilient outlook for the future. The non-metallic texture gives it a distinct look, escaping the widespread use of silver and metallics in the region, and the desaturated tone brings a lot of elegance to this color.
Market studies such as Euromonitor and Deloitte note that this region has an optimistic outlook regarding future prospects, including happiness and finances. They are also confident, resilient and care a lot about health and well-being, being above the world average in some aspects, such as adherence to physical exercise and the practice of meditation, for example.
“We work to generate solutions that contribute to improving the quality, appearance, resistance and durability of automotive paint. We offer different product technologies that are not only differential in appearance and quality, but are also friendly to the environment and human health,” explains Andrés Arboleda, manager of BASF’s automotive paint business unit for Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.
The German chemical company’s designers set a global benchmark in color by also focusing on technology and innovation, which are important drivers of the automotive industry. The goal is to meet these functional requirements while remaining visually and tactilely exciting.
BASF’s Automotive Paints division is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and finish coatings, decorative paints and applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries.