Clariant, a leader in specialty chemicals, is introducing automotive engineers to ColorForward, the colour forecasting guide for the plastics industry, during the Plastics in Automotive Engineering Congress sponsored by VDI, the society of German engineers. The event takes place in Mannheim, from 18-19 March.

Clariant's ColorWorks offers traditionally two versions of ColorForward: one aimed at designers of solid plastic components and the other, ColorForward Interiors, which is addressed to users of fibres and textiles.

The goal of both versions is to help designers and marketing professionals make more informed colour choices. Each edition presents four global societal trends that can be expected to influence consumers’ behaviour.

New addition

Annually surveying global trends and week-long creative workshops are important elements in the broader selection process, which involves collaboration between different industry professionals. This year a new member has joined the ColorForward family: ColorForward Automotive specifically addressed to the needs of the automotive design.

“Clariant Masterbatches is, since many years, one of the major global suppliers of colour and additive solutions to the Automotive industry, with links to all the players in the value chain,” commented Laura Carrillo, Head of Market Segment Automotive Europe.

“That experience has taught us that automotive OEMs and suppliers strive to create cars and components that appeal not only consumers’ needs, but also their emotions. Colour speaks to people on an emotional level and understanding and anticipating what colours people will respond to is what ColorForward is all about.”

Global societal trends

ColorForward springs from the experience of an international team of colour, design, marketing and polymer experts, representing multiple creative industries. Each edition presents four global societal trends that can be expected to influence consumer behaviour.

Each trend is then represented by five colours that capture the essence of that trend. In the original ColorForward, the colours are presented in moulded plaques made of various plastics, rigid and flexible, opaque and translucent.

ColorForward Automotive 2016 adds a totally new way of illustrating appearance in plastic: large, textured plaques, manufactured internally at Clariant Masterbatches Automotive lab in Europe, injected design cars, the latter offering the possibility to appreciate the colours not only on a large surface, but also on a complex geometry.

Trend themes for 2016

Liquid Minds – this theme springs from the idea that people have reached a point where slow evolutionary change has to give way to revolutionary innovation; where they walk away from the comforting embrace of nostalgia and take bold risks that open up new insights and great leaps of innovation.

Oh, my go(l)d – an acknowledgement that excess can lead to unique pleasures, whether one is a super-rich celebrity or a fan who follows them through social media, people magazines and reality TV.

Love – is spelled with a Wi-Fi symbol inside the o to represent the ways in which technology and human life have merged. Immersed in the cloud, wirelessly connected sensors track personal health and even create new connections between people.

Work It Girl – this theme points to a new kind of feminism that ignores stereotypes about what is feminine and what it means to be empowered. It is about having the freedom to be what you want to be.

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