Delivering a Message Through Color & Material

The Story of Nissan’s Color Designers

Henry Ford once famously said that customers could have his cars in any color they wanted, “so long as it’s black.” Automotive colors have come a long way since then, from the Hot Pinks of the Elvis-influenced ‘50s to the ‘70s American muscle cars’ “Plum Crazy” (purple) and “Anti-Establish Mint” (green) and back to the more subtle color palettes of today. But whether wild or mild, automotive paint colors don’t just happen. They are the work of a specialized group of people within a design department known as “Color Designers.”

While color designers do what most people think they do, decide a car’s body colors, they also do much, much more – including the selection of interior colors and materials. They are, in essence, the “coordinators of colors and materials,” expressing various views of the world through the combination of hues and textures.

“Thinking Color Design at Nissan starts here – with what the company’s Color Designers call “Design
Outside the Taste Boxes.”
Box”  
Begins Inside  
the “Boxes”  

Design Taste Box

Once a vehicle’s product concept has been fixed, the design concept is considered. Color Designers look at every aspect of the target customers’ lives – age, sex, taste, hobbies, activities and values – creating a snapshot of the customers’ world-view by displaying small goods in wooden “Design Taste Boxes.”

NISSAN DESIGN NEWS LETTER Vol. 6

Color Tone,

Texture,

Character

Kei Yoshitomi

Akiko Kitagawa

Next, they make computer graphics of the new model based on the image of the Taste Box in order to study and discuss the design concept with the exterior and interior designers. Only then do they start considering the colors themselves.

Cube:Computer Graphics of the Interior

As the exterior designers start creating the shape of a car, color designers meet with them to discuss how colors will be seen and how light will reflect on the body. “For example, it is difficult for darker colors to be perceivable on a subtle surface. So, we work on the surface with the exterior designers, bouncing ideas off each other to better express the shape of a car, such as through character lines,” says Kei Yoshitomi, Associate Chief Designer.


Body color plays an important role in conveying the intent of the car to customers. For this reason, each car’s characteristics need to be carefully considered and expressed by body color, adds Keiko Kitagawa, Color Designer.

For luxury cars, high- quality colors with a richness and high gloss are used. For compact cars, a wide variation of colors emphasizing specific characteristics of a car is utilized.

370Z : Premium Lemans Blue

Color designers also have to consider how different colors are seen and perceived in different regions and cultures. For instance, the quality of natural light in Japan differs from that in the United States’ West Coast – which affects how colors are seen. Samples of colors are sometimes sent to overseas sites to check how they are viewed there.

There are also differences in how various cultures perceive colors. For a color “blue,” people in the North America like primary colors like Premium Lemans Blue of the Z.

“ In China, the  
popularity of black  
sedans remains  
deep - rooted  
because people like  
‘car-like’ colors and  
shapes, though  
some younger  
buyers are moving  
to SUVs and more Teana:Sapphire Black
colorful exteriors. In
 
the Middle East,  
customers prefer  
glittering body colors  
and interiors and  
rich decorations,”  
explains Yoshitomi.  
“Taking the regional  
influences of taste  
and culture must  
always be part of  
our consideration in  
choosing exterior  
and interior colors.”  

GT-R:VVIP (for GCC)

NISSAN DESIGN NEWS LETTER Vol. 6

Interior Design:

Not Just Color,

Touch

Ayaka Go

“Body color is where we can embody our image. We can picture our dream easily there. But, interior designing is a more realistic work,” says Ayaka Go, Color Designer. “Unlike body color, we select not only colors but also materials in interior color design.”

There are various parts that are covered by Materials, such as the seats and glove box, and many parts that customers touch or operate, such as the steering wheel and controls. These pieces have to be practical and, at the same time, meet various design requirements, including durability, luminosity (reflection), productivity (expansion and contraction), discoloration and flame resistance. This is why Go calls it “realistic work.” Though challenged by these various restrictions, Nissan color designers keep pushing the envelope, proposing new designs and new ideas.

The seat cloth used in the new Nissan Cube is a great example. Naturally wrinkled crushed velour is used to express a feeling of sophisticated and sense of relaxation. It used to be difficult to make wrinkles with the existing technology, but that was overcome by repeatedly “putting the fabric into a metal tube, compressing it, and pushing it out from the tube.” After repeated trial and error, this process achieved the desired results, satisfying the various durability requirements while delivering the desired texture and characteristics of a raised fabric

Cube:Lounge Brown

Fairlady Z :Orange

NISSAN DESIGN NEWS LETTER Vol. 6

For the new Z, Nissan’s newly developed material called “Sofilez” is applied on the center cluster individually by hand. This new material was created to provide a sense of “human touch,” derived from the analysis of “softness” which people prefer. Balancing soft touch with durability, “Sofilez” provides added comfort in the cabin and an improved interior texture.

The Colors of

Nissan:

Why They

Attract Attention

Exhibition: Color session 2008

“At Nissan, we are challenged to propose unconventional colors that have not been seen before. Within Nissan, color is recognized as one of the values of a car and that’s why we can create new colors where a car’s characteristics are brought out, without sticking to stereotypes,” says Yoshitomi.

When deciding a color variation, it is important to draw up a strategy considering the role of each color. For instance, the compact Nissan Micra/March has a variation of 12 colors* and each color has a different role. Since almost every car has a standard range of white, gray, black or red, if a car has no color variations, customers may exclude the car from their options.

Comparing this to a soccer formation, white, gray, black and red are the equivalent of the defenders or goalkeepers. On the other hand, “character colors” play the role of a midfielder or a forward – strongly promoting a car’s unique design characteristics or personality. For March, each character color has a theme, such as fruit, dessert, cocktail or the four seasons in Japan. Associating those themes with the car, Nissan has been able to promote the Marchin new ways, which have been highly appreciated. March has received a number of awards in the Auto Color Awards hosted by Japan Fashion Color Authority (JAFCA).

NAA

  L60 C41 NAB  
B51 KH3 QX1 KY0 AY4
    QM1    
B41 E41
* Variation in Japan NISSAN DESIGN NEWS LETTER Vol. 6

And, while in the world of fashion color trends are traditionally dictated years in advance, Nissan now goes its own way. “Color trends are not generated naturally. Fashion colors are announced by “INTERCOLOR” (International Study Commission for Color) generally two or three year in advance. We used to follow it, but as fashion transition nowadays is very quick and diverse, Nissan studies and develops colors which are suitable to each specific car – not by commission,” says Yoshitomi.

“The color is now one of the major factors in choosing a car. Ultimately, we wish our customers choose a Nissan because of its color”

Kei Yoshitomi

Associate Chief Designer, Color Design Department Joined Nissan in 1992. His father is a car designer. He has been interested in design since he was little and wanted to be a car designer when he was in junior high. Studied Industrial Design.

Akiko Kitagawa

Color Design Department

Joined Nissan in 2002. Majored in Graphic Design. She wanted to be a Color Designer where she could utilize her sense of color.

Ayaka Go

Color Design Department

Joined Nissan in 2005. Studied Information Design. She once wanted to be a Web designer, but became interested in Color Design

NISSAN DESIGN NEWS LETTER Vol. 6