AkzoNobel has launched its latest colour and trends guide for the automotive and consumer electronics markets. As well as offering a glimpse at the design direction for cars, smartphones and tablet computers, it also includes the company’s colour of the year for those markets, My Gold.

The 2016 guide was launched at a special event staged at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.  AkzoNobel supplies the hi-tech coatings for McLaren Racing’s Formula 1 car and has worked with McLaren Automotive to develop the spectacular colour range for its road cars.

“Our team searches the world for the latest in design,” explained Stephie Sijssens, Colour Design Manager for AkzoNobel Performance Coatings. “We translate these into four key trends, eight palettes and 72 color effects and textures. We want to inspire our industrial customers and together develop the colours, effects and textures for the products of the future.”

The four key trends identified in the latest report are:

• Archive – a combination of past and future – about deconstructing, organising and archiving elements of the past to inspire the future
• Obscura – where dark and light are equally important – inspired by the daily transition of night and day
• Upgrade – where emotion and technology meet – about breaking free from busy lives and adding a human touch to hi-tech developments
• This.is.Me - balancing between the power of image and words – an expressive trend about glorious imperfection