Social Media and AI Are Influencing Cadillac’s Paint Colors
Trends come and go, but automakers need to stay ahead of the curve. They spend years developing new paint colors, materials and finishes to satisfy customers, marketers, goal-setting executives and product developers.
Brittany Moss, lead creative designer of the color, material and finish team at General Motors, told Newsweek that she is using social media and artificial intelligence (AI) to help inspire the colors of the future for the company.
“When you’re seeing beautiful imagery – you’re seeing it all over Instagram – you’re seeing almost these extensive colors that didn’t exist before, and then we’re trying to recreate them in paint,” Moss said.
She’s using social media in conjunction with artificial intelligence. Moss explained that she is using AI to replace some social media platforms, saying, “What I’m excited about when it comes to AI [is the] creation of mood boards that before were Pinterest. It’s almost like a whole new world of being able to create. It’s not just a mood board now. It’s something that you kind of created yourself. It makes it feel more like an art piece rather than something that you found online.”
The results of those efforts, and those of the entire CMF team, can be seen on the Cadillacs of today and tomorrow.
“We develop a large number of colors each year based on the products that are going to come out that year, and make sure that we have multiple options that [are] completely harmonized with the vehicle [and] the tonality of the customer, as well as which interiors are going to be offered,” Moss said.
She has identified three trends in exterior colors that the company is tracking closely. “You’re seeing people are coming back to more grounded earth tones, but they’re not as much as the ones that you expect,” Moss shared. “There’s a big rise of green that we’re starting to see come through globally.”
The designer has also noticed a rise in what she calls “unexpected neutral tones.” She described it, saying, “It’s not white, it’s not silver, but something in between. The customers seem to be very much gravitating toward [those] with metallic in them so it gives them a more premium look, but still has [an] overall, solid modern appearance.”
Moss believes that AI is influencing the metallic colors that are being presented and chosen by customers. “It’s almost like a new level of liquidity that we’re getting from these newer pigments, where they look so refined and almost like they want the bodies to look like chrome, like they’re just liquid,” she said.
