Selection of colour and trim variants for the Audi R8

"Our ideas give an identity to the car and its atmosphere." For Oona Scheepers, Head of Colours/Interiors in Audi's Design division, the task is clear: the overriding goal for her and her team is to give the product the characteristics of the brand with the four rings – sporty, progressive and sophisticated.

Years before a new model reaches the market, the eleven men and women start work on its exterior colours and select the fabrics and materials for the interior trim. They work hand in hand with the creative minds behind interior and exterior design.

Interior design: colours and trims

The interior have to know which colours, fabrics, patterns and materials are going to be popular with customers in four to six years' time – and throughout a vehicle's entire life cycle.

Barbara Krömeke (Design Colours/Interiors), selecting leathers

"We have to consider the longevity of our products. Cars should remain modern for many years.

"It's not like with fashion where you buy yourself a new blouse, dress or jacket, and then hang them up at the back of the wardrobe after a year because they're no longer fashionable. A car is too expensive and too durable for that," explains Barbara Krömeke, the team member responsible for Audi A8 trim and the materials leather and carpeting.

Helyn Latham, whose responsibilities include the body and interior colours of all Audi model series, explains "that not everything that happens to be in fashion at the moment can be transferred 1:1 to the car.

"Such trends are usually short-lived. But it is important for the customer to still feel good about their Audi for years to come."

Oona Scheepers (left), Head of Design Colours / Interiors and
Helyn Latham from the Design Team Colours / Interiors

To sum up, she says: "An Audi cannot and should not be fashionable, but instead it must be timelessly modern."

The designers follow and evaluate social trends, visit furniture and textile fairs, study the fashion, design and advertising industries, are guided by influences from nature, architecture, art or film and assess colour statistics and market research on specific issues.

"We have to take in everything that is happening around us like a sponge," says Ute Grönheim, responsible in the design team for the Audi A3 and Q7, and for fabrics and interior colours.

"We think," she continues, "four to six years ahead. Although we don't see ourselves as futurologists, I suppose in a way that is what we are."

New Audi TT Coupé: interior sketch

Someone who is always on the trail of future trends is Helyn Latham: "It is important not to chase after existing trends, but to set your own."

The new Audi TT Coupé is a particularly good example of how this has been achieved.

"The new TT is the successor to a design icon. It needs to retain the iconic character of its predecessor – to do that, however, we have given it a fresh interpretation. We have also done the same with the colour design," says Latham.

As a result, contrasts in colour dominate the interior to enhance the Coupé's sporting character.

The range of exterior colours has also been extended: alongside the classic sports colours, such as silver, black or red, now modern "lifestyle" colours are also on offer, for example White, Dakar Beige, Condor Grey or Petrol Blue.

New Audi TT Coupé: interior sketch

When colours and interiors are developed for the successor of what has been a very successful model, then the designers' motto is "don't replace too much, but not too little either". Ute Grönheim: "The mind wants something new, the heart wants to keep what is familiar."

Exterior colours

This is also reflected in the choice of colours for a new car. Audi customers can choose from over 50 different paint finishes – from "Absolute Red" to "Cedar Green". Yet the majority still opt for the "colour classics".

A glance at the statistics shows that silver and black shades are among the colours most frequently chosen by Audi customers. The most popular colour for the 2006 model year is "Phantom Black, metallic".

Trim variants for the Audi R8

The runners up are "Silver", "Brilliant Black", "Dolphin Grey", "Quartz Grey", "Moro Blue", "Lava Grey", "Ayoka Silver", "Oyster Grey" and "Mauritius Blue" in the top ten of the most popular Audi paint finishes. The colour Brilliant Black is especially popular with Audi customers in the USA.

This is expected to stay much the same in future. Subtle and muted paint finishes will remain fashionable in coming years. Understatement is the order of the day.

Silver will remain one of the most popular colours for cars in Germany. Incidentally, it was Audi who started the long-lasting "silver boom" in the automotive industry with its Aluminium Silver.

Alongside silver, the colour white is currently also all the rage. Silver has always stood for high-tech.

Audi Steppenwolf Project - interior detail sketch

The I-Pod boom has established white as a major colour for electronic equipment, with the result that it is now also associated with high-tech. "That has made itself felt in cars, too," says Helyn Latham "white cars are currently in demand."

Finding the right colour also depends to a large extent on the image and philosophy of the brand and on the form and positioning of the model in question.

The following rule of thumb applies: the more expensive the car, the more muted the colour.

But, as Oona Scheepers points out: "Colour is emotion". An Audi A8 in "Imola Yellow" is hardly likely to appeal to the general taste. But a very sporty car, like the Audi S3 for instance, would look good in that colour. As Scheepers explains: "A business saloon calls for a different colour from a lifestyle car, for example."

Interior designers selecting materials and colours
for the interior of the Audi Q7

Vehicle colours also reflect the trend for SUVs, such as the Audi Q7, for instance. Here we can see additional colour shades are being added to the classic colours. A clear example of this is Condor Grey – a former classic grey with a definite green touch.

Not every colour is technically feasible for vehicle paintwork. The wide variety of possible colours is greatly restricted by a vast catalogue of requirements for production vehicles. Even if a particular colour is exactly what the customer is looking for, if it does not pass the numerous spray tests and tests performed in climatic chambers, or does not conform to standards for scratch resistance and reparability, then it will never reach the showroom. It can take up to a year before the colour concept for a new model generation has been worked out. Thirty to fifty percent of these colours are new developments, the rest are continuations.

Marketing specifies the positioning, target groups and sales expectations for a new model and Helyn Latham develops the appropriate colours in cooperation with the suppliers. These then have to be passed by the "colour commission" at Audi.

Materials and colours for the Roadjet: funtional samples,
diving suits and furniture are considered

At this stage the assessment of paint samples is carried out using just metal panels the size of postcards. But when it comes to final approval by the Board of Management, the colours are presented on complete vehicles. As a rule, the colours for a new model are decided a year before its production start-up.

The interior of an Audi model must be every bit as dynamic as its external look. Scheepers' team is also responsible for this area.

The designers not only select the materials for the interior, they also develop them: metallic surfaces, inlays, wood inserts, carpeting, materials for the luggage compartment, headlining, rear shelves, sidetrims and luggage compartment covers, upholstery fabrics and leather, but also the texture of plastic surfaces, graining and the choice of colours for threads, windows and seals.

Audi A6 - Interior sketch

"We are now even involved in the design of the engine compartment," explains studio engineer Stefan Janda, responsible for the Audi A6.

And then comes the famous "Attention to detail". Scheepers: "Only the perfect interaction of all elements to produce a whole creates the desired Audi atmosphere. We can't simply leave out an element or treat it with less care."

After all, the entire work of Design – Colours/Interiors is always governed by the principle of customer focus.

The objective is to offer the Audi customer atmospheric surroundings in terms of haptics and visual appearance.

(Source: Audi)