Mazda Motor Corporation has created a new unique color called Artisan Red Premium using its in-house painting technique Takuminuri. In their current lineups as well as upcoming releases in their Large Product group, this color will be offered as a high-end accent.
As a result, Mazda is concentrating its efforts on creating colors that emphasize a dynamic and delicate expression in line with the Kodo – Soul of Motion – design theme. Mazda thinks that color is an essential element of what gives form to a vehicle. The fourth Takuminuri color, Artisan Red Premium, was created to broaden the perception of red, one of the colors associated with Mazda, and to honor ten years since the debut of the first Takuminuri color, Soul Red Premium.
Artisan Red Premium conveys the connotation of a red color created by skilled artisans. This extraordinary red produced by Mazda designers, engineers and other artisans manifests a mature outlook that is more refined and sophisticated than previous special colors. The concept underlying design was to create the red found in a mature wine made with unsurpassed craftsmanship. Artisan Red Premium accentuates the strength and beauty of form that takes shape as highlights hit by light portray a fine-grained transparent red shining brightly and dominant shade produces a profound depth and richness, rendering high contrast.
A clear layer, a translucent paint layer, and a reflective/absorptive layer are the three layers that comprise Artisan Red Premium, just like Soul Red Crystal. It combines a superb visual look with a small environmental impact. A high-chroma pigment that is also utilized in the Soul Red Crystal and is perceived by people as the reddest of reds is used for the translucent paint layer. We used a technique that more smoothly aligns aluminum flakes at regular intervals for the reflective/absorptive layer. This was also leveraged for the third Takuminuri color Rhodium White Premium. In addition, we improved on the jet-black pigment, which renders shade in the second color Machine Gray. This combination of technologies developed over a period of 10 years conveys brightness in highlights produced by strong reflection and the richness of shades created as light is soundly absorbed so as to achieve a balance between transparency and a mature profoundness.
In the belief that “color is an element of form,” Mazda will continue to pursue new color expressions and painting technologies to enhance the attractiveness of our products, aiming to be a company that shares a special bond with its customers. Photo: Mazda
