I manage the Product
Design Office Color Studio, where we design all of the interior and
exterior colors for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles worldwide.
Our goals are to support the brand image and also be very
distinctive in the marketplace. My team is tasked to come up with new colors every year. We’re always going out and looking at new trends in color design, in cars, fashion, furniture, architecture, consumer products—you name it. As we come up with a new color, we’re automatically thinking of how to describe it. We want to make sure that the color name evokes a certain emotional response and image associated with the product. Most importantly, the customer will identify that color exclusively with that particular Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep product, love it and buy it.
For the seventh straight year, to celebrate the Woodward Dream Cruise, we designed a limited edition Chrysler PT Street Cruiser. This year, the exterior color is “Sunset Crystal Pearl.” I’d describe it as a bronze-orange metallic color with amazing sparkle.
In years past, we’ve chosen a variety of unique colors; Solar Yellow and Ocean Blue being most recent. For 2008, we wanted to do something different … something a bit more sophisticated, yet still trendy. Bronze and Orange colors are a very fast-growing trend in consumer electronics, architecture and fashion. It was a natural to adapt it for the 2008 Chrysler PT Street Cruiser.
We chose to name the color Sunset Crystal because it also evokes a special emotional connection to cruising. This is a really warm “feeling” color, and a lot of people cruise in the early evenings as the sun is setting. “Crystal” refers to the effect pigment in the paint that makes the color sparkle across the PT Cruiser’s surface. So the name is very descriptive—and has a pretty nice ring to it, as well. Something we hope the customer will remember, love and have to have!
