Telegraph wrote:

So you’ve got your work cut out if you’re Amy Frascella, Land Rover’s Chief Designer, Colour and Materials. Amy is an American who, having graduated in textile engineering in the States, has worked with various Japanese car brands and Hyundai before landing at Land Rover in 2012. And she's joined a brand in flux, one that is moving from boxy, utilitarian Defenders and Discoverys to ultra-stylish Range Rovers and curvaceous Evoques.

More women, and more urban customers, are flocking to the brand, but still Land Rover must preserve its exemplary rugged, off-road appeal for the countryside dwellers.
How do you convey all this in blue paint and interior plastics, I ask Amy. 
“Land Rover has to create differentiation between our products, but not in isolation,” she says. Hence there are signature colours for each model, both inside the car and for the bodywork paint, that reflect their positioning: “sensual, rich, deep” colours for the Range Rover, and “colours that feel more natural” for the Discovery, for example.

“We’re working in conjunction with the 3D teams [the people that design the car shapes]. We need to work harmoniously with them. So we consider how things are moving with other products – furniture, architecture, fashion, performance sportswear, aerospace - but we need things that have staying power – that communicate the character of the brand.”
How, though, do colours reflect the movement upstream by Land Rover into a determinedly more luxury marketplace?
“Rather than creating lots of colours, the colours are becoming more nuanced, tinted,” says Frascella.
“Tinted neutrals, tinted metals, liquid metals,” are apparently the way to reflect luxury right now, especially for a brand that has to paint very big cars and needs a colour that won’t look too garish on big slabs of metal. Land Rover is also doing clever things to create depth in its paint, something that appeals to those looking to spend a serious amount of money on a car.
“We have new paint technology called glass flake pigment. The pigment floats in a resin; it’s thicker, made of glass and looks like some flakes are coming towards you while others are going further away,” says Frascella.

Luxury is also, of course, denoted by materials, and as well as the usual woods and leathers, Land Rover is exploring “luxury sustainability” (as are all premium brands – witness Bentley’s work with stone, protein leathers, glass and wood). While Frascella won’t discuss some new materials that sound like they’ll be unveiled in March at the Geneva show, she does tell me they’re also looking at materials and colours that reflect, or promote, wellbeing in their cars.

It’s all part of the whole: car companies are looking less at building cars and more at creating an experience on the move that satisfies time-starved, stressed individuals. Still, some things are sacrosanct, there to preserve the heart of Land Rover as we know and love the brand. And so, while some colours are created with just a 24-month time frame in mind, in order to help launch a car, others are untouchable, especially the “core neutrals”:
“We may not replace a silver for 15 years,” says Frascella.  Another clever use of colour is in hiding the mud from wellies, dogs and kids: “On the new Discovery, we have colour banding,” she says. “Where you enter, we have darker colours in plastic mouldings, which grade to lighter colours as you move up inside the vehicle. Our job is a blending of art and science.”
Not so girly after all, then.

Quote:

It’s all part of the whole: car companies are looking less at building cars and more at creating an experience on the move that satisfies time-starved, stressed individuals

Thats the D5... we're not building cars any more!

She probably works well with the idiot that doesn't want anyone to use a roof rack?

adam wrote:

its called permagrin

Don't tell her that, she'll want to charge you for that!