Mazda Motor Corporation has applied its proprietary painting technology Takuminuri*1 to develop a new special color Artisan Red Premium. This color will be introduced as a premium highlight for vehicles in our current lineups as well as forthcoming releases in our Large Product group.
Mazda believes color to be a crucial element of what gives form to a vehicle; thus, we are focusing our efforts on developing colors that accentuate a dynamic and delicate expression in line with the Kodo – Soul of Motion – design theme. Artisan Red Premium, the fourth Takuminuri color, was developed to extend the range of how the world views red, one of the colors symbolizing Mazda, as a culmination of the Takuminuri evolution to mark the 10th year since the first color Soul Red Premium was released.
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.
Also, similar to Soul Red Crystal*2, Artisan Red Premium is comprised of three layers: a clear layer, translucent paint layer, and a reflective/absorptive layer. It combines an outstanding aesthetic appearance with a reduced environmental footprint. For the translucent paint layer, a high-chroma pigment is employed that people perceive to be the reddest of reds, a pigment also used for the Soul Red Crystal. For the reflective/absorptive layer, we applied a technology that more smoothly aligns aluminum flakes at regular intervals. 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.
