By Jessica Carreras
In the downtrodden Michigan automotive world, there's one General Motors employee who isn't worried about losing his job – at least not to a straight man.
"Being gay is about who you are and how you express yourself," explains GM exterior-color and trend designer Chris Webb, whose color choices have been featured on HBO hit "The Sopranos" and on the 2006 version of the Mary Kay Cadillac. "I think it (being gay) makes me more sensitive to color."
The 30 year-old designer readily admits that his innate femininity gives him an edge over his straight competitors in the business of choosing car colors. Once a budding English fashion designer, the bald-headed, flamboyant-but-quick-witted Webb was plucked out of the UK seven years ago by GM to work in the position he still holds today. "It was a tough decision," he admits of the move to the United States.
A tough decision? Try being responsible for GM's 22 colors released a year – and the slew of consumer applauds and insults that come along with it. But listening to public opinion is not something Webb and his team is concerned with. "We don't survey the public," he says, without batting an eyelash, of GM's methods for mapping out their colorful future. "The customer only knows what they like here and now."
And in an industry where the car colors to be released in 2010 are already chosen, the here-and-now just doesn't cut it.
Instead, the seemingly tireless Webb relies on trend forecasting companies and the advice of his company's three global paint suppliers. "They do an annual color trend show about where global color trends are going," he explains.
The question on all consumers' minds, of course, is what to expect for upcoming hues. Not surprisingly, it differs depending on your continent. "Europeans are more accepting of color," Webb explains in his unabashed British accent. "America is the home of ready-to-wear: black, white, gray and beige."
The shocker, however, is that the tables are turning, with Europe moving toward the traditional and North America opening its arms to vivid vehicles. "The hot colors right now," Webb divulges, "are orange, brown and blue."
But don't be so quick to rush out and buy that burnt-sienna H2 Hummer just because it's the "in" color. The saying that your car color is analogous with your personality? "There's no question," Webb insists. "For certain regions, like Los Angeles, people express themselves through their cars."
Moreover, says Webb, car color is one of the most important factors to consumers in choosing a vehicle, whether they realize it or not. "Thirty-nine percent of customers will go to a new dealership if they can't find the color they want," he says.
Talk about weight on his shoulders.
Of course, flashy, car-conscious drivers will look for bright shades of red, yellow and orange – which is why many high-end sports cars like Corvettes and Ferraris often are shown in such colors.
For the average consumer looking for a long-lasting vehicle with a high resale value, Webb says that silver often is the obvious choice. "It's the easiest to keep clean and the easiest to sell," he clarifies.
But, as with fashion, "black sells the best." Timeless, sleek and goes with everything, just like the little black dress.
Though black will always be a staple on the roadways, the rules of car colors, Webb warns, are changing. If you see a teenager in a silver Chevy Malibu or a soccer mom in a fire-engine red convertible, don't be alarmed. "It's almost like a role reversal," he says with a laugh. "We are in an era where some of the rules (about car colors) no longer exist."
For example, one of the up-and-coming colors, brown, has done a 180 in the minds of consumers. "Brown was always very negative," Webb says of tests done on the psychology of color, which analyze the way people react to certain colors. "It was always associated with earth and dirt."
In the 1970s, Webb admits, "I would have said brown was a bad color and it's not returning."
Now, "brown is synonymous with high-end living," he says. "It's known as the Starbucks effect."
That is, now brown is a color associated with things like rich coffee or upscale leather – a far cry from its banal beginnings. "My motto is, 'never say never,'" Webb says of colors of the future – so don't give up hope on that dream of a Barbie-pink convertible.
Of course, as someone who has been in the car color business for seven years and has seen just about every color imaginable, nothing surprises Webb – and no color escapes his dream-car radar. The garage in his head is home to a red Cadillac XLR and a "classic British racing green" Aston Martin DB7.
What might surprise those who meet Webb, however, is the color of his every day car, a Saab. "Gay men generally like to purchase the latest and the newest," he says. "They take care of things and spend a lot of money."
As a result, many of them drive cars in trendy and edgy colors, like the aforementioned blues and oranges. But for Webb, the choice was much simpler; rooted in his background in design. "The only color for a fashion designer," Webb insists, "is black."
