Issue link: https://ppgrefinish-na.uberflip.com/i/742152
COLOR FAMILY—Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Red, etc. FACE—Color viewing angle that is heavily influenced by metallic or pearl pigments in a formula. FLOP—Color viewing angle that is generally darker and influenced mostly by the conventional pigments in a metallic or pearlescent color. TONE—Cast of the color in relation to its hue shift and adjacent color family (green-shade blue, mid-shade blue, red-shade blue). 1 2 3 4 1 3 2 4 TINTING PICTOGRAM FOR TONER T413, A GREEN SHADE BLUE TONER WITH A RED FLOP 31 "The high regard our customers hold for our variant decks reinforces our commitment to continuous improvements in our color variance identification and selection process," notes Henry. "So we'll continue to strengthen our network of sources for identifying variants, such as actual car parts, field audits, distributors and our sales team collaboration with collision centers." TINTING GUIDE INNOVATION Listening to the "voice of the painter" also led to the development of PPG's latest color tool innovation. "Understanding that blending is not always an option, we talked with painters and heard their assessment of current tinting guides," explains Henry. "With their input, we went to work on a revolutionary upgrade to these traditional tint guides." The new tint guide posters, currently available for use with all waterborne basecoat systems, demonstrate a visual pictogram approach to provide "at-a-glance" recommendations when tinting may be required. Using the innovative guide, the paint technician can quickly locate a toner's qualities and its effect on the overall mix. Face and flop color characteristics are easily identifiable when color travel is especially important. In addition to the primary tint guide for mixing bases, there's also an additional pictogram-based guide covering pearls, special effects, metallics and flop adjusters. "We believe these new pictogram tinting guides will give the technician a simpler and quicker process for moving color closer to the target," Henry claims. "Because of the positive reviews we've received thus far from our waterborne users, we're moving ahead quickly to create new tint guide posters for use with solventborne systems." Given the innovations directly influenced by the Voice of Customer studies, you can be sure they'll continue to be a valuable source of input to PPG's goal of maintaining color leadership in automotive refinish.