Boat brief

Colour your world

Not everyone wants a white boat – some boaties have a more colourful outlook on life. And to help them find a colour that best echoes that outlook, Akzonobel has introduced MIXIT™.

Akzonobel is the name behind the global paint brands Awlgrip and International. The MIXIT™ tool draws on some 18,000 colours in the company’s database palette and has made them freely available – via a web-based platform – to boaties in search of a little distinctiveness.

If you had any doubt about the success of the technology, you only have to look at the colourful fleet of VOR boats that has just departed from Auckland. Akzonobel is the official paint supplier to the boats – all of which took advantage of the same tool for developing their unique custom-made colours. The mixing tool is also traveling with the fleet to help shore teams carry out repairs and maintenance at each of the stopovers.

The tool has also proved particularly successful for boat owners eager to extend their vision of a perfectly-coloured world to other assets. So the chap with a shimmery-gold Maserati, for example, will not feel complete unless his boat matches the car’s colour precisely.

To find that colour – or more specifically – which colours need to be mixed, and in what ratios – Akzonobel agents all over the world are equipped with a handheld photospectrometer. Held against the Maserati’s sleek bonnet, it ‘reads’ the colour and reveals its magical composition.

As a digital technology, MIXIT™ is also a fast solution, one that decreases the response time to customers’ requirements.