Any color as long as it's dark, subdued

What could security concerns about mass shootings, the Islamic State group and cyberhacking have to do with the colors of paint that customers will choose for their vehicles?

Plenty, according to PPG, which bills itself as the world's largest automotive paint and coatings company.

When PPG's color specialists from around the world gathered last year in Miami for their annual color trends conference, security was a prominent topic, not just from PPG's automotive group but from all the industries the Pittsburgh-based company supplies.

"Each one of us last year talked about protection," says Jane Harrington, manager of color styling for PPG Automotive OEM Coatings in Troy, Mich. "There's this kind of dark feeling over being vulnerable with anything from ISIS to these crazy shootings." 

So PPG developed Knight's Watch, one of four themed color groupings for 2019. The colors are mostly dark, solid and subdued. 

After the color conference, PPG's automotive specialists returned to their labs and mixed the colors for the 2019 model year. 

"We talked about the colors for this theme being very dark," says Harrington. "We talked about security protection being this overwhelming global theme. That's how this theme came about." 

The specialists discussed how security concerns are "going to affect society and what kind of colors people are going to be comfortable with. You're seeing it in other markets -- camouflage in anything from cellphone covers to jackets to leggings. That's crossing many different markets." 

Of course PPG won't be following the cellphone-cover suppliers by offering motley camouflage as an OEM paint color, but the Knight's Watch colors are not flamboyant. 

Once PPG chemists mix and develop the colors, the company stages color shows for carmakers, which adapt them for vehicles. 

Color is a critical psychological factor influencing how customers choose cars, says Susan Lampinen, Ford Motor Co. group chief designer for color and materials. 

"We do know that color does sell vehicles. We've done market research that shows that if people cannot get the color they want, they will not buy the vehicle and they'll change brands and change companies." 

Lampinen says customer taste in automotive colors reflects the mood in the country and around the world. 

"During the downturn, we saw darker, more neutral colors," she says. "People wanted something more solid, more stable." 

But different people can respond to uncertainty in seemingly contrary ways, Lampinen says. 

"When you feel uncertain, you're going to want to do [one of] two things -- pull in and protect and surround yourself" with colors such as deep, dark, rich, smoky reds or blues or blacks, she says. Or the other reaction is to be optimistic, with colors such as Palladium Gold, a new hue Ford will offer for 2017 that is "light, open, warm and inviting," she says. 

Pantone, of Carlstadt, N.J., is known for its expertise and consulting on color trends and color matching. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, the company's research arm, says she has noticed security as an influence in color trends. 

"How people respond to it is not easily predictable," she says. "We know it is definitely an issue, and many industries are looking at color and discussing it from that standpoint." 

Pantone annually names a color of the year. This year, for the first time, it named two colors: Serenity (blue) and Rose Quartz (pinkish). The two colors reflect the notion that color can have a reassuring effect on people. 

"Found in tandem on the runway, on the streets and in nature, Serenity and Rose Quartz evoke calm, stability and comfort even in turbulent times. The seamless union of Serenity and Rose Quartz creates balance in a chaotic world by providing the perfect counterpoint to the fast-paced, fractured and hurried lives we live," according to Pantone. 

PPG is now preparing its 2020 color show for carmakers. Will the company continue with a Knight's Watch-style security theme? 

Harrington isn't saying. "That's our future product we share with our customers." 

One thing's certain: In these turbulent times, the yearning for safety and security isn't going away anytime soon.