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Show GENERAL MOTORS HAS DEPARTMENT OF COLOR CREATION Watching the new Chevrolet as it noses gracefully through traffic or presses forward eagerly on some highway, you may have wondered how its various color blendings are conceived, and why they appear in such profusion. You might have guessed that so alert an organ:za- r Lion as General Motors docs nothing hapl.azard'.y, that there mur.t be a special department in charge of color col-or creation. And if such was your , ic:is you were right. 'i'i.e ill', a, id Co. or division of Genera! Gen-era! Mo.ors is the source of all trie color schemes which enhance every General Motors car from the graceful grace-ful Chevro et to the baronial Cadil-ac. Cadil-ac. Here colors are evolved i-;y.:.i m-aticaily, m-aticaily, the same decree of el'iji-ency el'iji-ency prevailing that is found in the ales and manufacturing divisions. Nothing is left to guess work. The studio, in charge of Captain II. Lcdyard Towle, has a research department without any known duplicate in the world. Chief among its functions is to keep the art staff constantly posted as to the fluctuating fluctuat-ing color preferences in America and abroad, for styles in color, as fin other things, are known to move in cycles. Constant check is being made to ascertain which is the reigning color col-or blend in the exclusive dress making mak-ing salons, in the kitchens and bathrooms bath-rooms of America, in the art galleries galler-ies of the world. A complete library of art magazines and automobile trade journals is kept on file. Sales figures from all General Motors units are studied with reference to color. Although the artists might know with certainty that the color most popular on the Riviera last winter was green, no restraint is placed on their originality. While Captain Tov.le's staff attempts to give the public what it wants during a particular parti-cular season, it is axiomatic that some new hue will be favored next season and General Motors artists in the opinion of Captain Towle might just as well be sponsor to the new vogue as some leading Parisian Pari-sian gown maker. Original color ideas come from everywhere and everything. The blendings of a new car might derive from a Persian rug, a famous painting, paint-ing, the plumage of a bird, the glint of a precious stone. When a new car is about to be marketed or a color change desired on an existing model, the artists busy themselves at their palettes, each achieving his idea of the proper color harmony. Wrhen a half dozen or more suitable combinations are finished the work is submitted to the manufacturer. Here are a group of artists so sales minded that they have forgoV en the traditional artistic ego. They listen willingly, eagerly to the reactions reac-tions of the shrewd sales manager and the practical production chief. At these conferences the jury system prevails, and thus from a group of possible combinations, the salesman, the artist and the production expert finally agree which is to be used. Captain Towle credits pyroxylin with the current color invasion of industry. in-dustry. By its use cars which formerly form-erly required days to paint can now be completed in a few hours. Now that beauty can be had- without costly cost-ly delay, industry in almost every line is busy coloring its products. People are growing to like colored objects more and more each day, Captain Towle says, and he points to colored clacks, pencils and bathtubs bath-tubs as proof of his assertion. All of these signs indicate, he believes, that America is entering into an artistic renaissance comparable to the famous Italian renaissance with American industrialists acting as patrons as did the nobles of the other period. |
