Andrea Jensen’s career has taken her all around the world, working for some of the best-known luxury car brands. But Bentley is a different league entirely. The CMF (Color, Materials and Finish) team recently moved to a prime location in the heart of Bentley’s dream factory alongside the car design team. The new studio, shrouded from prying eyes, is a treasure-trove of fine materials, intriguing new finishes and – above all – color. On a shelf there’s a lineup of scale model coupé silhouettes. At first glance they all appear to be the same color, a soft satin finish gold. But each one of the dozen or more models, she explains, is in a subtly different shade. “We could try as many as fifty different variations before we arrive at the exact shade we’re looking for,” Jensen explains.

FIFTY SHADES OF GOLD
“We have our own paint expert, Steve Williams, and our own paint booth. That’s unique, and it gives us the capacity to create exactly the right shade in-house. A designer can go directly to Steve and say, I really like that color, but can you put more metallic flecks in it?

“Steve might spray out the first samples, and because of his pigment expertise, he’ll also try out his own ideas. On many occasions, Steve surprises us with fantastic samples. It’s a collaboration between the whole team.”

Bentley’s range of over 120 colors includes solid colors, metallics, satins and pearl effects. But even a simple term like ‘metallic’ covers a world of subtle difference and complexity. Traditionally, metallic paints were created by tiny flecks of aluminum; but the paint designer’s palette now includes dozens of options, each of which is formulated from different materials and reacts differently to light and angle of view.

Jensen lists a few. “There’s Paliochrom, where the aluminum flakes are coated in iron oxide. Xirallic, which uses titanium. ChromaFlair has multi-layer flakes of aluminum, magnesium fluoride, and chromium. Colorstream uses silicon dioxide platelets coated with iron oxide. Each of these react differently to light and the angle of view. Because we can formulate our own paints in house, we can create our own finishes that are unique to Bentley.”

The team works at the cutting edge of paint technology. Pallas Gold, a liquid metal satin, recently made its debut on EXP15, Bentley’s design vision. The finish uses a new-to-market low-thickness pigment that allows the car’s radar signals to be transmitted through the paint. And its high reflectivity means it’s also easily picked up by the LIDAR systems of other vehicles, improving safety. As a further bonus, it uses less material, takes less drying time and thus cuts CO2 emissions.