BASF Coatings receives internationally renowned iF Design Award

Global trend book “Under the Radar” wins in the communication design discipline

SOUTHFIELD, MI, March 23, 2015 – BASF’s Global Color Designers received the internationally renowned iF Design Award for the current edition of its Global trend book, “Under the Radar.”

The trend book is published exclusively for the automotive manufacturers’ designers and encompasses global and regional color trends based on observations of social styles and developments. It serves as a presentation tool and a source of inspiration. Color samples coated with original paint reflect the trends, which are communicated through meaningful imagery appearing throughout the entire book as a common theme.

“Predicting trends and making colors visible is a huge challenge,” said Astrid Van der Auwera, Global Design manager at BASF Coatings. “For this reason, the global trend book’s visual and haptic quality is very important to us. It is at the heart of our customer communications. We feel that this distinction by the iF’s international jury of experts has confirmed our design and color competence.”

“It's always wonderful to be singled out for achieving such a distinguished award,” said Paul Czornij, Coatings Designer for BASF in North America “Not only is the iF award globally positioned to recognize excellence in design, but it continues to reinforce the image that BASF provides something special to our automotive customers with color design. The BASF team is able to draw out color trends from a variety of obvious and not-so-obvious sources and present them in a package that is stimulating, creative and fun.”

Last October, the trend book also received the Red Dot Award: Communication Design. With the iF Design Award, BASF is once again successfully represented among the two most prestigious international design competitions.

Nearly 5,000 submissions from 53 countries were registered for this year’s iF Design Award. A high-ranking jury of experts presented the coveted award to BASF and the agency Raum Mannheim for “Under the Radar” in the communication design discipline.

Download photo on right, suggested caption:  Florina Trost, Michaela Finkenzeller, Frank Hoffmann, Astrid van de Auwera, Paul Czornij and Mark Gutjahr accept the iF award on behalf of BASF.

About BASF’s Coatings division

BASF’s Coatings division develops, produces and markets innovative automotive coatings, automotive refinishes and industrial coatings as well as decorative paints. BASF operates sites in Europe, North America and South America as well as Asia Pacific. Within this network, BASF collaborates closely with customers all over the world. In 2014, the Coatings division achieved global sales of about €3 billion. More information about the division is available at www.basf-coatings.com.

About BASF

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 17,000 employees in North America, and had sales of $20.6 billion in 2014. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.us.

At BASF, we create chemistry – and have been doing so for 150 years. Our portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, we combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

P-US-14-48