I’ve loved being a Buick blogger this year and when Michael and I were invited to attend the New York City Wine and Food Festival to learn why a car company would sponsor a culinary event, I knew I was with the right brand.
Cars inspired by food? I’m in.
As it turns out, Buick designers actually rely heavily on the 178 million #food tagged images on Instagram to come up with fresh colors for their vehicles.
“We are developing our future vehicles with our customers’ passions and interests in mind,” said Cathy Black, lead designer, global Buick Color and Trim. “We know our customers are passionate about food and hosting dinner parties for close friends and family. They value the quality time and sharing a good meal. Having this customer insight prompted us to start exploring the culinary world as a source of color and texture inspiration several years ago.”
Two great examples of this are the delicious Choccachino interior of the 2016 Enclave and the new Cascada convertible in Toasted Coconut Metallic, which will be available in early 2016.
Or, take the green undertones of the Crystalline exterior color of the Buick Avenir concept that debuted to award-winning reviews at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The designers were inspired by — wait for it — an artichoke.
“Artichokes have a beautiful color,” said Krysti Murphy, creative designer, Buick Color and Trim. “When we look at that type of vegetable, we take the green tones and desaturate them, creating more of a silvery green by adding metallic flakes. This creates a richer, more wearable color.”
Don’t you love this?!
With a whole new perspective, Michael and I ate our way through the Food Festival. Between bites, we came up with colors for future Buicks. I’m sure the designers will be so grateful.
Unfortunately, my pictures aren’t very good because I was more concerned with tasting than taking photos but, really, do you need to actually see samples of Nutella French Toast to know how good it is?
Bagel (exterior color) with a shmear (leather interior) would be perfect for New Yorkers who retire to Arizona.
And what about these Mariebelle chocolates? Rich, dark browns and creamy beiges are always in demand and those pretty, pastels could start a whole new trim trend.
But my favorites were, of course, the donuts. Oh, the donuts.
We started the day with breakfast at the Hudson Hotel, which my beloved Buick obviously chose because of the Continental buffet (and because of the EAT sign, above, that graces every guest floor) which features treats from New York’s amazing Donut Plant.
I would buy a car in either of those colors in a second.
Plus, the Buick booth itself gave away scrumptious pumpkins donuts. They obviously know their audience.
While we were at the Buick booth, Michael and I took this awesome photo demonstrating our cooking skills.
Then we went back to the hotel, where we cooked up some more great ideas based on all the goodies we received during the day.
All in all, we had a fantastic and educational day at the New York Wine and Food Festival.
And as Buick debuts its 2017 colors, we will be watching carefully for the Donut Collection. Remember you heard it here first.
You had me at food and wine. That sounds like a great event.
Now I’m hungry for doughnuts and want to go for a Buick drive! Combining food colors with car colors? Genius! Sounds like you had a great time. So glad.
This looks like a fun event. All the food looks yummy. I can’t wait to see all the colors Buick is going to come out with.
What a fantastic sounding event the food looks absolutely delicious. x
It’s awesome to hear they are designing their cars with the customer’s tastes in mind. This sounded like the coolest festival!
Well, now I’m STARVING! I could get behind a wine and food festival. I love them both! LOL
I love my food and my wine. Looks like a blast!
It was great to see you and eat with you!
Wow, I would love this event! Right now I could really go for food and wine. What an awesome festival.
That sounds like the best kind of festival to go to, if you ask me!
That’s really interesting! I would never have guessed car colors were based on food. Well, except for the cars sporting a “cranberry” color. Very cool! And what a great event. Thanks for sharing.
Food, Cars and travel I am so in. This looks like an amazing event and so fun.
Looks like a really fun time. I love that Buick’s new color options were inspired by food!
It’s really cool how they did that! It makes sense since Instagram is so popular.
I love food festivals. they are so much fun and you get so many great foods you may not have otherwise tried.
oh look at all the goodies you were able to taste. So what was your favorite Buick vehicle??
OMG, seriously? That is so amazing! Someone is guilty of out of the box thinking, something American car companies didn’t used to do. Buick has reinvented itself 100%.
Ooh those donuts!
I love the connection between food and cars! How fun to get color inspiration from your culinary treats.
That looked like a fun event. All the food looks delicious.
I really need to get to an wine and food festival event. It looks so fun & what a great goodie bag.
I’ve never attended a festival like this. I’m sure you had fun. Those foods look delicious!
Who would have thought they would have gone to Instagram to get the name of colors for their cars. The things you learn.
I am going to New York City in a few weeks with my family and my dog for a movie premiere. I would love to have experienced what you did
I haven’t been to a wine food festival but this makes me want to go! It all looks so good!
I would have jumped at this opportunity as well. It looks like you both had a fabulous time!
This seems as if it was a wonderful event. Everything seems so delicious, extraordinary and yummy.
Looks like a great event and that you got a lot of great stuff. I love going to things like this.
You had me at donuts. 😉 Sounds like they know how to treat a guest.
This looks like a great event. There are so many things I would love to try there!
Now isn’t that interesting! I had no idea where they got their colour ideas from. No wonder it’s normally hues that I adore… Hello chocolate!
What a great concept from Buick! Looked like a fun experience for you.
This festival sounds like it was pretty incredible to experience! I think it’s so interesting that the designers were inspired by an artichoke!
Looks like an exciting event. I think it is great a car company is actually stepping out of their comfort zone and reaching out to the public rather than just doing general commercials.
What a fun event! Buicks are lookin good!
Doughnut holes are like a weakness, so cute, so small, all doughnut. lol You say you’ll eat 2..you eat 8 . ha. I had no idea they did something like this!
I always wanted to attend a Food festival, but never had a chance so far. Looks like you had a wonderful time out there. The foods are looking absolutely delicious & yum. Would love to attend one such event sooner.
What a beautiful car and I love the color choices. What a great opportunity to attend that festival! Everything looks fabulous.
Seriously I want to be a buick blogger! how cool is this