For almost 100 years, RAL COLOURS have been present in almost all areas of life: the gold of the German flag corresponds to RAL 1021 Colza yellow, the luminous red of the fire brigade is identified by RAL 3024 and RAL 7035 Light grey is not only the colour of the German high-speed train (ICE), many office furniture is also coated in this colour.

Historically Grown Colour Collection

Since the founding of RAL COLOURS, colour standards have facilitated communication and precise definition of colours in many areas that play a special role in public life and in business. Since then, RAL COLOURS has developed into a colour language that is understood worldwide, because the colours are standardized and provided with numbers.
With their help, professional users and consumers can precisely determine colour tones and also coordinate them over long distances without risking misunderstandings.

The historically grown RAL CLASSIC colour collection is still the best-known RAL colour palette to this day. It contains 216 shades that are used for products and brands in a wide variety of applications. RAL CLASSIC is used in particular in architecture, design, industry , crafts and public tenders.

Today, RAL COLOURS provides colour palettes for a wide range of applications. The RAL colour spectrum was first extended in 1993 by the RAL DESIGN SYSTEM plus. The system was developed especially for professional colour design and provides designers with 1,825 fine-grained shades. The colour numbers of the RAL DESIGN SYSTEM plus are supplemented by matching colour names, which additionally stimulate creativity.

The unique RAL EFFECT colour collection contains 70 metallic shades, each of which is assigned to a colour family of six shades. Since 2008, RAL EFFECT has opened up new design possibilities in a variety of application areas. Another special feature: RAL EFFECT was the first RAL collection relied on water-based coating systems and containing no heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and chromates.

Today, RAL COLOURS provides binding colour specifications for 2,540 colour shades and thus sets a labelling standard for worldwide colour communication.

Practical tools for modern colour design

RAL COLOURS offers its customers a variety of useful tools that make it easier to work with colours and stimulate creative processes.

From easy to handle colour fans to useful design boxes with single colour samples in large format to plastic colour samples or a digital colorimeter – with RAL COLOURS, professional design is child’s play.
With the RAL INDIVIDUAL product line, it is possible to personalise colour fans with your own company logo and thus provide your customers with a very special advertising medium.

With the help of the design books “THE COLOUR DICTIONARY”, “COLOURS FOR MIIND, BODY & SOUL” and the “COLOUR MASTER”, up-to-date knowledge about colour psychology and colour effect is imparted. At the same time, the books serve as sources of inspiration and creative design support.

For many years, RAL COLOURS has been publishing the trend report “RAL COLOUR FEELING” once a year. For this purpose, a colour palette with 15 combinable shades is developed, which helps designers and (interior) architects to develop their projects. The choice of colour is based on scientific findings and proven, fundamental design principles.

RAL COLOURS today

Today, RAL COLOURS delivers its products to over 150 countries on all continents with the help of its sales offices and its own online shop.
In 2014, a Representative Office was opened in Beijing. In addition to Europe, China has developed over time into a core market for RAL COLOURS.

In addition to the continuous expansion of target group-oriented products for both industrial and creative colour design, RAL COLOURS’ product range is increasingly changing from a pure product range to more extensive service offerings about the topic of colour. Founded in 2015, the RAL ACADEMY offers a wide range of target groups comprehensive access to the topic of colour and colour design. The offer ranges from short training courses and lectures to two-day events conducted by leading colour experts from science, research and teaching. As a result, RAL COLOURS offers all professional colour users unique opportunities to continue their education at a high level.
The education of aspiring designers is also an important matter for RAL COLOURS. For example, students are supported by the Deutschland Stipendium, a public scholarship initiated by the federal government and supported by RAL COLOURS. Moreover creative workshops are regularly held at colleges and universities.

RAL COLOURS also maintains numerous cooperations and memberships with prestigious associations and can look back on some successes at renowned award ceremonies, such as the German Design Award or the Red Dot Award.