Powering BEHR’s Enterprise Color Visualization

For more than two decades, I’ve led the visual and technical evolution of ColorSmart by BEHR—shaping how millions of customers explore, understand, and choose color across web, mobile, retail, and partner platforms. What began as a single web application grew into a global omni‑channel ecosystem, and at the center of that growth is a visualization engine I invented to solve a fundamental challenge: how to render true BEHR color instantly, accurately, and at scale.

The masking system I developed became the backbone of every ColorSmart experience and, eventually, a core technology used across the entire BEHR enterprise. It replaced slow, third‑party recoloring services with a client‑side, layered “gel” technique capable of producing high‑fidelity color results in real time. This shift didn’t just improve user experience—it eliminated major operational costs, enabled offline and low‑latency applications, and created a scalable foundation for future automation and AI‑driven tools.

Today, this system powers everything from consumer visualization to enterprise‑wide image production pipelines, supporting thousands of colors, multiple languages, and global retail partners. What started as a design‑driven innovation became a strategic technology that continues to shape BEHR’s digital ecosystem.

Role

  • INVENTOR
  • USER EXPERIENCE
  • DESIGN
  • OMNI-CHANNEL SUPPORT
  • EXECUTIVE PRESENTATION
Behr Colorsmart Masking
Behr Colorsmart Masking

#b19b81
Hue
Saturation
Brightness

The Visualization Engine Behind ColorSmart

ColorSmart’s omni‑channel reach is built on a visualization system I invented and refined over more than a decade. At the core of every ColorSmart experience—across web, mobile, kiosks, APIs, and international deployments—is a masking system built on layered “gel” files and true‑color hex rendering. Instead of relying on third‑party services or server‑side image processing, this technique uses a base image, precise color‑mapped layers, and highlight/shadow gels to produce accurate, immediate representations of any BEHR color.

This client‑side approach delivers actual BEHR colors with exceptional fidelity, speed, and consistency. It enables instant visualization on walls, trim, and accents, even in offline environments or low‑bandwidth conditions. By removing external processing dependencies, the system has saved the company millions in operational costs while dramatically improving the customer experience.

Over the past 14 years, this engine has powered ColorSmart across 2,300+ retail kiosks, multiple mobile apps, and web experiences in six countries. It remains the gold‑standard benchmark as BEHR transitions into automated and AI‑driven visualization tools.

Behr Colorsmart Masking
Behr Colorsmart Masking

#00aabb
Hue
Saturation
Brightness

Scaling Color Across the Entire Enterprise

The same masking technology that powers ColorSmart also enables BEHR to generate color‑accurate imagery at an enterprise scale. Every BEHR color—over 4,500 across multiple regions and languages—requires consistent, high‑quality visual assets for marketing, retail partners, e‑commerce, PR, and professional services. Traditionally, producing these assets would require thousands of manual recoloring tasks or costly external services.

Using my masking system, we can batch‑produce more than 14,000 colorized images in just a few hours once the master file is prepared. The layered gel structure ensures that highlights, shadows, and material qualities remain intact while the color layer updates programmatically. This dramatically reduces production time, eliminates repetitive manual work, and ensures perfect color consistency across every channel.

This system supports global partners including Amazon, Target, Walmart, and KILZ, as well as internal teams across marketing, PR, retail, and pro services. It has become a foundational tool for BEHR’s content pipeline—flexible, scalable, and capable of supporting future automation and AI‑driven workflows.

Let’s Build Something

I collaborate with teams pushing the boundaries of design, technology, and storytelling.

Get in Touch
© Copyright 2003–2026 Douglas Arthur