A method of designing the appearance of an article having steps of creating a digital file of a design configuration for an article, representing the design configuration on a computer screen, selecting or creating a color for a coating composition to be applied to the article, generating color data for the created color, merging the color data with the digital file of the design configuration, and displaying on the computer screen an image of the article coated with the colored coating composition. Accurate calibration of the color of the article on a computer screen allows for production of coated articles based on the generated color data. The color data is further transmitted to a formulation computer that determines the formulation for a coating composition exhibiting the color data. Output from the formulation computer may be directly transmitted to a production facility for coating articles with the coating composition.