In the end of February Volvo held a press event to present their new Volvo C30 – the sporty car for the design interested consumer that either has no children or they have left home. I was ready for the talk about all the great technical info about the car, but instead they talked about inspiration.
Cecilia Stark, Maria Uggla and Jenny Daimler are three of the people behind the design of C30, with special focus on the colour and textile varieties. They presented the three muses who had been their inspiration during the process of designing; musician Salem Al Fakir and the designers Mats Theselius and Stefan Ytterborn. For me, who never thought about cars as something inspiring, colourful, and Nordic, this made me more interested in knowing more about this car.
When it comes to the possibilities for the consumer to choose a car in a personal style, including design, colour, engine, fabrics, sound etc, the Volvo C30 gives you more than you could ask for. By mixing and matching exterior and interior accessories and colours, you can make the car very personal. The possibilities are almost unlimited.
Volvo´s designers have been inspired by trends and phenomena far beyond the automotive world when they created these options. The result is a charismatic, playful and sporty car that appeals to new audiences.
For example, among the news for the options of the interior there is a new colour combination called Espresso / Blond. It consists of a dark brown–coloured top section and a blonde, fresh shade on the bottom of the door trims. The combination gives room for new accent colours __________________________________________________________________________  in the textiles, such as orange, green and blue.
Volvo´s unique thin floating centre console, also called centerstak, is also available in a completely new material. It´s called Oyster Burst Deco, and is inspired by the surface area of the classic Swedish Hagström guitars. The pattern varies from light to dark and back again. Externally there is a whole new fashionable colour called Orange Flame Metallic.
The entire exterior has been renewed in a comprehensive way, and since the car was first presented in 2006, the change became much more extensive than what we are used to for Volvo models. The front has been remodelled, which gives the car a radical new appearance. Centrally located in front is a new and larger iron mark – the Volvo logo. The air inlet has grown and the grill has a new unique design. Also the car´s rear end has a new shape.
I asked Cecilia, Maria and Jenny three questions about the design process and inspiration… |
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Can you say something about your choice of muse as your source of inspiration?
CECILIA – For me the musician Salem Fakir felt like a natural choice. My ex–husband is a musician and over the years we have discussed the similarities in our creative processes.
MARIA – I chose Mats Theselius as my inspiration muse for many reasons. I think that his design always has a core of authenticity and whatever he designs there is an extra thought behind. He has also a very interesting way of combining different materials.
JENNY – Stefan Ytterborn. He is multi–disciplinary and inspiring! And despite all the success, he is so humble and likeable. He is fearless and dares to go his own way, just as we would prefer that our customers perceive Volvo! In many ways Volvo is different from its competitors, we are always at the cutting edge when it comes to developing new security solutions and current design, I think that our Scandinavian heritage means that we interpret the luxury and elegance in a slightly different way, an example is our German competitors, where there use to be more bling–bling, "the more, the better", while perhaps we are more authentic and honest in the choice of materials and form.
What are you most pleased with the design of the C30?
CECILIA – That we have managed to get the car to actually be received for what we wanted to communicate; vitality with attitude. I´m very proud of many of our ideas for the C30´s concept car. We chose to work with a sporty concept and made "sporty" a part of the concept, after that Volvo has used the key word "sporty" in their communication for C30. And the new exterior colours are of course something I´m proud of.
MARIA – I am most proud about that we all together have made a car that has taken a new direction, a step away from the traditional car design, and towards product design. I am also proud that we have created a unique personality for C30, which makes it stand out as a happy, cocky modern car with attitude. Also that we have managed to create possibilities, so that everyone can have a car in their own style.  |
JENNY – That we worked so actively with the exterior and interior design and also that interior and exterior design is working so well together. The car must express the same thing whether you are outside of it, or inside driving it. With the new C30, you can match the interior and exterior to go in the same tones if you want, but you can also choose to have a contrast between the interior and the exterior, although the colours will still speak the same language. It was really great that we managed to get the "Oyster Burst", one of the new decorations that are faded from dark to light. A very special painting technique in which every Centerstak is spray painted for hand!
What kind of development would you like to see for cars in terms of design, colours, forms, etc.?
CECILIA – That the process of designing a car becomes more like product design. To remove the very slow and conservative trends. New innovative materials and colours.
MARIA – The development in environmental vehicles is the most important issue right now. When it comes to design I would like the development that we have started to continue, more uniqueness and attitude.
JENNY – A continuation of environmentally conscious work, alternative fuels and materials. The need for a car will not go away, but both Volvo and our customers want products with as little environmental impact as possible. The greatest innovation I think will be in materials. I want to be honest in my designs, what items look like, leather will also be there. Today there are really exciting technological materials with interesting properties as we are working with plastic materials and will exploit them fully, without trying to fake that it is a different material.
Just so you know, there are 60 million different types of design choices! That is what I call, making it individual!  |
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