IN THIS ISSUE
Vehicle Type: concept/4-seat coupe
Design Director: Michael Robinson
Design Director: Michael Robinson
Chief designer: Adrian Griffiths
Interior designers: Stefano De Simone & Teresa Mendicino
Colour & Trim: Guilia Cinti
Interior designers: Stefano De Simone & Teresa Mendicino
Colour & Trim: Guilia Cinti
Digital Design: Marco Saino
Project started: November 2009
Project completed: February 2010
Launch: Geneva Motor Show 2010
Project started: November 2009
Project completed: February 2010
Launch: Geneva Motor Show 2010
“Alfa Romeo called us in and said: ‘Could you make a concept car – the 8C of the future – for our 100-year anniversary?’” explains Bertone’s Brand and Design Director Mike Robinson. “We had an
opportunity to get away from the retro-oriented Alfa-Romeo-isms that have been going on for too long.” The guiding idea for the project was the curious paradox that the team detected within the Alfa Romeo logo: “On the left-hand side there’s the heraldic cross of Milan, which is the mechanical, engineering, performance side — everything that’s rational. On the right is a snake; and that, to us, was the sensuous part: beauty and aesthetics and emotion.” The designers set out to create a dynamic mix between the two by playing with the relationship between the car’s skin and its frame (‘telaio’ in Italian). One exploratory sketch (4) applied the design of Herzog and de Meuron’s ‘bird’s nest’ Olympic soccer stadium in Beijing to the outside of the car, as an exoskeleton.
opportunity to get away from the retro-oriented Alfa-Romeo-isms that have been going on for too long.” The guiding idea for the project was the curious paradox that the team detected within the Alfa Romeo logo: “On the left-hand side there’s the heraldic cross of Milan, which is the mechanical, engineering, performance side — everything that’s rational. On the right is a snake; and that, to us, was the sensuous part: beauty and aesthetics and emotion.” The designers set out to create a dynamic mix between the two by playing with the relationship between the car’s skin and its frame (‘telaio’ in Italian). One exploratory sketch (4) applied the design of Herzog and de Meuron’s ‘bird’s nest’ Olympic soccer stadium in Beijing to the outside of the car, as an exoskeleton.
Vehicle Type: concept/open two-seater Spyder with Plug-in-Hybrid-powertrain
Design Director: Michael Mauer
Interior Design Director: Thorsten Klein
Colour & Trim designer: Cornelia Rosenbohm
Project started: September 2009
Project completed: March 2010
Launch: Geneva Motor Show 2010
Design Director: Michael Mauer
Interior Design Director: Thorsten Klein
Colour & Trim designer: Cornelia Rosenbohm
Project started: September 2009
Project completed: March 2010
Launch: Geneva Motor Show 2010
The final theme is described by Designer DirectorMichael Mauer as a “continuation of the principles introduced with Panamera and Cayenne MkII. The new touchpad reduces the amount of buttons but still offers direct operation.”
The 918 Spyder’s designers took the inspiration from the reflecting aluminium bodywork of the Bugatti Veyron and the ‘Rome-Liège’ Porsche. “The exterior colour of the 918 should make the impression of a liquid metal,” says Porsche Design Director Michael Mauer. “The iPhone stands for the clean ‘touch panel’ approach of the centre stack; the engine for the solid aluminium crossbeam of the IP which has both decorative and supporting functions.”Like the open cockpit of the Porsche 917 PA that Jo Siffert drove in the CANAM series of 1969, the 918’s interior features an asymmetrical cut with an indentation towards the passenger side (as indicated by the red line visible in this sketch). Mauer: “Thus we wanted to stress the driverorientated architecture of the interior".
Vehicle type: concept/5-door hatchbackDesign Director: Anthony Williams-Kenny
Project leader: Ramesh Bassi
Colour and Trim Designer: Becci Tee
Project started: winter 2009
Project completed: spring 2010
Launch: Beijing/April 2010
Project Zero was developed in just three months, and was designed in the UK and built by Sivax in Japan.
The Zero is the first proper MG concept for 25 years – the last one was the 1985 EX-E, with an exterior penned by a young Gerry McGovern – and heralds a newfound design confi dence under design director Anthony (Tony) Williams-Kenny. Unveiled at Beijing’s Auto China Expo in April 2010, the Zero gives a strong indication of the forthcoming production MG supermini due later this year in China, and in other markets from late 2011. Size-wise it’s some 80mm longer and 24mm taller than a Ford Fiesta. The smart exterior by Rob Battams should stay largely intact for production, but it is the more future-facing interior that is the greater revelation, showcasing how a 21st Century MG might look.
The Zero’s white interior scheme is not supposed to reflect future colour intentions, as project leader Bassi explains: “White is a modern colour, but it gets dirty in production. What we are trying to push more is the idea of contrast. On the production car we’d probably go for a grey against a darker grey, but the other thing we also wanted to push was the bright orangey red – looking at the heritage of MG we found this colour used often."
Vehicle type: concept/4-door luxury coupe
Design Director: Prof. h.c. Gorden Wagener
Interior Chief Designer: Hartmut Sinkwitz
Studio Director: Michele Jauch-Paganetti
Studio Director: Michele Jauch-Paganetti
Interior Design Manager: Lucas Colombo Carbone
C&T/Research & Strategy Manager: Valeria Vivegani
Senior Designer: Frederic Latino
Senior Designer: Frederic Latino
Project started: July 2008
Project completed: September 2009
Launch: Geneva/March 2010
The F800 was designed from an “absolutely white piece of paper”, says Studio Director Jauch-Paganetti.
The development of the F800 Style - the latest in a long line of show car interiors is created by the company’s Advanced Design Studio near Lake Como in Italy, headed up by Studio Director Michele Jauch-Paganetti. “Inspiration is very clearly from the modern architecture that you especially find in the Far East, in which a bionic feeling and bionic structures have a strong impact on the design of the building – you don’t have this huge building, very stiff and straight and constructed,” points out Jauch-Panagetti. “It looks like it has come from nature; this is the inspiration we wanted to transfer into our car.” The design of colour and trim was carried out by Gabriele Hess under the guidance of Valeria Vigevani; Notable by its absence are the futuristic materials you often see in rival concepts. “A Mercedes has to look like a Mercedes – a show car has to look believable for us, even while it expresses our future; for example by using real wood, this tone of leather, and using matching colours and materials that make the car look elegant. You will never see from Mercedes very flashy colours and unusual material combinations,” insists Jauch-Paganetti.
Vehicle type: production/5-door hatchbackFiat Group Design Director: Lorenzo Ramaciotti
Chief Interior Designer: Ramon Ginah
Senior Interior Designers: Daniele Calonaci & Gianni Gariglio
Colour & trim manager: Rossella Guasco
Graphic design manager: Davide Crepaldi
Project started: summer 2005
Project completed: April 2008
Launch: Geneva/March 2010
“As we looked at the history of the Giuletta we decided we wanted to keep it this way – to keep the architecture horizontal and wide-feeling. It’s not for the young guy who drives alone, it’s a family car; a car for your mother, your father, people with children, for everybody,” saysChief Interior Designer Ramon Ginah.
Project 904 – the internal codename for the Giulietta – had a very difficult birth; work began at Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile in 2005, with designers competing with sketch proposals. Outside consultancies such as Bertone were then brought in to add their ideas in 2006/7, resulting in a full-scale clay model that was later presented to newly appointed Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. He rejected the design, and the Centro Stile team was asked to create a completely new proposal – exterior
and interior – from scratch. The interior sketching process began a new in November 2007 – just a few weeks prior to the exterior design freeze, and some six months before the interior was frozen (in April 2008). “The brief was for something simple, emotional, ergonomic and spacious,” recalls Chief Interior Designer, Ramon Ginah. “In terms of emotion, one of things we started to look at was the original Giulietta and Giullietta Sprint, at this horizontal architecture they had, to try and use this as inspiration. A horizontal architecture helps in creating an ergonomic feel, because it allows you to divide the functions into zones.”
Project 904 – the internal codename for the Giulietta – had a very difficult birth; work began at Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile in 2005, with designers competing with sketch proposals. Outside consultancies such as Bertone were then brought in to add their ideas in 2006/7, resulting in a full-scale clay model that was later presented to newly appointed Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. He rejected the design, and the Centro Stile team was asked to create a completely new proposal – exterior
and interior – from scratch. The interior sketching process began a new in November 2007 – just a few weeks prior to the exterior design freeze, and some six months before the interior was frozen (in April 2008). “The brief was for something simple, emotional, ergonomic and spacious,” recalls Chief Interior Designer, Ramon Ginah. “In terms of emotion, one of things we started to look at was the original Giulietta and Giullietta Sprint, at this horizontal architecture they had, to try and use this as inspiration. A horizontal architecture helps in creating an ergonomic feel, because it allows you to divide the functions into zones.”
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