Color & Trim Archives

Rolls-Royce Returns to Coachbuilding Roots with New Boat Tail

Eric Gallina — Fri, 28 May 2021 08:59:00 +0000

Coachbuilding has been around since the dawn of the automobile, even before. In the age of horse drawn carriages, wealthy clients would come to a carriage builder and specify what they wanted and craftsmen would set to work developing a vehicle that was tailored to their requests. The practice can be traced all the way back to the mid-1600s. Before mass market production, a car – then very much a luxury product – would be supplied as a rolling chassis, […]

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Color and Material Trends In Car Design

Eric Gallina — Wed, 20 May 2020 11:52:00 +0000

John Anthony Sahs and Nicole Fonseca are two designers working for Nissan Design America. John is chief designer in Brazil, overseeing the design studio in Latin America, while Nicole, a senior color and materials manager, just returned to California from Japan and China, where she was on assignment for the past few years. In the video series below, recorded live on Nissan Design Latin America’s Instagram account, the designers discuss the importance of color and material design in automotive. OUTSIDE INFLUENCES […]

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Espousing the Values of Traditional Leather in Vehicle Interiors

Egbert Dikkers — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 09:00:00 +0000

The leather industry is experiencing a challenging time. One of the biggest challenges we currently face is to ensure that consumers and designers choose materials for vehicles based on facts and understanding. Vehicle manufacturers are eager to transform and increasingly focus on marketing the interior of the car. We have seen a trend for replacing leather, an organic material, with oil-based plastics and synthetics, somehow conflating ‘vegan’ with ‘sustainable’, which when the stated objective is sustainability, is a misrepresentation of […]

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Francesca Sangalli Leaves Mercedes-Benz to Head SEAT Color & Trim, Concept & Strategy

Eric Gallina — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 11:02:06 +0000

Former Mercedes-Benz senior Color and Trim designer and project leader Francesca Sangalli has taken on a new role as Head of SEAT’s Color & Trim Concept & Strategy department. Sangalli will join Volkswagen Group’s Spanish subsidiary later this month, reporting directly to SEAT design director Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos. Born in Milan, Italy, Sangalli has spent the last 16 years of her career working at Mercedes-Benz’s advanced design studio in Como, which was responsible for many of the German company’s interior proposals. […]

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Meet the Designers: An In-Depth Look at the Design of the Aston Martin DB11

Eric Gallina — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:43:29 +0000

I’ve previously shared my opinion on the design of the Aston Martin DB11, which, as the replacement for the gorgeous (if a bit long in the tooth) DB9 was always going to have its work cut out for it. Aston Martin’s designers, however, have successfully managed to create a vehicle that caters to ever-growing trends in personalization while simultaneously bringing historic design cues forward into the modern era. The result is a massive step change in design for the low-volume […]

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Design Story: Nissan Vmotion 2.0 Concept Envisions the Future

Eric Gallina — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 09:06:05 +0000

Designers in car companies the world over are looking for compelling ways to integrate autonomous technology into their future product... LOGIN OR SUBSCRIBE TO VIEW

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How Infiniti Designers Use Color to Highlight Vehicle Design

Eric Gallina — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 08:38:25 +0000

Color has always played a major part in car design. But just as the creases and curves of a car’s outward form have evolved down the years, so too has the palette of colors adorning the metal. Much of this, of course, may be attributed to the transient nature of fashion and the constant evolution of taste. Colors often capture and reflect current trends, fluctuating between flamboyant and conservative with the passing of time. However, the emergence of new paint […]

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Bentley Interior Design Director on the EXP10 Speed6 Concept

Eric Gallina — Wed, 25 May 2016 15:48:18 +0000

The Bentley EXP10 Speed6 Concept has won many accolades since making its debut at the 2015 Geneva auto show. As well it should. The concept makes one of the most progressive design statements we’ve seen from Bentley for quite a while, and for a brand steeped in heritage that’s saying a lot. We spoke with interior design director Brett Boydell to get an inside look at how the concept was created. Developed over a period of 18 months in the […]

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Ford Mustang Configurator Reflects Customer Tastes in Diverse Markets

Eric Gallina — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 10:20:32 +0000

There’s been an unprecedented surge in demand for the new Ford Mustang since the order books opened late last year. Unprecedented, well, because the Mustang hasn’t been sold in Europe since 1979 – when they were rebadged as the Ford T5 because German truck manufacturer Krupp owned the Mustang trademark. The company says that 1.1 million people visited Ford’s websites and nearly 500,000 people looked at the various options, priced and personalized the Mustang from mid-January to mid-February. Though we’re […]

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Land Rover Collaborates With Paul Smith For Bespoke Defender

Eric Gallina — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 21:13:57 +0000

Land Rover has collaborated with Paul Smith for a one-off Defender model, showcasing the potential of the automotive manufacturer’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division whilst simultaneously highlighting the British fashion designer’s eclectic tastes. Paul Smith, a longstanding fan of the Defender, has owned several of the vehicles over the years and currently keeps one at his home in the Italian countryside. With guidance from Land Rover’s Design Director, Gerry McGovern, Smith worked closely with the SVO design team to create […]

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Trends: Ombré Moving Up A Gear

Form Trends — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:34:51 +0000

Ombré – or graduated/gradient color – took hold in a big way in fashion and furniture in 2013. While fashion blogs/trend agencies predict that ombré is out for 2014, in automotive design it’s just getting going. Taking its lead from the latest Nike Flyknit Air Max trainers, we’re seeing ombré get bolder in the automotive space – and even mix with other trends.  Manufacturers like Renault state that new manufacture techniques will allow it to create seats covers in an […]

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Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé Waterspeed Collection

Eric Gallina — Thu, 15 May 2014 14:56:05 +0000

Rolls-Royce is set to reveal the Phantom Drophead Coupé Waterspeed Collection at the forthcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este later this month. Just 35 units of the exclusive model will be built. Named after the world waterspeed record set by Sir Malcolm Campbell and his Bluebird K3 hydroplane, the bespoke Drophead Coupé will be making its debut on the shores of lake Como, where Campbell shattered the US’s five-year reign by recording a 129.5 top speed in 1937. The Waterspeed Collection […]

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