January 2012
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On a Designer's Desk
This is my desk with some of my precious accessories. What do you have on yours? Would love you to share your pics with us on @wedesignvolvo.
/Anders
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China emerge as design trend setters
Chinese Design has been looked upon as “copy-cats” with a design audience acting rather as followers than leaders. However, with regards to fashion brands like e.g. “SHANGHAI TANG” we believe this is changing. Will young, modern Chinese fashion even spearhead China to actually becoming an influential trend setting marketplace?
Shanghai Tang is an international clothing chain company, founded in...
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More Volvo Ocean Race Inspiration
We took some images when working with the interior design of the Volvo Ocean Race Edition. I think it is pretty clear what elements from the nautical cards and carbon sails of the Volvo Ocean Race ships that inspired me. See more in this post: Designing with Volvo Ocean Race in mind.
/Anders
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At Detroit Auto Show - Jonas Strömberg,...
Jonas Strömberg, interaction designer of the Volvo XC60 plug-in petrol hybrid Concept
What do you work with?
In essence, I’m working on creating a positive user experience for the driver by sorting and designing the information flow in the car. Our main focus is on digital and graphic design. In summary, my colleagues and I design technology that is designed for and around people.
How...
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Meet Lennart – The Expert on Volvo Models
Meet Lennart, the go-to-guy when it comes to licensing a Volvo car. If somewhere in the world, a Volvo is to be produced as a replica model, a toy or included in a computer game like Gran Turismo 5, Lennart makes sure the producer gets everything right and send e.g. CAD-drawings, physical measures or photographs around the world. For example, a factory in China might never have seen a Volvo so...
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What inspires you?
When it comes to designing cars, inspiration comes from everywhere. I have a soft spot for exclusive watches such as Patek Philippe and I’m a dedicated collector of wrist watches. It’s in this collection that I’ve found the inspiration for one of Volvos more extreme interior designs; Milled Amber – inscription decor of the S80. The technique used to create the almost 3D-like...
December 2011
8 posts
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Designing with Volvo Ocean Race in mind
Volvo Cars makes a Volvo Ocean Race edition and this time my job was to work on a detail of the interior that was specifically related to the competition Volvo Ocean Race. Volvo Ocean Race is the formula 1 of sailing and my objective was to create something that mirrored the cool, sporty feeling.
I went through some ideas based on the landscapes and archipelago outside of Gothenburg but...
What does a black car indicate?
This interview is translated from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, you can read the original article here http://www.dn.se/motor/hon-satter-farg-pa-volvo.
For Volvo color responsible Cecilia Stark, the answer is simple: elegance, athleticism and attitude. “Black is always right,” she says. Blue, silver, gray and black. There you have the far most popular colors among...
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The Designer Mustache of the Year
November is the official mustasch-month, also known as Movember. Movember has become a major international event were people around the world raise funds and awareness about mens’ health. On the first of november, all participants at Volvo got a clean shave and started to grow their mustasches from scratch. 25 designers, engineers and chiefs at Volvo Design participated and grew their...
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Designer Portrait – 1. Lars Falk
Name: Lars Falk Profession: Vice President, Product Design China Location: Shanghai. Volvo R&D centre is located in Jiading and we live in HongQiaoI spend my free time with my family and when I find time on windsurfing
Why did you become a designer? I was hung up on drawing objects when I was younger. Gadgets, vehicles, cars and motorbikes. I understood early on that I wanted to be the one...
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Portraying our Designers
Hi there!
Did you ever wonder who’s working with all the different design aspects on Volvo Cars? We will have our designers tell you a bit about themselves, in no special rank or order. Since we’re in the progress of establishing our Shanghai office, Lars Falk, VP Product Design, China - is first out. The post will be out soon!
/Andreas
Design all around the world
Did you know that we have design studios in four different parts of the world?
Our main design office is in Gothenburg in the south of Sweden and then we also have studios in Barcelona, Shanghai and Camarillo.
In Camarillo Volvo has been around for 25 years and has today a complete design studio and a lot of cooperations with universities to enhance the focus on future technology. Recently we...
November 2011
1 post
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The State of Design
This is a video about the desire to create something new. We discuss inspirations, dreams and the worst parts of being a designer. To work with a project like this is of course a dream for a car designer. To be part of the evolution of a concept car is a very unique process that challenges you to always push the limits of car design. In the video you can see my colleague Conny describing the...
September 2011
24 posts
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Craftsmanship, Kasthall
The exquisite and diverse craftsmanship required to create the Volvo Concept You has been discussed previously. In this video we focus on our cooperation partner Kasthall – renowned Swedish makers of exclusive and handtufted rugs. The designers at Kasthall talk about their thoughts when designing the rug for the Volvo Concept You. This attention to detail is needed when creating the luxurious...
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Georg Jensen
The famous Danish design house Georg Jensen’s jewellery, kitchenware and watches are the epitome of Scandinavian design with a minimalist and timeless ethos. It only seems natural for Volvo to cooperate with this icon of Scandinavian style when designing the Concept You.
The design of the wheels, the grille, the innovative headlamps and elements of the steering wheel (see the sketch...
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50 year anniversary of Volvo P1800
In 1961 one of Volvo’s most legendary design classics was launched: the Volvo P1800/1800. It became very famous as a result of its role in the films about “The Saint” in which the hero Simon Templar (Roger Moore) drove the car. The car was designed by Pelle Petterson who worked at the Turin-based car designer Pietro Frua. Production during the first years was contracted to...
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Sketches
Here is something that every car design enthusiast appreciates: sketches! You can see all the themes that we’ve discussed in previous posts: Scandinavian design, the PV544 hood, the Amazon inspired front, the touchscreen/centre console, and finally the interior and its separated front and rear zones.
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Inspiration
One important source of inspiration for the design of the Volvo Concept You was the following: how do we design a luxury car with Scandinavian design? How do we make an exclusive and luxurious Volvo? Since most car designs today seem to be quite similar and based on complicated designs, we decided to look into our history and then go forward with a simple and minimalistic Scandinavian design.
...
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Thoughts after Frankfurt
Three questions to Jonathan:
1) What was the reaction in Frankfurt?
The reaction in Frankfurt was excellent! A normal guy of the street, someone who likes cars (not a Volvo fanatic!) came up to me and said: “I hope you build this car because it is so beautiful”, which was very nice to hear. At the motor show designers from other car brands have also praised the Concept You design....
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Touchscreens, video
In this video I show the main design features of the touchscreens and instrument clusters used in the Volvo Concept You. /Conny
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Sound system from Alpine
The Volvo Concept You has a unique sound system developed in cooperation with Alpine. Part of the sound system is the FreshAir subwoofer which uses air outside of the car. This technology makes the subwoofer significantly lighter. In this video we explain how this sound technology from Alpine works.
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Touchscreens
We have tried to remove all the buttons and levers and integrate those into the touchscreen and go as far as possible. Our inspiration source was smartphones and particularly iPhone. The design is intuitive yet has a technological look, but isn’t trying to be smarter than the user.
We have two touchscreens: one for the driver in the front, and another in the rear for the passengers....
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Interior and details
Well-dressed gentleman – that is one of the visions for the interior design. Simple, clean and elegant forms. Forms that are suitable for materials. The wood panels are large and not purely decorative. The leather fits the forms with padded soft leather. The back doors are sweeping and, when closed, attach and integrate with the back seat. This is the Scandinavian design heritage – the right...
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Interior design
The main vision for the design of Concept You’s interior design is the notion of “designed around you”. The design of the interior reflects an intuitive and user-centred approach. We achieve this by going back to an old idea of creating separate interior zones – one for the driver in the front, and another for the passengers in the rear.
The driver zone is dark while the...
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Craftsmanship
In this video we discuss the skilled craftsmanship required to make the Volvo Concept You – from the designers, carpenters, carpet makers to Swedish suit maker Oscar Jacobson and leather craftsmen. We also show how the car is handbuilt in Italy.
/Jonathan, Andreas and Conny
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Exterior design
Notice the two small sunroofs - they are only for rear seat passengers. /Conny
Photographers tell me that Volvo Concept You is difficult to photograph because it is quite different depending on the point of view. It doesn’t have a traditional shoulder line. The shoulder line of Concept You runs diagonally although this is not always evident. From the front it appears as a wedge. From...
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Launch!
Today we are presenting the new Volvo Concept You at the Frankfurt Motor Show. We are very excited! Compared to the earlier Concept Universe (presented in Shanghai) we have changed every surface of the car and made a completely different design, particularly with the new rear and front design. The main difference is that Concept You is a coupé, or a hatchback as opposed to the Concept Universe...
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Thoughts before the launch at the Frankfurt Motor...
I’m very excited! It is always exciting to show the car to the public for the first time. It has been a labour of love for the last couple of months. It will be very exciting to get some feedback from the press and visitors. The design of Volvo Concept You has also been a build-up of secrecy – I can’t speak to anyone about the car before it is being released! And now finally it is...
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Wood
The choice of beautiful interior materials and fabrics is very important for us. When designing the interiors we decided to focus on walnut wood with a satin finish. Notice how the walnut shade shifts from dark to light. Subtle design decisions like this contribute to the overall ambience and experience of a car.
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Construction
It was fantastic to see the model develop for real. For the first time we could feel and touch the design. We had spent so much time looking at it in computers. We decided to construct a full-blown concept car. Here are some pictures we took during the construction of our next concept car. /Conny
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Our new concept
Frankfurt Motor Show is getting close. Peter Horbury said that we are going to show the “…next step in our quest for the future Volvo”. We are happy to reveal the name of that next step, our new concept: Volvo Concept You. It is going to be relased in Frankfurt on September 13. Since Shanghai we have spent a considerable amount of hours in the design studio and the result is...
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Working With Genuine Material
To develop inspiring interior and enhance the Scandinavian roots in our design work, we have chosen to work with Kasthall for one of our projects. Have a look at some images we took at their atelier. They have developed hand tufted rugs since 1889.
/Conny
Genuine material from Kasthall
Hand tufted rugs
Handmade carpet on the wall at Kasthall
Individualized coloring.
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Here is a little teaser showing what we have been working on lately. Exquisite craftsmanship. You gotta love it!
Fluidity
Just stumbled on this photo. Beautiful composition. /Andreas
(photo by wecand)
August 2011
1 post
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5 Questions to Peter Horbury
The Concept Universe was introduced at Auto Shanghai in April. We asked our Design Director Peter Horbury five questions /Jonathan & Andreas You were at Auto Shanghai in April to launch the Concept Universe, a new kind of luxury car from Volvo. How was it received? It was received amazingly well. The Chinese loved the bold exterior and the untraditional front-end. Our designers asked the...
May 2011
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Loro Piana →
The cashmere fabrics and designs of Italian clothing company Loro Piana is an inspiration source because of its sense of luxury. Take a look at their latest line!
/Jonathan
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April 2011
41 posts
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