What Goes into Designing a Concept Car?
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In this newly revealed video, we go behind the scenes to see how SEAT created its 20V20 concept. The journey starts with an initial sketch drawn by the seashore all the way to a showcar.
Unveiled at the Geneva motor show in March earlier this year, the Vision 2020 SUV sets the stage for the Spanish carmaker’s future by putting forward the brand’s new design language.
“Like an arrow” is how SEAT design boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos summarises the sense of “speed and dynamism” he wanted to convey when creating the 20V20 design study.
Close to 15 people spent five months working almost exclusively on “creating a car from scratch”, says Ángel Lahoz, the engineer who was responsible for the 20V20, who points out that one of the most particular qualities of a car with these characteristics is that every single piece of it is “unique” and handcrafted.
Day after day, Mesonero-Romanos scrutinised every detail and supervised each element. In the end he is satisfied that his creation “looks well-groomed, but is evocative of high performance”.
Another element the designers say they manipulated is “tension”, and SEAT’s design director uses a sports metaphor to illustrate this: “We wanted to capture the coiled tension of an athlete in the starting blocks and convey a moment of maximum physical and mental alertness”.
Barcelona is “our home and our inspiration”, adds Mesonero-Romanos. In fact, the SEAT Design Centre in Martorell is the epicentre of the company’s design activity, and spreads out to include several locations in nearby Barcelona, especially where the Mediterranean Sea is the backdrop. Members of the Color&Trim design team say they make frequent trips to the city to get ideas for colours and surface finishes.
Jordi Font, who is the head of Color&Trim at SEAT, maintains that “the dynamism of our city reflects our mood”. The “Ultra Orange” of the 20V20 mirrors “the special moment of sunlight over the Mediterranean at dawn,” he adds.
He and his team say they came up with 96 different paint formulations before making the final selection for the exterior colour, which plays a role in defining the character of the car and heavily influences the interior colours and trim.
Meanwhile, head of Interior Design Jaume Sala maintains that the entire inside of the vehicle was created with open space in mind, without any dividing elements, “giving a loft effect, but retaining its personality and driver-focussed layout for greater driving pleasure”.
“The most satisfying aspect of my job is that I get to follow the process of creating the car at every stage, and pay close attention to every detail”, points out Lahoz. “First you see it on paper, then as a virtual mockup, and when it finally takes shape is the moment of greatest satisfaction,” he concludes.
SEAT will present the first compact SUV in its history next year in Geneva.