ONELIFE #34 – English

ON A PERSONAL NOTE
MATERIAL WORLD
Amy Frascella, Land Rover’s Chief
Designer for Colour and Materials, on
the challenge of hitting the right aesthetic
notes for the new Range Rover Velar
Continued evolution driven by an ongoing,
relentless focus on creating desirable
products that our customers will love for life,
is at the core of everything we do. Every new
vehicle we launch is a celebration of our
creative endeavours; if it excites and delights
the customer, then the designers and
engineers have achieved their aim.
The New Range Rover Velar brings a new
dimension of glamour and elegance to the
Range Rover Family: a new type of Range
Rover for a new type of customer. The Velar
is a product of a well-considered design
strategy combined with an intensive,
creative, intellectual process. When the
essence of the vehicle has been defined,
Land Rover designers work in conjunction
with many other teams within the business to
craft a new vehicle that is focused and
congruent with the original vision.
There is an infectious, positive energy at
play when we work on a project like this.
It’s the kind of energy that leads us to many
of the creative solutions you’ll end up seeing
on the finished car.
My work on colour and materials is no
exception to this, as it works as the essential,
harmonious link between the exterior and
interior design of the vehicle. A rare blend
of art and science, this is a unique discipline.
As designers we need to understand both
the technical specifications and physical
make-up of materials in order to push
the boundaries of innovation, functionality
and design.
Traditionally a course in textile design
leads to work in the fashion or architectural
industry. However, my career followed a
very different path. Our material and colour
inspirations are driven from within Land
Rover and what is relevant to our design
ethos, but particularly in Colour and
Materials Design we often also seek
inspiration from beyond the brand in the
worlds of fashion, furniture and other areas
of design – we can tap into fresh thinking.
It is crucial we always look further and
understand how the landscape is shifting.
One of the shifts we are beginning to see is
the desire for curated choice and
personalisation. Most luxury brands only
offer leather in their top models, but Velar
challenges this and the traditional
conventions of automotive luxury materials.
To do this, we have developed a high
end premium wool blend textile as an
alternative to leather. We collaborated with
one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of
premium textiles, Kvadrat, whose luxury
wool blends are used in high-end furniture.
This is an automotive industry-first use of
premium textile materials that are beautiful
in their own right, as well as durable and
sustainable. However we had to ensure it
met all of Land Rover’s durability standards,
as our technical specifications are different to
the furniture industry. Exhaustive testing and
experimentation with different fibre blends
and weave structures followed until we
achieved the perfect mix.
The Premium Textile is just one of
the new material developments for the
new Range Rover Velar. However, this one
option reflects the principles of the Velar
project as a whole: compelling design,
tailored technology and relevant innovation
coming together to create a vehicle of
timeless modernity.
Amy Frascella is Land Rover’s Chief
Designer for Colour and Materials
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