The car design process: Making of the Kia Sportspace

Kiaclub Nieuwsrobot · 24 Juni, 2015

Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show 2015, the Kia Sportspace concept, with its striking wagon silhouette and powerful performance, has definitely been talk of the town. Designed under the leadership of Gregory Guillaume, Chief Designer Europe, the Sportspace was developed in Kia’s Frankfurt design studio. Today, we have prepared a quick tour for you to see the remarkable work of Guillaume and his team and the whole car design process at Kia Motors.

Planning

Just like all great masterpieces, Kia concept designs start with an imagination. The Sportspace came to life out of the ambition Guillaume developed when he was still studying design in Switzerland. On his key inspiration for the design, Guillaume explained, “I always had this picture in my mind of creating a vehicle that I could have used to go skiing for the weekend with friends before driving back for it to be displayed at the Geneva Salon.”

Gregory Guillaume

Sketching & rendering

Determined to create a versatile vehicle, Kia’s Chief Designer of the Europe design studio started sketching out the car of his dreams. Even from the early stage of design, the Sportspace featured an architectural outline that was at once distinct and sophisticated.

Once the sketching was done, the next step involved digital rendering, adding shading, color and lamination to a 2-D image in order to mold the ideas into a more life-like image.

1:1 scale clay model development

As their ideas solidified, Kia’s design team entered the next phase of car design: clay modeling. Automobile prototypes made of clay still play important role in today’s digital age; they accurately reflect the full-size physical model with refined changes down to a few millimeters.

“The visual weight of the rear is reduced with the careful shaping of screen, door, and rear bumper. The edges cut into the mass to make its raked appearance believable and less wagon-like,” explained Guillaume.

Building

Bringing a piece of inspiration to life takes a lot of effort, but with strong teamwork, the design phase gradually nears an end. After rigorously building each part based on the final design, what emerges is a bold front look — powerful satin aluminum strip and ice-cube LED headlights — and a luxurious interior composed of carbon fiber and milled and anodized aluminum.

As a finishing touch, the car is equipped with 20-inch ten-spoke alloy wheels.