Hidden figures of design: making your car feel like home

The Color & Trim team works tirelessly to make your car a place you love to spend time in. That’s why they look for colours, materials and ideas that resemble a modern home as much as possible.

12. 10. 2021 Škoda World

The heroes of automotive design are usually seen as those who give cars their striking exteriors. But there are many other, less obvious heroes in the Color & Trim department who work more on the details we use, see and take for granted every day. These designers work mainly with the colour combinations and the different materials you find in all parts of the interior.

The Color & Trim department

Part of the Color & Trim team’s job is to select materials and patterns for upholstery. They tweak the colour combinations of the dashboard, decorative materials and even the smallest and at first glance “invisible” patterns and textures found right across the interior and exterior. They keep an eye for current trends, not only in the field of materials, but also in terms of taste. “Our inspiration often comes from interior design,” explains Kateřina Vránová, Head of Colour & Trim at ŠKODA Design.

In addition to the fact that cars are increasingly taking inspiration from the environment of their owners’ homes, another trend is coming to the fore. “Sustainability is a key issue of the present day,” Vránová says. But ecological considerations must not come at the expense of the practicality, usability and durability of a car’s interior, so this trend requires a careful approach.

Trends in car interiors: sustainability and inspiration from home interiors

Trends in contemporary car interiors: sustainability and inspiration from home interiors

Bolder colours on the horizon

Of course, trends manifest themselves in different ways in different cars. “The affordable FABIA offers one kind of opportunity, while our electromobility flagship, the ENYAQ iV, another, and the KUSHAQ SUV for the Indian market require different approaches,” explains the Color & Trim team leader. In addition, of course, the designers also work on concept cars to test the public’s reaction to different solutions, both in terms of interior and exterior colours. Few people expected the VISION IN study, which gave rise to the mass-produced KUSHAQ, to be presented in a bold orange colour, for example. And now, according to early estimates, this colour is set to be one of the most popular in the Indian market for this SUV.

The ŠKODA KUSHAQ (shown), an SUV for the Indian market, was based on the orange VISION IN study.

“Although ŠKODA cars tend to be fairly conservative and family-oriented, we can definitely look forward to bolder colour combinations in the future, but above all natural and recycled materials. As well as new materials and solutions that we haven’t seen in our cars before,” Vránová says with a smile.

Kateřina Vránová

Having graduated from the Faculty of Textiles at the Technical University in Liberec, materials were an obvious choice for Kateřina Vránová. In the Color & Trim department she was originally responsible for working with textile materials and Alcantara, and today she manages the entire team. “My job is to give my colleagues room for their creativity and at the same time to promote our ideas to the management of the car company,” says Kateřina Vránová.

Stefan Webelhorst

He is the Color & Trim team member who focuses on sustainability. “My job is to use recycled materials, natural materials and recyclable materials. I deal with these issues not only within the team, but also throughout the entire company,” says Webelhorst. Among other things, he is working to ensure that recycled material from production waste at ŠKODA plants, for example, can be used in the interiors of ŠKODA cars.

Caroline Liehr

In these difficult times, Caroline Liehr has been given a difficult task - she was made head of the design studio in Pune, India, which is responsible for adapting ŠKODA cars to the tastes of Indian customers. And the use of local materials and interior solutions from local suppliers has played a major part in this. Her first task at her new location was to bring the KUSHAQ SUV into series production. She continues to communicate intensively with her colleagues in the Czech Republic and brings them inspiration from the “new” environment.

Peregrina Iglesias

In the Color & Trim team, Peregrina Iglesias has become a specialist in unusual paint applications, among other things. These encompass paint sprays with irregular textures, colour transitions and coloured surfaces with patterns imprinted in the paint. These are all ideas that Peregrina works on and may appear to a greater or lesser extent in production cars in the future.

Lada Dlabolová

Lada Dlabolová’s specialisation mainly covers the development of patterns for plastic parts. In simple terms, this means what pattern or indentations a plastic part will have in the interior of a car. “We play with the textures and colours of these plastics, and one big theme is the use of new, greener materials,” says Lada. She is the creator of the so-called Crystal tread, which is an inconspicuous structure on the dashboard of ŠKODA cars from the SCALA. onwards. “Everything has to look harmonious, and it’s the job of the whole team not to overdo it with the patterns in the car,” says Dlabolová.

Markéta Kalíková

Markéta Kalíková is the real leather specialist in the Color & Trim department. “At first glance, this might seem to be a material on the way out nowadays, but it still has huge importance,” she says, adding that leather is natural and is actually a by-product from the meat industry that would otherwise end up in landfill. “Leather can also be recycled, but recycled leather, i.e. ground natural leather with a binder, is not yet suitable for stressed parts such as seats,” says Kalíková. Recycled leather also has the advantage that it can actually be used to simulate any surface texture, and can be used to play with colours and prints, so it can add a new dimension to the interior.

Véronique Favia

Véronique Favia specialises in foils. Specifically, foils that can give a new texture to plastic parts, in particular in the car interior. The way it works is that a pattern is printed on the foil itself and the foil is then used as a top layer in the production of the plastic part itself. The structures created by her colleague Lada Dlabolová can thus give the foils a completely new, more imaginative and luxurious look. Foils also have the advantage of being able to hide optical imperfections in the recycled material.

Maria Kertzscher

Most of Color & Trim’s work is on the interior of cars, but in one important area it also has an impact on cars’ exterior appearance. That field is paintwork, and Maria Kertzscher is the specialist. Although she says ŠKODA’s more conservative colours are the most popular, Maria is working to bring more attractive and bold colours into production, such as the special Dragon Skin paint that ŠKODA offers as part of its Fleetbox service. The new trend, she says, is matt paints, which are still a bit of a complication in high-volume production as they require a more complex painting process.

Josef Machač

Josef Machač’s work proves that the designers in the Color & Trim department really do deal with a variety of details. He is another specialist in structures, and his main focus is on the structures of the rubber mats in ŠKODA vehicles. “This kind of structure must combine both practical and aesthetic aspects. It has to look nice, but at the same time it has to hold dirt and water well,” says Machač. One of 20 designs for a particular project will go into series production, he says. In addition to these parts, Josef Machač also designs graphics for plastic tub parts in the luggage compartment, various inserted components, double-sided carpets. He designs logos and plaques, and has one relatively new speciality: “I work with lighting design, with the exterior lighting of the car, for example in the form of logos and other elements projected onto the road,” says Machač.

Ildikó Kiss

Ildikó Kiss is a specialist in graphic design, so she is responsible for logos and their placement on the car, for example, and deals with the specific design and form of the logo and other details. She is also responsible for the colour concepts of cars in the A0 segment. “In my work I basically balance between the needs of the marketing department, the needs of our customers and the technical possibilities,” says Ildikó. Her job requires a global knowledge of materials, i.e. what can be used in a car, which is why she collaborates extensively with other colleagues.

Miloš Nesvadba

Miloš Nesvadba is, as he says with a bit of exaggeration, the Color & Trim department’s tables specialist. What this means is that he is responsible for “colour specification sheets”, which are detailed documents that describe exactly where and how specific materials and colours are used in a given car and specific trim level. “I have to describe these materials and colours precisely according to our catalogue so that they are traceable throughout the group,” says Nesvadba. He works on the specifications from the very beginning of a car’s development, first essentially drawing up the list of parts that will need to be described, then adding specific details.

Věra Dudychová

Věra Dudychová is a specialist in textile parts such as ceiling upholstery (known as “headliner”), carpets and netting systems in ŠKODA cars, but also the important design of seat belts. In addition to finding materials, her work also involves creating patterns and other decorations. “We have recently been working on new designs for India, for example,” she says. For concept cars, Dudychová can then show different ways of making the interior more interesting, for example by colouring the seat belts or illuminating the ceiling. “With seat belts, we are also exploring possibilities for their further use, because it is a very high-quality material that can lead another life after its service in the car,” adds Dudychová.

Petra Debnárová

Another textile specialist in the Color & Trim team is Petra Debnárová, currently the youngest member of the team. “I joined last October, but before that I was already an intern at Color & Trim and worked with the department on my thesis,” says the designer. Her work combined textiles and augmented reality, with a mobile app creating the desired patterns on the surface of the textiles. This is a method that can help designers in their work, but also aids customer decision-making. At the moment, however, Petra Debnárová mainly works on the use of recycled and recyclable textiles in cars, on seats, door panels, dashboard covers and other similar places.