Name: Simon Lamarre
Age: 37
Job: Studio chief designer, Volvo, Sweden
Key cars: Volvo C30, Saab 9-5 Estate, various Volvo buses
4Car - What's the most significant design element of your latest concept?
Lamarre - "I like the composition of the whole of the Volvo C30 Design Concept. It's based on the design language of [former Volvo design chief] Peter Horbury but we've played with it and tweaked it."
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| Volvo C30 |
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4Car - Design influences?
Lamarre - "Volvo 480 and product designer Ron Arad - he breaks convention. I love chair design, I have an old prototype Saab 900 black car seat in my living room - it's very comfortable and gets a lot of attention. It's an electric one so I have to plug it in."
4Car - What attracted you to car design as a career?
Lamarre - "Who doesn't dream of becoming a car designer? In my case I studied industrial design in Canada, and then moved to Sweden. Scandinavian design is world-renowned and in Sweden there are two big names in cars. My first job was as a modeller for Saab."
4Car - What's the next big car design trend/challenge?
Lamarre - "New materials, especially translucent ones and trying to bring the car industry closer to the fashion and sports world and follow trends more quickly."
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| Reanult Megane: a design revolution that stayed 'French' |
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4Car - What other car firm /design team do you think would be interesting to work for?
Lamarre - "The French carmakers have done a fantastic job at doing something new and something people also recognise. They made a design revolution and stayed within what we call 'French' design. Renault has done some great stuff and right now Citroen, too. The C4, for example, is a great car.
4Car - What car did you wish you'd designed?
Lamarre - "Austin Healey BN100"
4Car - What car are you glad you didn't design?
Lamarre - "Pontiac Aztek - no one really wants to claim the credit for that, so I don't know who did it. There are very few cars that are so unanimously hated, but the Aztek is one.
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| Pontiac Aztek: unanimously hated |
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4Car - What shoes are you wearing?
Lamarre - "Pedag (made in Italy)"
4Car - What watch?
Lamarre - "Invicta."
