• ADN: Automotive Design Network
• Stylists interviews
  • Colour and trim
  • Conceptualisation and shapes
• Birth of a concept car

Colour and trim

Hello, you're a stylist in the Colour and Trim Department of the Programmes Division. What does your job involve?
Florence BERLENCOURT: I work on the future vehicles of the Peugeot range, in "phase lead".
Depending on the vehicle, its target and given marketing data, I look for a corresponding universe. I'm going to imagine a setting and a life style in order to associate a character with it, thereby creating an atmosphere corresponding to the future buyers, by working from key words.
With this atmosphere we associate a colour code, and then we define the material aspects for textiles.
In the Colour and Trim Department, we are three stylists: one colleague is more specifically devoted to the creation of an "atmosphere" to produce a colour scheme, another works on parts' decoration, and finally I myself work with both.

What is your career experience?
F.B: I began with a BTS diploma in Industrial Design; then I earned my Higher Diploma of Applied Arts in the Boulle school, in Paris.
I worked freelance for communication agencies, for the merchandising and packaging sectors. At the same time I had my own publishing company.
I joined Peugeot (career path).

How do you work at Peugeot Styling?
We work in close relation with the stylists in charge of interior design based on specifications produced by the Product Planning Department.

Where do you get your ideas from?
F.B: Usually they are based chiefly on personal initiatives. I go to exhibitions, the most recent being an exhibition on China in Paris by an unknown artist who, through his sculpture and shapes, was able to communicate emotion.
My next exhibition will be that of a woman enthusiastic about Venetian glassware, where I will be especially interested in the pearly appearances obtained.
In a professional context, the suppliers propose to us to attend trend shows.

The Brand also buys trend books from specialist firms.
But in our job, it is above all a question of feeling and intuition.

What is the last project on which you worked? Can you tell us what your contribution was?
F.B: My last project was the 308. I started out from a general theme, sport, to define various range levels and interior expressions.
The themes adopted were:
- "snapshot" sport characterised by speed;
- ethereal sport with inspiration;
- performance sport (golf, archery) with precision, and
- nautical sport with diving and breathing-related risk.

Based on these major families of sports, I looked for visuals and derived colour codes from them:
- Speed sport, with carbon-hued black and a little deep red, not bright because it would be too aggressive;
- Performance sport, with greyish beige, a bright colour scheme which did not exist on the 307, to which we have added chocolate brown and saffron;
- Ethereal sport, with likewise as a base greyish beige together with light blue and turquoise;
- Nautical sport, for which slate grey has been adopted.

Depending on the theme and the impact generated, we incorporate these colours more or less extensively.