C8 Trim

The all-new eighth-generation mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette won't be available to purchase until early 2020, and that might be a good thing. The C8 has more configurations than ever, including 12 different exterior paints, so the extra time might be necessary before settling on the right spec. To better understand exactly what we're looking at, we spoke to Chevrolet Global's Color and Trim Design Manager Brett Golliff, who went into heavy detail about design, color theory, Corvette heritage and, yes, that row of buttons.

What was your impression when you first saw the finished product?
There are two ways of looking at the final product. There's a sense that we have various design gates that we go through to finish a design. Our major one is DSO, which is Design Sign Off, and that's done well before there is a functioning vehicle. But if you were to see the model of it, these things look dead on, they look like real-life automobiles. And quite frankly, if you were to walk past it and not know, it might actually fool you into thinking that is a fully functioning product. So seeing that is phenomenal, it's beautiful. You see all your previous few years of hard work come to full fruition. And it's like, alright, this is the full package, you could see it at certain angles, and pick and choose the angle that you think is going to be the most beautiful spot for the car and where it really tells the full story.

However, it was a completely different experience when you got to the actual unveil, which was inside this hangar that felt three miles long. I got to see the car from about a quarter-mile away, and that was my first time seeing it that far apart. But being able to see it so far away, there's this awe-inspiring feeling, this moment of "this is real, this is incredible."

And it still meets the vision that's in your head, and somehow it's even better in the sense that everything that we created internally on those original models were created by us. So of course they're going to be perfect. We had the opportunity to put every ounce of our energy into that, but to see the final piece that's in production and real could still capture and meet every expectation of that original one is very surreal. It's not something I take lightly. It's just an incredible feeling of gratefulness.

What were you guys trying to accomplish with the new Stingray emblem and how did it end up on the rear deck?
With our branding and badging, in general, we try to make it fresh and updated to what the theme is going toward. Everything is a modern iteration of where we last were, so the Stingray was nothing different than that. There were a lot of variations and a lot of interpretations of what that design was, and it just modernized it and brought it into the next generation. [Its placement] integrates so well. It looks like it pulls the window graphic over the motor right into a point. It just finalizes at the Stingray.

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Source: Tony Markovich - Autoblog

Posted 8/23/19