“It was really very hard to move from designing the C3 to the C2. Naturally enough, the first C2 sketches reiterated the rounded, bulbous look of the C3, so that what we got was almost a carbon copy. So we needed a drastic change of direction, a rethink based on boxy almost spartan lines, albeit based on the same measurements as the C3”.
So says Donato Coco, the Citroën chief designer responsible for the firm’s platform A models, about the design of Citroën’s latest compact that has now been on the road for several months.
Having solved their initial problems, the designers found that the C2 gradually developed an identity of its own that set it apart both from its bigger sister, the C3, and from its direct rivals.
The C2’s broken waistline, vertical tail and gently rounded front section had already emerged in the first batch of sketches. All were further developed on the scale models and reached their definitive form towards the end of the project.
The final design, based on Oleg Son’s proposal, is all taut lines, on the sides and also on the front, which slot smoothly into the surrounding masses with no protrusions of any kind. The steeply raked windscreen, the aerodynamic silhouette, the roof that tapers towards the rear and the cut-off tail all combine to create an overall effect of compact dynamism.
Inside, the C2 reveals many features in common with other small Citroens, but here too, Chief Interior Designer Edwin Jonas and his assistant designer Alessandro Riga, have endowed it with a unique identity that essentially relies on the use of colours, materials and distinctive details, like the translucent inserts on the door panels and the gear lever.
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 143
