The enthusiasm of Jorge Diez, Cupra’s design director, quickly grows when he tells the genesis of the DarkRebel, the creative drive that captured the scene at the last Monaco Motor Show: “Several ideas were developed from the interaction with our fans, exploring a novel approach”, he explains, referring to the real-virtual exchange that took place thanks to a customisation space in the metaverse.
Cupra’s tribe
“Since within Metahype, the ‘show-case’ we set up for the occasion, people could express their preferences through the Hyper Configurator, more than 270,000 proposals were collected from our ‘tribe’”, he continues, citing a term very dear to the Car Maker, traceable even in the intentions of the logo introduced in 2018.
Inspired by videogames
The project unfolds along the freedom of interpretation granted by such a young commercial existence, which frees the brand from any reference to lines of yesteryear, and the need to create a powerful, “decidedly Latin” image capable of eclipsing the exiting Seat brand. To this end, relating to younger people seems quite essential: “This is why many elements are inspired by the world of video games, not only in the communication, but also in the car’s material characteristics”.
Futuristic graphics
It is no coincidence that the passenger compartment, interesting in itself because it is made up of solid and light structures produced with 3D printing, comes alive with three variants for the man-machine interface (Exponential Square, Exponential Cube and Exponential Infinite) built on different levels of driving engagement, starting with futuristic graphics and moving on to hypothetical lap times and culminating in online challenges with other users.
Radical and mean
“The setting of the interior changes each time just like in the video game experiences well known to Generation Z, even acoustically. And the bodywork adapts with additional effects”, Diez exclaims. The onset gist of the car’s body, moreover, expresses no shyness whatsoever. On a silhouette reminiscent of certain shooting brakes, approved “because it is more radical and mean compared to coupés with a descending roof”, a deliberately shameless and hyperbolic formal language is introduced “to communicate desire, emotion and the urge to push without limits”, in search of an orchestrated tension also through the alternation of soft and sharp surfaces.
Light at the centre
Even the colour, which inspires the name Dark Rebel, is resolved in an “enigmatic” and, above all, iridescent purple, suggesting the impetus towards movement with the simple change of luminosity. “After all, light is one of the keys to the concept”, the designer clarifies. “Not only does it contribute to rendering more dynamic the ‘outside’, where, moreover, a triangular daytime running light appears thus becoming a symbol of belonging, but it also draws focal points of great impact for the ‘inside’, especially on the steering wheel”.
(Full article in A&D no. 263)
