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An Evening With The Interior Designer of TataZest

Tata Zest

Welcome to Trumatter.

This arvo we are live blogging from Goa for #TataZest #ZestUpYourLife, their new car that’s to be launched next month, and one that shows quite a lot of dynamism for a car in its class.  I know, you must be going completely berserk to see me talk about a car in this wee space of mine which caters with mainly beachy DIYs and beach decor but believe me I had some real good reasons to do this post. I can guarantee you that when the post ends, you’ll not only forgive me but thank me too for some great dope on car interiors.  After all, its not only the engine & the engineers that maketh a car. Its also a set of talented interior designers! And tell you what? Designing an engineered product is much, much more difficult than designing our homes. It’s decor taken to another level: a place I had to go explore head first.

Tata Zest Interiors_ Trumatter

Honestly, I am not the person who understands cars or even pretend to. I can only tell you so much about a car which would include its stability, the smoothness, how it handles on corners, on road and how it is on a very high speed. But I am definitely the person who has an eye for decor, detail and good aesthetic. The dashboard in the new Tata Zest quite took me by fancy. Chrome, matte black, shiny, glossy black and clever tones of grey played trickily in here to give the car dashboard a modern, luxury sport vehicle look. This is not Tata..this is a better Tata. So, if you are a wee bit interested in interiors of a car or interiors in whole, this post will serve you the lot. If you are a decor nazi, you have to know this sector: who knows tomorrow auto-themed homes might be in fashion 😉

As a decor/ interior enthusiast I am always on the look out for delving deep into the elements that together make “decor” in cohesion. And having a husband who takes me everywhere to experience things with him, even to the mechanic, I know what a good car interior should look like. I am more than happy to venture out of home and look into sectors like shop, cars, offices and study their decor… It’s interesting to know how with almost the same principles and a little bit personalization people are rocking it stylish everywhere. But when it came to cars, I had a couple of questions.

Tata Zest Interiors_ Trumatter

I could never understand why most cars come with interiors in beige, light tones, grey or black? Why not fur and only typical car fabric? How do you choose motifs or patterns in fabric while designing the interiors? Can we just about use any pattern? How close it is to home decor? What is the significance of two tones in a car seat and its body interiors? Well, ofcourse, if your car is “primped” by the badass Texas boys and Ice-Cube is talking about it, then you don’t need to ask such questions 😉 In that case you’d have a snazzy yellow riveted car seat and oh-my-god-60’s-retro-gold grille, oh and maybe a candy dispenser in the boot too that has a pipe in your dash board to take you to the candy shop! You’d just have anything and everything that is no-where close to the cars we, common day mendicants drive. You have a right to leave this boring post right here because you my friend are rich. But if you are like me, these questions might have crossed your mind.

In addition, I am very interested in the core philosophies of decor. You’d look at a home and you’d exactly know the people who live in. Your decor is an extension of who you are and what you believe in. Similarly, what goes in a car interior designer’s head when he/ she is designing something that has to appeal to thousands of people and yet make it in a way where each must find their own voice while driving the machine? Bro, it’s a tough job and it had been in my mind for years to take a look into car interiors and its nitty-gritties. Thanks to blogadda and Tata Zest for flying us away to a wonderful workshop in Goa where I finally found the answers to the nagging questions that wormed my head.

You’ll see how you always overlooked these details in a car!

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After a masterclass on Tata Zest, I ran to the interior designer of the car in question: Shilpa Bandyopadhyay is her name and she is a zesty, smiling talented girl whom I think I quite caught by surprise with my ultra philosophical (read stupid) questions. But patiently, she answered me everything like the crystal ball would.

1) My first ever question was Sum up the car interior in a sentence. This is what she had to write to me!

“Cocooned in a new age definition of luxury sport.”

2) Hmm, which means I got the car right! But hey you’ve got a curious cat infront of you. My next question made me feel like 100 kilos lighter: You know, I’ve kept the question inside of me for too long. Why are car interiors in beige, white, black, grey and tones of only these color.

Wowza, the answer questioned my own intelligence. Bright colors in a car can be distracting for the driver as well as other drivers on the road. That is why a set of standard colors for interiors. Oh, okay…which means you have only 4 colors to play with and yet you are expected to come up with an interior that brings out a wow: all different, each unique? I thought my job was difficult!

3) My third question to Shilpa was How do you choose the fabric. Why not lace and satin? Okay, lace and satin is what I did not ask but that is where I was headed. Im a shabby chic beach decor girl…I’d like a bit of lavender love everywhere…

But it looks like, designing the interiors of a car is definitely more challenging than designing the interiors of your home. You can use and only use 100% pure polyester. Why?

a) It is cost effective and easily available

b) The fabric meets the high performance standards, such as durability. You will be using a car minimum of 5 years. Durability also means that you can get in and out of the car repeatedly without damaging or dulling the seat fabric.

c) It withstands blazing desert sun or below-zero temperatures and still tolerate moisture buildup in warm, humid climates.

In addition, there are 7 or more parameters to be kept in mind while designing the car interiors.

Okay, so that rules out the lavender satin seats.

4) My fourth and final question was: What motif do you look for while choosing the fabric? What did you look for in Zest.

The motif must be catchy, small and again, not too distracting and bright. An ideal car fabric design will be one which matches with the core philosophy of the car, syncs with the exterior and consoles.

For the #TataZest which incorporates a healthy mix of sport, luxury and comfort with its shiny black, chrome, a touch of biscuit and matte black and grey, her go to fabric was one that complimented the consoles. Plain grey for the rims of the seat, a light grey-on-dark grey mid fabric for layering. For the Zest, she also chose a fabric that’s predominantly Indian in motif and yet was funky. Indian, owing to its make, funky owing to its target audience and the young blood that flows through its veins. Love the kaleidoscope, I do.

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That’s the fabric incorporated in seats. And here’s her:

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Lovely meeting her and the entire Zest team: mind you, this is just how much went into the fabric and console. Did you ever think that so much goes into your car seat? No wonder my husband gets furious when I keep muddy rose plants on it.

Thank you Tata Team for this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you Blogadda for making me 3 kilos lighter.

Thank you Shilpa for giving us so much.

It had been awesome.

Follow my post on the Zest Weekend Experience on twitter: @trumatter

 

 

 

 

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