The Story behind those sexy lines

Here is a nice article from Honda on the design philosophy and brainstroming that went to create mini-car. This car may hold key to Honda's future in emerging markets like India, Thailand, Brazil, China, Indonessia and Philippines.

Creating a new compact car for brand new markets.

Affordable pricing is of top importance in helping as many people as possible experience the joy of owning an automobile. At the same time, however, it costs money to realize Honda's ideal of utility combined with excitement, stylishness and visual appeal. The more complex in shape a car's exterior steel plates are, the more involved it is to produce the molds for the plates, and the more expensive it becomes to manufacture the car. Avoiding such complications can leads to a boxy-looking car equipped with door mirrors, headlights and other functional parts that fulfill their basic function but add nothing to style. The overall impression can be cold and uninviting.

What the designers eventually came up with is the Brio's double triangle form. The character lines on the sides of the automobile define two triangles that, while overlapping, are offset fore and aft: a dynamic triangle, focused on the nose and sweeping forward, and a sporty triangle, focused on the rear fender and jumping rearward. Complementing the Brio's low and wide stance and protruding fenders, these two triangles help create a form that is lively and energetic from front to rear.

Honda was determined to offer customers fun and excitement particulary since it is an entry-level automobile. Thanks to extremely efficient packaging, this automobile would feature not only a compact body but also a roomy interior and outstanding utility. In addition, it would offer customers an exciting design and lots of extra details to add to pride of ownership. Working closely together, Honda's engineers and factory leaders and suppliers took on the challenge of creating a compact automobile offering customers a new kind of value.

PS: Above text and images are property of Honda Worldwide, and is taken from their global website.