London Craft Week 2017: Aston Martin's design secrets

London Craft Week 2017 kicked off with a host of brands and artists opening hidden workshops across the city to offer a glimpse into their design techniques.

Leading the way was Aston Martin, which allowed a select few the chance to discover what goes into creating some of its most iconic cars at the company's boutique in Mayfair.

Julian Nunn, Aston Martin's lead exterior designer, could be found sketching the design of Aston's most recent car, the DB11, while revealing some of the vehicle's hidden styling features.

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The DB11 has a host of aerodynamic aids hidden in the design features or underneath the bodywork, he told The Week Portfolio, when we went to visit the event. For example, at the front of the car, Aston's signature side-strake helps disperse the "build-up of air pressure in the front wheel arch if you're driving fast".

He added: "What you'll find is it gets rid of the central pressure in the front wheel arch, which comes down the side of the body and helps the car drive, turn and corner."

Moving further back, air moving over the top of the car is channelled underneath the rearmost section of the DB11, removing the need of a spoiler.

These wings "spoil the shape of a car", he said, but through its racing programme, Aston found a way to "separate the belt line and the floating cant rail", allowing air to pass through the body without compromising the car's looks.

"It gives us different finishes" on the roof, added Nunn, so buyers can choose from a selection of colours and materials for a more personalised look.

Aston Martin's clay modelling team also showed attendees why the hands-on practice is still used by the carmaker.

John Cummings, head of clay modelling at Aston, told us the benefit of a physical model over computer animated designs (CAD) is that clay structures are "very quick to change".

He added: "To change a model, all I need to do is go over to the oven, heat it up and you end up with a physical model."

If the designer requests an alteration, the clay model can be tweaked within "a couple of minutes", while CAD models require a longer period of time and a team of computer engineers to alter.

Cummins's work ranges from small-scale replicas to full-size production mock-ups, he said. Larger models, used for motor shows and design, can take around two weeks to build with a team of three to four people.

Aston Martin may be a small company compared to the likes of Jaguar Land Rover and other European brands, but it prides itself on mixing traditional design techniques with forward-thinking styling to set itself apart from the competition.

London Craft Week runs until Sunday 7 May.