Bentley X HA TAE IM
British luxury car brand ‘Bentley’ recently officially launched a limited edition model for Korean consumers, the ‘Continental GT Korea Limited Edition’. Bentley collaborated with abstract painter Ha Tae-im to give a Korean color to the limited edition car produced by only 10 units. What kind of person did Bentley choose, who collaborated with a Korean artist for the first time?
Bentley collaboration proposal
fascinated by Ha Tae-im’s color band British luxury car brand Bentley was struggling to create a Korea Edition vehicle exclusively for Korean consumers. This is because as it was the first collaboration with a Korean artist, it was necessary to choose an artist’s work that matched Bentley’s philosophy while applying Korean colors to the vehicle.
Bentley’s choice was writer Ha Tae-im. Bentley judged that the world of Ha Tae-im’s work, which embodies the infinite order and circulation of the universe through color bands, is consistent with Bentley’s infinite possibilities and philosophy of creating customized vehicles according to consumer needs. When the curved surface of Ha Tae-im’s color band expands, it suggests a circle, and the fact that the circle naturally connects to Bentley’s symbol, the circular air vent, also attracted Bentley’s attention.
After accepting Bentley’s collaboration offer, Ha Tae-im worked on applying a color band to the Continental GT car, which is the base model of the Bentley Korea Edition, for one year. It was a collaboration in which designers and craftsmen from Mulliner, Bentley’s Bespoke division, engraved ‘color bands’ throughout the Continental GT at the suggestion of artist Ha Tae-im.
After test driving a Bentley, Ha Tae-im said that he began imagining it with a shiny circular air vent. He recalled working while imagining the moment when the colored bands came out of the circular air vent and spread out on the dashboard and extended to the treadplate at the same time.
Ha Tae-im explained that he thought of Bentley as a universe and designed the vehicle with colored bands sitting everywhere, like orbits or constellations created by stars moving according to the order of the universe.
Bentley Mulliner craftsmen performed special processing operations such as laser etching to perfectly combine Ha Tae-im’s color bands while maintaining the details and durability of the existing diamond knurling. This is the first time in Bentley’s history that the air vents have been painted in color, and it is also the first time in Bentley’s history that a colored band has been engraved on the treadplate at the bottom of the door.
Through this process, the limited edition Bentley Continental GT Korea Limited Edition, which is only 10 units in the world, was born.
