The launch of the new PEUGEOT 3008 is fast approaching. With this new vehicle, the brand will take driving pleasure, electric performance and design creativity to a whole new level. While images of the vehicle's interior were already unveiled in June 2023 with the PEUGEOT Panoramic i-COCKPIT®, the exterior is being kept secret until the big reveal in September. Then, the PEUGEOT Magazine will report in greater detail on the metamorphosis of the driving position of the new PEUGEOT 3008.

The new Peugeot panoramic i-COCKPIT®.

Before that, the brand will send the model out on European roads this summer for final testing. The vehicle will be camouflaged to prevent images from circulating before the scheduled date. However, bypassing the usual codes of confidentiality, PEUGEOT has created an event by launching the #CamoCatch operation on its social networks in May 2023

Phil York, PEUGEOT's Marketing and Communications Director, tells us how the #CamoCatch operation came about:

"Now everyone has a smartphone. So a camouflaged car can easily be ‘snapped’ by anyone and posted on social media. As a camouflaged car is, by its nature, a head-turner, we thought it would be great to turn this constraint into an opportunity. Why not generate buzz and awareness for the new PEUGEOT 3008 before it is revealed?"

Aware that the brand's customers like to play the role of co-creators, Phil York and his team decided to involve them in a fun operation. The ten camouflage patterns designed by the Lion brand's designers were put to the vote of Internet users. After numerous votes, six designs were selected.

• Paint ("Street Art" theme)
• Menthol ("Optic Art" theme)
• Jazzy ("Proto'type" theme)
• Neon ("Street Art" theme)
• Marrakech ("Optic Art" theme)
• Tokyo ("Proto'type" theme)

Graphic designer for PEUGEOT Design, Mathieu Wandon drew inspiration from three themes to create these different motifs. The "Art Optique" theme, in the spirit of the visual dynamics of the 1960s, the "Street Art" theme, much used in fashion today, and the "Graphic Design" theme, which plays with unstructured letters and numbers without making them unreadable. He then came up with different variations, so as to have a maximum number of proposals, including colour combinations.
 

To create designs that are both functional in terms of camouflage and aesthetically appealing, Mathieu Wandon has taken care of every detail:

For a designer, the idea of concealing a car's design while at the same time enhancing its visibility might seem like the last straw. Mathieu Wandon, on the contrary, sees it as an opportunity to express himself in a new way :

"We mustn't forget that the primary objective of camouflage... is to camouflage! And camouflaging lines doesn't mean camouflaging the whole object."

PEUGEOT has set up a strategy of collaborations and partnerships with young artists and designers. The #CamoCatch operation is an excellent way of promoting PEUGEOT's design expertise to the general public. A slightly different mission from that of the artist, according to Mathieu Wandon:

"The designer's job, compared to the artist's, is to make his creation industrialisable and therefore within the reach of as many people as possible. The common trait is, of course, creation, but the purpose of the object created is not the same, even if the two universes tend to get closer and closer, with the success of collaborations in all fields."