About us
Hardline27 brings together exceptional talent in design, branding, sculpture and visualization to pursue beauty while cutting out the BS. Founded by Sasha and Inna Selipanov, the studio serves clients around the world.
About the name
Hardline speaks of our conviction in absolutes, our adherence to rational thought and our artistic integrity. The 27 is a nod to Gilles Villeneuve and Jean Alesi, who raced with equal amounts of bravery and beauty.
Sasha Selipanov
FounderSasha spent eleven years at Volkswagen Group: a lead designer on the Lamborghini Huracán, then Head of Exterior Design at Bugatti, where he led the Chiron, the 2015 Atlantic and the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo. He went on to become Head of Advanced Design at Genesis, where he led the Essentia show car, and Head of Design at Koenigsegg, where he was responsible for the Gemera, Jesko Absolut and the CC850. He studied at ArtCenter College of Design and co-founded Hardline27 with Inna Selipanov in 2022.
Inna Selipanov
Co-FounderInna co-founded Hardline27 with Sasha, and led the marketing, branding and PR behind the NILU world premiere. She has spent fifteen years in marketing strategy, business development and branding, from high-growth startups to Fortune 500 companies in automotive and tech. She is at her best finding ways to give customers value they did not expect. BA from UCLA, MBA from the Berlin School of Economics and Law.
“The most successful brand activation we have ever witnessed.”
Etienne Salomé
Art Direction, Concept, InteriorEtienne spent more than a decade at Bugatti, rising to Director of Interior Design and Assistant Chief Designer. He designed the interior of the Chiron, as well as La Voiture Noire, the one-off that was the most expensive new car in the world when it was unveiled in 2019, and the Centodieci. Before Bugatti he designed for Kia, Mazda and Renault. A Royal College of Art graduate, he is also an artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries around the world, and has painted the interiors of Bugatti’s own cars. He founded Salomé Yachts.
Kostadin Kostadinov
Brand Identity, Graphic DesignKostadin has more than fifteen years and over 400 identity projects behind him, from boutique studios to international agencies and his own practice. His knowledge of the automotive world is rare for a graphic designer. At Hardline27 he leads brand identity and graphic design across the studio’s programs. The most visible is the NILU: its corporate identity, brand design and logo.
A small senior team
The team stays deliberately small. A senior core, sized to each project, is backed by a network that runs from seasoned designers to studio engineers and film-grade CG artists. All of them work to the same process.
One hand, from first line to final surface
We learned the craft the long way: years of sketching and sculpting, much of it in clay studios alongside some of the finest modelers in the industry. That time taught us how a form is found and perfected. It also showed us how much is lost each time an idea passes from one pair of hands to the next.
So our designers work differently. The sketch fixes the intent: the movement of the car, how its volumes are distributed, the gesture of the face. From there the same designer builds the surfaces directly in NURBS, the mathematical language production data is written in, avoiding Sub-D or other intermediate tools. Designer and sculptor are one and the same, and dedicated A-Class specialists step in only to take the final data to production standard.
The way we build our surfaces takes inspiration from the Italian coachbuilders of the 1950s and 60s. Those craftsmen draped aluminum over cross sections, let the long lines find their own curvature under gravity and cut the edges with shears. We sculpt the same way in CAD, poetic yet precise, and it is what sets our work apart.
It is also the shortest path we know from idea to execution. Modern programs run on ever tighter schedules, and refinement is usually the phase that gets compromised. Our process works the other way around. With no handoffs, we reach a resolved design sooner and give the time we save back to refinement. For a client, that means a leaner program and a better product.
A show car typically takes about six months, a production program twelve to fourteen. We work to each client’s own gates.
Research
Before anything is drawn, we work out who the product is for, what it has to do and what it should stand for. Brand DNA, product definition and design targets are set here, and the package hard points are agreed with engineering from the start.
3D CAD sketches
Several directions are built as quick 3D models around the real package, instead of polished 2D renderings, so each one can be turned, lit and judged as an object.
Design selection
The directions are reviewed side by side as turntables and full renders, often in their real setting. Because everything already exists in 3D, the client chooses a design rather than a drawing, and engineering can check it the same day.
3D CAD refinement
The chosen direction is refined in CAD, exterior and interior together, to feasibility-ready quality. Engineering, CFD, colors and materials run in parallel loops, with a foam model or seating buck only where a physical check is worth it.
Design freeze
The result is production-intent data or show car grade surfaces, with nothing lost in translation. Renders, films and launch assets come out of the same data, so the brand story is ready when the design is.