RENAULT’S SLEEK CURVES

While working for the French automaker Renault in 1968, Pierre Bézier unveiled his ‘UNISURF’ system for Computer Aided Drafting (CAD), which made it possible to use computers in designing the sleek, curved bodies of Peugeots and Renaults. Specifically, UNISURF allowed users to intuitively manoeuvre the curves in a car’s design by manipulating a number of control points, called nodes, to shape the parts (see

Fig 1). Notice that some nodes sit outside the curve itself, with the exception of the first and last points. Today, these Bézier curves are used to smooth out everything from new typefaces, to computer-generated illustrations with a simple click-and-drag motion.