From Concept to Production

One of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on at VW was the development of a graphic editor built around the Stable Diffusion model. Our small but dedicated team consisted, were I was responsible for the early concept and front-end development, while my colleague focused on design and back-end development. Together, we managed to secure funding for over two years, which allowed us to take the project from an early concept all the way to a fully functional production tool. It was an incredible journey, and I learned a lot about the complexity and challenges of modern development.

The project began when a team from Audi approached VW’s Future Center Europe (FCE) with an exciting offer: to create a concept for a new design tool that would harness the power of Stable Diffusion to support automotive designers. Early on, we explored the model’s core capabilities and quickly defined a clear direction for the editor — one that guided us through the following two years of development.

My focus throughout the project was front-end development. After careful consideration, we decided to build the application with Svelte, and looking back, it was one of the best decisions we made. Svelte offered the flexibility and performance needed for an interactive design environment, and allowed us to move quickly during prototyping as well as production.

The editor was tailor-made to meet the specific needs of automotive designers. We designed and refined the tool in close collaboration with Audi’s design team, working in a continuous feedback loop. Later on, the same designers not only adopted the tool in their daily work but also helped train their colleagues on how to use it effectively.