Who's where: Jean-Arthur Madelaine-Advenier becomes Citroën's head of interior design

Citroën has appointed Jean-Arthur Madelaine-Advenier as its new head of interior design. The 34-year-old Frenchman joins the firm from Tesla, where he had a brief stint as lead designer for interiors at the US-company's California studio.

Madelaine-Advenier graduated from the RCA in London in 2003, then headed to Mercedes' advanced studio in Italy for a three-year stint as a junior interior designer. There he worked on show cars like the F600 and F700, shown at the '05 Tokyo show and '07 Frankfurt event respectively.

Following this, he moved to BMW DesignWorks, where he split his time between the studios in Munich and LA, and designed the interiors of the 3 and 4 Series BMWs, and the latest Mini hatch.

In 2010, he had his first taste of working for PSA, where he was project manager for Peugeot. "At the time, it was not the best place to work," he told Car Design News. "Lots of projects were cancelled, so I had to move on."

That move was a return to Mercedes, working between the advanced studio in Como and the main facility at Sindelfingen in Germany. His major work during this time was the Concept GLA, shown at the Shanghai show in 2013, and the interior of the GT project which was revealed to coincide with the opening of Mercedes R&D center in Sunnyvale, CA.

During this time, he remained in touch with PSA, and when visa issues proved insurmountable following his move to Tesla, Madelaine-Advenier returned to France in July.

Talking about his new role to Car Design News, he explains the current challenge. "We need to make DS, Citroën and Peugeot very separate brands. To do this, we need to develop a new DNA for Citroën interiors. It'll be based around a 'feel good' philosophy, this means pure and strong design, but also something that is comfortable and welcoming."

The obvious question is how much the new Cactus represents the direction he believes Citroën cabins should take? "The Cactus is what could become the brand DNA for Citroën," says Madelaine-Advenier. "But it is missing a little something, the link with the heritage of the Citroën brand."

As to what the heritage should be, Madelaine-Advenier is quick not to default to the example of the original DS. "I'm more inspired by Citroëns of the 70s and 80s – the CX and GS in particular," he says. "There are so many things that are avantgarde about the interiors of these cars. The ergonomy is impressive, as the design inspiration comes from helicopters. My tutor was a Citroën interior designer in the 70s, and he was really into helicopters, and you can tell this from the simple ergonomy of these cars."

Outside of the automotive world, Madelaine-Advenier is a fan of furniture design that uses new materials and communicates light weight. He's a fan of German designer Konstantin Grcic, and cites the example of Jean Prouvé's Cité chair as a favorite: "It has very thin leather strips that form the arms, it's very graphical, very geometrical."

We'll have to wait until his first show car, due at either the Geneva or Shanghai motor shows in 2015, to see how that influences Citroën's new interior design DNA.

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By Tom Phillips