While we were at the auto shows suplexing Kazakhstani journalists for press kits and execs we were spouting sound bites for the six o'clock news, what sort of angst are the designers going through? Often times, their vehicles represent years of blood sweat and tears, and when the car bows in, it's akin to sending a child out into the world.

Simon Lamarre recently launched an Internet blog site, www.C30DesignerBlog.com, where he chronicles his experiences developing and launching Volvo's newest vehicle -- the C30.

The Ste Thrse, Qubec native joined the company in 1995 as a clay modeler before crafting the interior of XC90 sport utility and then the exterior of the C30. Being a departure from Volvo's typical family-focused vehicles, the launch of the car at the Paris Mondial de l'Automobile on September 28, understandably caused some trepidation for Lamarre.

Here's an excerpt from his first blog entry, giving some insight into what a designer goes thorough when their handy work goes public for the first time. -- B.H.

"Never really done anything like this before, but -- Wow! -- I'm in the middle of one of those experiences of a lifetime, and I want to share it. So here goes...

'I've just come from the big Paris motor show. Maybe the most important design work of my career (so far) has just been shown to the world. It's the Volvo C30. I don't have to explain it to car people out there. For anyone else, it's a new small car from Volvo. Officially, it's a two-door car with a glass hatchback. But to me it's way, way more than that. I'm responsible for its design.

For four years, I've been eating, sleeping and breathing this car. It's consumed all my time at work, plus too many sleepless nights and spare moments that I should've devoted to something else. But design is one of those things that doesn't respect the clock. It's in your head all the time, gnawing at you, poking you, making you second-guess yourself and generally making you nuts. You rocket back and forth between being miserable and being elated (and sometimes both).

The Paris scene was unreal. A new car launch is something between a big clothing designer's runway fashion show and a rock concert, with a little high-tension politics thrown in. More so in Paris, I suspect. It's crazy.

You'd think it'd be simple: send out some invitations to the press and other industry-types; gather everyone at the company's show stand; pull the silk cover off the car; say a few words; take a few pictures; and that's it. It's anything but simple.

The big auto shows are always huge, chaotic and overwhelming. Every car company's display is like an assault on your senses -- lights, colours, shapes, sounds. Multiply that times 20 or 30 or whatever, and you get the idea. Then there's the crowd. On press days, the aisles are like rivers of people. It's mad.

I must say the Volvo show display is a bit of an oasis in the midst of that madness --very Scandinavian. It's not tranquil -- nothing could be tranquil here -- but it has a definite cool, more relaxed feel to it.

Behind the scenes, every step and every movement is planned and rehearsed. There are all these people from lighting and sound and video and PR and who knows what. And they're all here focused on my project, on the C30.

Easy to get caught up in it, I admit. Found myself wondering, what if this light doesn't work? Or what happens if the microphone quits? Had to keep telling myself it wasn't my problem. My work was done and it was under the silk cloth covering the car.

So then I started worrying about that: What if people didn't like it? What if everybody groaned, or walked away, or gave it the thumbs down?

Didn't happen, of course.

When it was time to show the car I was frozen, holding my breath. Suddenly, it was done -- my car was in the spotlight. C30 was under the lights, shining.

First, the car. Hard to be modest about this, but it looked amazing! Like it glowed with its own energy. I've seen maybe a thousand pictures of the C30, but nothing like that! The lighting showed every line and curve and contour and character mark. Perfect! Even the colour. There's always a huge debate over what colour the debut car should be, and this was no exception.

But the crowd response was best. To be fair, many of the journalists there had seen pics of the car and the ones who'd been at the Detroit show in January and saw the C30 concept, pretty much knew what to expect. But there's always that moment when you see the real thing, when people don't hide their emotions. Despite all the gloss and hype and flash of a new car launch, the one thing you can count on is pretty genuine emotions from the people there. Today it seemed like we made a lot of friends.

Folks came flooding onto the stage to see the car up close and to talk to the execs as soon as the presentation was over. Pretty soon you couldn't see the car for photographers taking pictures of it. There was a lot of Swedish press there but lots of media from everywhere else in the world, too. The buzz seemed pretty positive and there were lots of compliments about the C30.

I know this stuff sounds egotistical but it isn't meant to. Yeah, I've got a healthy ego. Show me a designer who doesn't!. But someone reminded me all this attention wasn't about me. It was about the car. Everybody in this business needs to remember that. The car's always the star. Today, our star looked pretty spectacular out there for all the world to see.'"