Case StudyStand 21 designs Formula 1 racewear
with CorelDRAW® Graphics SuiteOverview
Name: Roya Behiar
Company: Stand 21
Location: FranceIndustry: Clothing automobile industry
Product: CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite
WTCC Drivers Franz Engstler and Andrei Romanov, Team Engstler Motorsport“It used to take us six hours to design an average suit,
but now we can do it in 20 minutes flat,” says RoyaBehiar, who's also pretty enthusiastic about CorelDRAW'sease of use and intuitive interface
The French firm Stand 21 has specialized in designing andmaking racewear for rally and Formula 1 drivers since1970. Today, the company can design a new outfit fromscratch in just 20 minutes—thanks to CorelDRAW®
Graphics Suite.
It's 2.23pm on 1st August 1976 and we're at the famous
Nürburgring race track in Germany. The Austrian Ferrari driver andreigning world champion Niki Lauda already has 20 miles behindhim. Suddenly, he swerves off the track just after the notorious
Bergwerk bend, smashes into the safety fence and is catapulted
back onto the track where an oncoming car rams into him. Morethan 50 gallons of fuel pour out of the wreck and go up inflames. Thanks to several other drivers —and a huge portion ofluck—Lauda survives, but suffers severe burns to his head andface. Today, a terrible accident like that would likely have lessdramatic consequences, because fireproof race-wear is now
mandatory for Formula 1 drivers. This includes balaclavas,overalls, gloves and boots made of Nomex®—a material thatnever burns or melts.

ensure compliance with stringent safety and quality standards.
That's why Stand 21's products are held in such high regard by its
3000 customers, including multiple Formula 1 drivers. “Our suits
have been a part of dozens of championship wins around theworld, including ten Formula 1 victories,” says Roya Behiar. “Everyoutfit is customized and we follow drivers' wishes to theletter—literally. Along with logos and sponsor names, weembroider a huge variety of other images onto the suits. Onedriver wanted a big Bugs Bunny on his back; another asked us fora Tasmanian Devil.” This is quite a challenge for Stand 21'sspecialists, as the pictures need to be embroidered using fireproof
thread. “Sometimes we need to source 40 or 50 different threadcolors, especially for a complex picture like a dragon,” notes
Behiar.

Keeping cool when the heat is on
The French company Stand 21 has been designing and producing
special race clothing since 1970. Along with the suits, Stand 21
makes boots, gloves, helmets and even underwear—all fromfireproof material. “If the driver's underwear isn't fire-proof, thebest suit in the world won't protect him,” explains Roya Behiar,
sales manager at Stand 21. “There's a good reason for that—theheat would cause the underwear to melt and burn into thedriver's skin.” The driver's clothes must also be breathable enoughto wick out his sweat and keep him cool. Temperatures can getvery high in a racing car—and that's without the adrenaline rush.
The suit has up to three layers, and all stitching and seams are
fireproof too. The clothes are meticulously made by hand to

Engstler Motorsport Racing Suite Design

Not surprisingly, a customized race suit doesn't come cheap. It
costs about $3500 and the whole set of equipment around$5800—although there's no upper limit. But it's a wise
investment, especially as drivers don't have a long wait for theirsuit. “Customers usually receive their order within ten days,”comments Roya Behiar. “Our competitors often take up to tenweeks.”

Case Study

Steiner Motorsport

Marcel Steiner

12dnatS©
Marcel Steiner, Rally Driver

Ten times faster – a way of life
Being faster than the competition is something Stand 21's
customers understand better than anyone. The record-breaking
speed at which Stand 21 makes a race suit depends in part on thepowerful graphics software used by the designers. At thecompany's headquarters in the heart of France's Burgundy region,
as well as in its European subsidiaries and all global franchising
companies, CorelDRAW is the undisputed standard. “We reallylike Corel PowerTRACE too, especially for designing logos,
dragons and other pictures,” adds Roya Behiar.
“Sometimes customers turn up with a photo of a car or a paper
printout of a logo. That wouldn't be a lot of use to us if we didn't
have the Corel® PowerTRACE™ bitmap-to-vector tracer. Now wecan just take their bit of paper with a smile and turn a blurry
bitmap into a vector graphic. Then we can really get to work on it.”© 2009 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved 12/09 JB#2492-09

Racing Suite Design, Marcel SteinerThis way of working has huge benefits for customers. During adesign meeting between the Stand 21 graphic artist and thedriver or sponsor, the suit can be altered at the same time. Thelogo can be put in a different position, seams altered, sleeves
lengthened, in real time, right in front of the computer. “It used
to take us six hours to design an average suit, but now we can doit in 20 minutes flat,” says Roya Behiar, who's also pretty
enthusiastic about CorelDRAW's ease of use and intuitive
interface. “When I first got the job at Stand 21, I'd never worked
with Corel before. But that didn't stop my boss hiring me. He
said: 'You'll get the hang of it in no time.' The great thing is that
he was right!”

To learn more about CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, visit
www.corel.com/coreldraw