IDMR / Work / Zonda
Project · Industrial · Urban Helmet Concept

Zonda.

An urban aero helmet named after the Andean wind — a slatted gloss-white crown over a low matte under-shell, with a wraparound LED tail lamp drawn like automotive lighting. Modelled in Rhinoceros in a single day and rendered in Light Tracer.

Year
2026One-day design sprint
Sector
IndustrialSports Protection · Concept
Scope
SoloForm · Packaging · CMF
Software
RhinocerosLight Tracer Render
About the project

Named after a wind.

Zonda takes its name from the hot Andean wind that drops out of the mountains into western Argentina — fast, dry and impossible to ignore. The concept is an urban aero helmet for the commuter who rides every day and wants one object that handles speed, rain and traffic without looking like race equipment.

The shell is split into two honest materials: a gloss-white aero crown with deep longitudinal vent slats, and a matte-black under-shell that drops low across the temples and the back of the head. Between them runs a single shadow gap that gives the helmet its profile. At the rear, a wraparound LED lamp — drawn like an automotive tail light — sits inside the black zone and reads from a full lane's width.

Modelled in Rhinoceros in one day as a deliberate sprint, and rendered in Light Tracer against a deep red studio environment chosen to stress-test the white shell's highlights and the lamp graphics at night.

Form & light

Seen, then passed.

Every view of Zonda was composed around the rear lamp — the one feature a commuter helmet must get right. The vent slats pull air through the crown without breaking the teardrop silhouette, and the strap yokes grow from the under-shell as a single moulded gesture rather than stitched webbing.

LIGHT TRACER · STUDIO PAIR
Two Zonda urban helmets on a deep red studio background, rear lamp lit on the left unit
The pair Rear three-quarter and front three-quarter together — lamp face and clean face of the same object.
LIGHT TRACER · STUDIO
Two Zonda helmets floating, showing crown vents and moulded strap yokes
Shell & yokes The moulded strap yokes growing out of the under-shell, and the slatted crown read from above.
LIGHT TRACER · PROFILE
Zonda helmet full side profile with red rear lamp lit
Profile The teardrop in one line — gloss crown, shadow gap, low matte tail carrying the lamp.
LIGHT TRACER · REAR
Zonda helmet straight rear view with full-width wraparound LED tail lamp glowing red
Tail lamp The automotive-grammar rear graphic at full output — a layered LED signature that reads at distance and at an angle.
LIGHT TRACER · TOP
Zonda helmet top three-quarter view showing the slatted vent field in the white crown
Vent field Five deep slats cut along the airflow direction — cooling without breaking the volume.
Pipeline · Summary

Sprint discipline.

Rhinoceros — one day from blank file to finished surfaces. The crown and under-shell were built as two clean NURBS volumes separated by the shadow gap, with the vent slats cut as a single repeating operation and the yokes pulled from the under-shell in SubD.

Light Tracer Render — all imagery path-traced in a single evening session. The deep red environment, the gloss/matte material split and the emissive lamp graphic were tuned together, since the lamp is the product's whole argument after dark.

Working on something similar?

If you're developing protective equipment or wearable hardware — from a one-day concept sprint to production-ready CAD — let's talk. Send a brief and we'll come back within two working days.

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