Rat hole in your Bentley?

The interior of the Bentley continental is sketched. Photo / Supplied

Although designers for mass market brands must use terms understood by their global network, smaller companies like Bentley can develop their own language.

To view his designs full-size, Bentley designer Robin Page will head to the Bat Cave - that's what his team calls the Crewe Design Studio Visualisation suite.

A "piece of toast" is not his breakfast, but the shape made by a brightware finisher around the Mulsanne's centre-stack dials. Those "Dame Ednas" are the seat-pivot covers shaped rather like the famous dame's glasses. And the "rat hole" is a gap between two or more components.

As undesirable in a Bentley as it is in your house, it may be avoided by using a "poke yoke", a component that can be fitted only in the correct orientation. In Bentley lingo a "Towns' curve" is a straight edge, thanks to William Towns and his 1980s straight-edged car designs. No doubt Towns wouldn't approve a "seagull", when two curves meet without the curvature matching or aligning as planned, or "teddy bear ears" - "the unfortunate result of insufficient lead-in on a radius".