For millennia
individualistic design differentiation has been engrained in
societies.
Typically so as an
identifier of perceived social standing; from Ancient Royal
Egyptians' adornment of the scarab beetle (representing the god-like
powers of the sun) through to the 20th century's western
obsession with aspiration and one-upmanship; from the 1950s wave of
kitchen appliances to the 2000s proliferation of designer handbags
(whether real or fake).
An eminent signifier of
social standing – at least perceived through apparent wealth –
has been the private vehicle; when both horse-drawn and when
motorised. Hence, personalisation and differentiation have been in
vogue ever since the personal or household livery was painted upon a
sedan-chair or carriage, that transportation trend obviously today
relating to the ever greater individualisation of the car.
Whilst craftsmen have
historically been the translators and creators of an individual
client's wants, the industrial revolution meant that a new breed of
professionals were created from an arts background, who would not
interpret the external market's desire, but actually seek to lead
that desire, with ever greater emotional attachment and ever quicker
product replacement cycles, so as to gain brand loyalty and ensure
consistent demand.
The Design Function :
For the mass-market it
was Alfred Sloane's efforts to build a 'ladder empire' of brands
within General Motors during the 1920s that ultimately initiated what
is now known as modern 'car design'.
Of course, various
“coach-builders” had already for two decades been mating a
personalised body to a separately made standard or altered chassis.
But it was Sloane's deployment of Hollywood stage-set designer Harley
Earl, initially on the La Salle project, then continuously through
the creation of the 'Art and Colour ' department with the activity
known as 'Styling', that created the modern template for the Design
function.
Set-up in the midst of
the Great Depression this department would seek to revitalise the
previous consumer boom of the high-flying late 1920s into a now much
more sombre 1930s. To create that boost would require a holistic
re-think about all visual aspects of the car. So for the first time
actually spanned all aesthetic considerations, and in doing so
introduced newer development processes (such as the use of scale and
full size clay-modelling) that sped-up the new product development
time, and so the ability to seemingly create an all new vehicle –
at least to the buyer.
Most prescient though
was the introduction of the Budd Metal Press system, which allowed
for the creation of far more curvaceous hoods, fenders, door skins,
rear quarter-panels and trunk-lid. This allowed for far more rounded
styling of the clay models to be directly translated into sheet
metal; and done so vastly quicker (than if hand-rolled). Thus it was
the very speed of this stamping and forming process that could be
said to have 'democratised' a more artful styling. The masses could
now enjoy the true fruits of long latent aspiration, with in GM's
case, each brand from Chevrolet to Cadillac, though often using
similar mechanicals, differentiated in form and detailing.
[NB by the mid 1950s
the ideology of conspicuous consumption had become so socially
ingrained that it was 'supercharged' to annualised levels, through
corporate efforts of 'planned obsolescence'; as exemplified with the
1955/56/57 model-change Chevrolets].
The adoption of these
working practices allowed Detroit and other auto-cities' (Coventry,
Milan, Wolfsburg etc) to revolutionise national and international
consumerism. And so it was that the profile and influence of the
Styling / Design department has grown in corporate importance ever
since.
[NB this said, it must
be noted that the semi-ethereal nature of the Design process to most
Board members – themselves typically with backgrounds in finance,
engineering, production and marketing-sales - means that during lean
corporate times Design will typically see (in budget percentage
terms) a greater cut-back than other more 'core' corporate functions.
This not only because of perception of corporate criticality, but
naturally correlated to the expected reduction of man-hours regards
hi-concept work in favour of in-market model update work; with
accordant changes to the work-load of 'concept' vs 'current'
studios)].
However, give its
market-facing role, and its ethereal, unquantifiable manner,
corporate seniors have tended to provide this department with greater
freedoms, budgetary allowance and overall influence during the
mid-point of an upward economic cycle, after the financial gains of a
previous austerity phase have been obtained. So it is perhaps only
during the good times, when design attention has become more valued
in itself, that Design would gain greater attention.
In recognition of its
ability to be used as a marketing aid, and indeed a trend-spotting
'marketing antenna', the once narrow responsibility of Design has
successively grown over the decades. Especially so over the last 30
years, buoyed by the late 1980s and early 1990s 'corporate design
age' wherein all design aspects of leading corporations were
considered in part and whole.
It could be seen that
Ford led the way from the early 1980s, the then Design Head Uwe
Bahnsen with his broad corporate design remit spanning the
aero-programmes of Escort/Sierra/Taurus to Dealership Environment and
Brand Identity Manuals. As with Harley Earl previously the new
expanded Design template became more effective in other producers,
with the desire to leverage the function to obtain a pan-corporate
unified identity. The experience of Chrysler in the late 1980s and
its need to move beyond an ad-hoc approach as central to its
turnaround proved successful, from the introduction of its
'cabin-forward' large cars to the aspirations of Bob Lutz to pen and
create in concept form a Bugatti-esque idea of what Chrysler was
aspiring to.
Similarly the strong
Japanese economy of the period allowed for increased use of the
notionally 'Hi-Concepts' section - last seen industry-wide during the
late 1960s, early 1970s - with elements trickled-down into a
Marketing Concepts section. It was this confidence that created the
still iconic Pike range at Nissan.
Thereafter, this
'vision to reality' exercise would rationalise concept ideas toward
greater market credibility. So the 'Market Design' section would act
as an analytical 'bridge' toward the early stage of a new vehicle
programme.
Whilst 'Project Design'
was dedicated to a specific Board approved new product, working in
parallel with concept engineers. It would notionally end with a
'signed-off' 1:1 scale clay model; itself usually one of three or
four styling packages each with different design philosophies or even
alternative mechanical layouts. The gestation period of the original
Mazda MX-5 provides an interesting example.
Historically, companies
also created specials or new hi-concept inputs from prestige Italian
Carrozzeria (ie Touring, Zagato, Pinifarina, Ghia, ItalDesign et al).
These were firstly used by various makers to gain Italian stylistic
flair, such as Kaiser-Frazer with Pininfarina, with each carrozzeria
seeking new design services. This seen with Zagato's Superleggera
'bird-cage' construction which drew the likes of Aston-Martin for its
specials. Those who wanted to bring new brands to market with
associative prestige used the Italians for immediate appeal, such as
the Bizzerini: US financed , US engine but Italian-made. Later on
with that caché now a
given, mainstream producers sought to provide what was considered
“Italian flair” either through merger, as with Ford's use of the
Ghia badge on top-line cars, or via specific project commissions that
required that 'Euro' feel, as with Cadillac's Allanté.
Additionally, beyond
the car sphere and into product design, auto-firms have commissioned
well recognised external designers to inject alternative thinking;
either prosaically to keep in touch with design trends, such as
Land-Rover's use of Fitch and Conran for the interior of the original
1989 Discovery. Or indeed, during the 1990s 'designer age' onward as
a “high-art” PR ploy, Ford's invitation to Marc Newsome.
Yet quite obviously by
the mid 1970s it was recognised that design, brand and marketing were
increasingly coalesced. This merging especially visible regards the
glamorous worlds of aeronautics and motorsports. Whereby high
day-wear fashions had been influenced by the cock-pit and pit-lane;
men's flying and racing overalls transformed into women's
'jump-suits'. And once high-tech Aviator eye-glasses by Bausch and
Lomb became purveyors of high priced fashion items.
It was within this
context that 'Porsche Design' was created, focused upon a range of
apparel goods spanning sun-glasses to jackets to much else, and with
later entry into broader personal items. By the mid 1980s 'Porsche
Design' had become the aspirant and de-riguer brand for the aspirant
yuppie era; seen as Euro-cool by many Californians who could and
could not afford a 'whale-tail' 911 Turbo. Ironically, it was a 'fit
for purpose' uniqueness (not always well styled) that created the
personality and so the first footprint in the sands of (an at least
semi-credible) premium auto-related luxury goods brand. The critical
factor here was that, although seen as odd and distasteful by many of
the old-guard establishment, 'Porsche Design' was not simply a
branding exercise. Each of its items from glasses to bags had been
designed to perform properly. Ironically, arguably unlike the
historically embedded poor packaging of the 911 itself, these
designed from scratch luxury goods were usually wholly fit for
purpose, even if obviously 'Germanic'.
[NB since that strict
Teutonic stance, given the commercial appeal, Porsche Design now
overlaps with the prestige of Porsche Cars, functional design
overtaken by marketing led, hi-style design: as with the 911 GT3
exhaust derived Audio Soundbar.
That 1980s consumerist
designer-fever spread into the next decade, various instances of the
in-house design team asked to consider new brand extension projects
for marketing and new revenues purposes. Perhaps the high water mark
of that era – sublime or ridiculous - being a pasta firm's use of
the auto-design guru Giorgetto Giugiaro to create a 'designer pasta'.
Like 'Porsche Design' the name 'ItalDesign-Giugaro' brought
auto-design cache and so its order book became increasingly product
design orientated thereafter.
The term 'lifestyle'
and 'designer' has been synonymous with prestige goods ever since;
especially so in personal luxury goods.
Critically, unlike
previous eras whereby (because of its innate history of expertise) a
specific best-in-class brand would be the natural destination for a
buyer of a specific item, the mid 1990s onward saw an ever greater
proliferation of branded “families” of related and non-related
goods: for personal use, home use, office use or as often as prestige
gift items.
The first auto-branded
items -beyond conventional merchandising - were those which were
sympathetic to auto-brand extension in the transportation realm.
Such corporate moves
seen were partially adapted or wholly redesigned branded bicycles
with own design studio input, even if realistically very little.
These sold individually or as part of a new car package with good
margins, and used by dealers for life-style window-dressing of their
expansive windows. Land-Rover Design's first offering of a convincing
mountain-bike having now led to what is effectively a licensing of
the logo adorning various types of bicycles. Similarly, Ferrari
Design started out with items of greater brand and design integrity.
But there soon emerged a blur between the “brand-values” quality
of the original products and the desire to increasingly enter the
mainstream with ever higher volume expectations; leading to
unconvincing overly styling on poor quality products; so little more
than additional merchandised items on low margins.
Nonetheless, these and
other premium marques have continued to explore the prestige retail
space that sits between the wholly in-house created and the wholly
externally generated. Herein we have seen Bentley Motors co-create a
range of home-ware products primarily around the sitting-room/lounge
and bedroom. Aston-Martin similarly co-created dining silver
home-wares and gift-wares alongside personal accoutrements. And more
recently Bugatti has co-created a range of haute couture fashions for
him and her; with an expectation that it will likewise create
additional 'artistic' items befitting the highly collectable
artefacts Rembrandt Bugatti (Ettore's sibling) created at the very
beginning of the 20th century.
And lastly is the
deployment of of 'sexy design' as a brand marketing tool within below
and above the lines advertising to revitalise brand interest.
The most current
prominent exploiter being Ford using the second iteration of the Ford
GT supercar in its UK advertising, along with the notionally exotic
Mustang in its 'Unlearn' campaign, citing 'Mondeo Man'; intended to
shake off the the blue oval's previous conventionality.
But most
socio-technically powerful, and so most interesting, have been the
efforts thus far of Stuttgart, Detroit and Munich.
Thanks to economic
expansion from the mid 1960s onward, the European suburban
'micro-car' (BMW Isetta et al) soon disappeared into the rear-view
mirror as 'proper' car demand took hold. However, it still held sway
in two primary niche markets, France and Japan thanks to local
regulatory regimes, but within Europe a fraction of the market TIV.
However, the seeds of
re-invention were being sewn by the early 1990s, with the Kyoto
Summit acting as a catalyst for experimentation. Demographers and
social scientists foresaw the upcoming economic growth of EM regions
on the horizon with the inevitable mass-urbanisation effect. This
leading to the notion of the ten million plus 'Mega-City'. Similarly
there were observations that Europe's ageing population and singleton
trends amongst the young would require vehicles with smaller
footprint, packaged effectively for the urban and suburban
environments.
The then very
fashionable Swatch watch company of Switzerland sought to explore
diversification and started to undertake a radical 2-seater city-car
vehicle project which utilised the same inter-changability which made
their watches so popular. That set the basic tone of what was to be a
revolutionary step forward in small car design. Recognising the size
of the challenge ahead Swatch approached various auto-players,
eventually partnering with Daimler's Mercedes car unit in early 1994.
[NB Mercedes was also
underway with its own city-car, the Vision A, as a truly small
4-seater 4-door, far smaller than the original A-class, this
seemingly grown in size with the advent of the SmartCar].
So it was that only two
and half years after Kyoto that concepts were shown to press and
public, and three and a half years later that the first Smart
ForTwo rolled out of the dedicated production centre in Hambach, NE
France.
It was a courageous
exercise by Daimler that would be criticised by many for the time
taken to reach break-even – well over a decade in fact (even with
the derived Smart Roadster) – but effectively set the bar for a
new era of micro-cars suited to city-use.
Recognising this
probable social shift, at the turn of the new century whilst riding
upon the populist wave that was the internet bubble – itself
poised to radically change society - the American 'Big Three' started
to showcase their interpretations of tomorrow's personal mobility
solutions. Similarly, the Japanese reviewed how the Kei car format
could itself be accompanies by even smaller, single and couple
orientated products.
GM, Ford, Chrysler,
Toyota, Honda and Nissan each depicted that future as the 'Urban
Pod'.
Small in footprint and
tall in height, powered electrically and to carrying one or two
passengers. Such thought provoking proposals, regards an
intelligently integrated cityscape, laid the foundations for the
public's current fascination with Google's experimental 'pod' and
Apple's visions of a similar device. That once slow-track of a
radically altered urban future now almost accepted by the public as
the expected future of long-term transport evolution.
Appearing upon the
fast-track of transport revolution - toward the MegaCity idiom –
has been BMW's truly revolutionary i3. Unlike Nissan's Leaf or the GM
Volt/Ampera, both beset by the problem of adapting of a conventional
(ie heavy) steel platform (albeit partly 'lightweighted'), BMW
recognised it would need to start with a clean-sheet design, the
disadvantages of platform adaption rightly seen as far too limiting.
Moreover, most importantly it demonstrated the firm's willingness to
heavily invest in the expensive but right technology mix as an
optimal solution.
A carbon fibre and
composites intensive body, riding upon a separate
(battery-integrated) aluminium chassis. And instead of simply
'testing the water' before committing itself in 2009 the German firm
created a joint venture with its carbon strands and matting supplier
SGL Carbon. This assurance of supply, along with its own research and
plant investment for the moulding, trimming and conjoining of CFRP
(carbon fibre reinforced plastics) for comparatively high
carbon-vehicle production volumes, meant that BMW has effectively
leap-frogged its automotive peers in knowledge and competitive
advantage. The advantageous 'snowballing' of the carbon-car business
model itself enabled by partial carbon-components inclusion on the
high margin new 7-series, along with aluminium.
The i3, created as a
purposely obvious 'design-led' sub-brand (with i8 and new i5), thanks
to corporate courage - underpinned by the logicality of the business
template - essentially changed the playing field within the
automotive sector for eco-vehicles.
Thus paradoxically we
see that whereas the Design function was previously 'given its head'
only during the good times, we today live in such a competitive,
PESTEL led, global market environment, it was paradoxically during
the worst downturn for 80 years that Design has become far better
respected, and vitally exploited, by those companies that wish to
lead into tomorrow.
