New-Tech Europe Magazine | April 2017

Rally Car for Abramov R&Ddiagram

Above: a folding car for CityTransformer On the right: Hardened tablet for truck fleets for Micronet Headline photo: inside a 4X4 for Logic

The third challenge is the emotional characterization. With this characterization the companies attract their clients and bond with the drivers. Actually, the company attempts to create a faithful tribe. We’ve all heard of "the Alfa crowd" or people "who will only drive a Toyota." A lot of people use a car photo as their computer background picture. When did you last see a T-shirt with a Phillips print or someone with a toaster screen saver on their cell? The emotional characterization is part of the design, but it's focused on the feeling the manufacturer wants to evoke in the client (as opposed to the actual feeling). Cars can feel like sports cars and others less so, even if they are in the same category and have an identical or a close performance package (for example, the sportive Seat and its VW sibling, the domesticated Skoda). The emotional characterization is a whole package that can be seen in commercials, car races etc. In design, it can be expressed in the

characterization and language, but in car design it’s critical and of the utmost importance. The design language is managed zealously, and its goal is positioning the car from a marketing point of view, and stirring expectations about the car's "behavior" and even its "social status." For example, the BMW creates a feeling of a very long engine compartment (by pushing the front wheel to the edge and flattening the nose). It also integrates voluptuous lines that divide the car and create sharp and fast elements, like the headlights. The goal is to relate to the BMW's characterization as a strong and wild but also a manageable car. That's the company's "genetic code." Audi is another example of this category: it derives elements from the industrial world, sharp and distinct lines as well as an expressive waistline. As in the BMW, the goal is to project strength, but also precision and restrained power. That's Audi's genetic code.

unique requirements. The design serves a number of issues. The obvious issues like aesthetics or ergonomics also appear in other products. Although some of the design challenges are common with other consumer goods, they are especially significant in car design. The first challenge is seasonality, a concept borrowed from the fashion industry. In 1942, Alfred Sloan, Head of Marketing and Sales in General Motors, suggested that every company in the Corporation should come up with a new model or design every year. The goal was to encourage the consumers to replace their cars more frequently (until then the models were not replaced for more than a decade). Many of the smaller manufacturers disappeared because of the new GM norm, unable to meet the frequent design changes. The second challenge is the design language. Nowadays most of the consumer goods companies strive to create a precise design

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