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From YourSITE.com Miscellaneous Features Design is a paramount tenet of the Audi brand, and given its success in that field, it’s no surprise that many independent designers and design students choose Audi as the subject of their projects. With that in mind, Fourtitude is beginning an ongoing series of articles focusing on an independent take on Audi design. Designers and students outside of Audi’s numerous design studios offer an interesting slant, sometimes but not always different from Audi’s own corporate design language. As the first subject of this series, we take a look at design student Luis Camino and his approach to the much-rumored next-generation Audi A2 also referred to occasionally as A1 in the press.
Luis believes Audi’s design and brand image is “ one of the most admired and respected in the industry”, and he goes further to describe it as “fairly the most respected among car designers too.” The up and coming young designer describes the brand further… “You see, some people say it's easy to design an Audi. What is easy is to make a car look like (an Audi), but to make it as beautiful and balanced as to actually deserve to be an Audi is a whole different story. The German automaker has always given design the same importance as the "technik" — that's quite a lot. They have been coherently, progressively and exquisitely evolving the lines and design themes over the years, leaving little to no place for chance or random features. Not only in the cars, but in the brochures, websites, advertisements, etc. “ Camino first became aware of Audi’s design when his father bought a 1995 Audi 80, noting the design quality of the brochures, which he started collectiong. Having begun his career in graphic design, he particularly appreciated this printed representation of the brand. He describes it as “German precision applied to a design philosophy, but what’s more exciting is how (Audi) has managed to communicate it to the people.
However, the love for the brand stretched beyond the printed page, and for that reason Camino switched to automotive design. These drawings are some of Camino’s first sketches on the much-rumored MINI competitor, the Audi A1. The designer sees himself as square in the center of the future car’s target buyer demographic, and takes particular pride in the high level of Audi design language coherence. This publication tends to agree. While there’ve been many digital renderings of the upcoming A1, none have looked convincingly like an Audi design until we laid eyes on Camino’s own drawings. The drawings themselves show his personal interpretation of what could actually be going on in Audi’s own design studios. They may not be revolutionary, Camino admits he’s not trying to reinvent Audi’s already very successful design language.
Camino further comments on the car… “Everybody agrees on that the A2 will be based aesthetically on the Shooting Break concept, and the sloping up rear windows certainly wouldn't look bad at all, as it shows on most of my otherwise "retro" looking sketches. The overall design is Retro for two reasons. First of all, we haven't seen the real Auto Union grille since the project Rosemeyer, as well as the matching unaggressive descending lights last seen in the recently retired first-generation A2, but luckily now present again in the 2006 TT's taillights. Secondly, specifically at the rear, because I both owered the taillights' top line that blends into the back door's side shutlines, making it all glass down to the bumper; and separated the license plate depression from the bumper's top line, all in order to retrieve that bold nineties feel of the RS2 which in turn reminds of the S1. These are a few examples of the many ways an Audi can be designed by carefully playing with the possibilities and features found in the brand’s heritage. If there's something new here, it may be how the beltline goes forward and turns near the grille, around the headlight, going then down the fender side and back in to the grille to form a cavity on each side of the front end This makes the shape of the main body/hood/grille even more evident. This is nothing radical, again, but as a designer there was no need to screw with the Audi design language.”
In regards to other current Audi designs, Luis said… “I'm having a blast looking at the new TT, it's exactly how it should be. Honestly, I was afraid to see changes like those done in the A4 redesign, with headlamps and taillights not as well solved as in other models with that characteristic "break" at the bottom, and in general a little step away from tightness and simple forms. Or am I the only one confused by those discontinuous lines in the Roadjet concept? The TT shows a comeback of the achievement of the Audi identity by means of the simplest, purest lines. A car that looks like it's been designed by itself.” luis gonzález-camino calleja www.luiscamino.com www.autoblog.com.es If you are a designer, design student or know one who you think should be included in Fourtitude’s Independent Design series, please email contributions or suggestions to info@fourtitude.com.
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