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Why Car Designers Shouldn’t Design Cars
Well, not all cars anyway. Consumers today have over 300 different models of cars, trucks, vans and SUVs to choose from. But there is overwhelming homogeny in car design. Which is why, driving down the Interstate, you can’t tell one car brand from the other.
(“Is that a Kia or a Hyundai? Wait — it’s a Mercedes?!!”)
One of the pleasant side effects of Covid-induced streaming on Netflix these days is to witness the panoply of legacy car design, from Alpha Romeos and Rolls Royces on “The Crown”, to “Ford vs. Ferrari” and their eponymous automobiles. Even watching “Pearl Harbor” serves up pre-WW2 classic automobile design, when another dozen car manufacturers like Nash, Hudson, Plymouth, Oldsmobile and Studebaker still rolled the streets.
Why has iconic car design become so iconically dull?
Last year, New York industrial product designer Joe Doucet pushed out a stunning dream car (watch the YouTube video here).
Doucet has often poked around in different categories, from award-winning aircraft design to placemaking in New York City’s Times Square. Nevertheless, the chances of Doucet’s imaginative rubber ever meeting the road are slim.
Which makes you wonder why the automotive category hasn’t partnered with inspired designers from other verticals like…
