How to design luxury: With time and a sense of concentration

The growing pace of life and the rise of the more internet nouveau riche have made the term "luxury" more different than it used to be, which will profoundly affect many products from the design perspective.

German Gerhard Steinle (Gerhard Steinle) early in the morning came to the Designworks of the USA located in the Shanghai office of Lan Road, he repeatedly visited the studio will receive visiting reporters, repeatedly confirmed the reception of flowers are properly placed.

Gerhardt's identity is the BMW Group Global Creative Design Consulting (Designworks USA) Shanghai Studio Design director, his body is not imagined as a designer should have unrestrained artistic temperament, on the contrary he distributed the rigorous but precisely explain the design is actually a precise science.

Gerhardt's other identity is Mercedes-Benz's classic "Smart car prototype" designer, he "small to the extreme" as the design origin, to create a lifestyle for design-oriented to create a car classic.

More than more than 20 years ago, Gerhardt's career began at MUI Mercedes-Benz headquarters and was favored by Bruno Sacu (Bruno Sacco), senior vice president of Mercedes-Benz design, to become his assistant. In the early 1990s, Gerhardt was sent to the first Mercedes-Benz Overseas Design Center in California. 1996 Gerhardt led its team to design a m-class based AVV concept car won the Detroit Auto Show the best car Award and the next year idea gold. AVV's internal design incorporates digital system integration, car-mounted displays and a steering wheel with buttons, which is considered the best example of the integration of digital electronic systems in the automotive field. Even Steven Spielberg invited him to design a car shuttle between dinosaurs for Jurassic Park-the Lost World.

As a renowned industry veteran automotive designer, after a period of his own business and joined the BMW Designworks USA, in 2011, Gerhardt led the team to set up a Designworks USA in Shanghai Studio. As a well-known design company founded in 1972, Designworks USA has been designed for BMW, Nokia, Siemens, Compaq, Adidas and other brands in 1995, the company was fully acquired by BMW Group, and began to provide business design consulting services for other industries, On the other hand, as BMW's design think-tank, the BMW design and external connection to the bridge.

How to design Luxury

In the process of communicating with Gerhardt, a senior designer with more than 20 years of experience in automotive design has a surprisingly sharp and refined understanding of many seemingly abstract topics, and is able to integrate into the soul of a product. Most of the time the core of design capability is the mastery and mastery of these feelings.

"If you use a word to express" luxury, "then what is the word?" Time. Gerhardt mused for a moment and then said. What if you converted "Time" into a design language? Sense of concentration. " Gerhardt one word at a meal.

Why is the design pursuit of "luxury" associated with "time"? At first glance this may seem strange, but in Gerhardt's view there is indeed an intrinsic connection between them.

In the case of BMW's design, in the the 1990s, major car companies have opted for their own design centers near Los Angeles, not only because of their love for California's sunshine, but also for the growing and California State position of the US car market, but because of the dynamic business climate The retro, stylish and free lifestyle of California's people coincides with the fashion of the car design. Designworks USA The design was inspired by the Californian living environment: the city and driving environment are very busy, but everyone wants to pursue a life in a relaxed and comfortable environment, the pursuit of driving environment. BMW then combined the social psychology of the people with the design of the car and tried to embody the free and comfortable lifestyle and driving experience in BMW's X5 series.

Another example, in recent years, the rise of luxury SUV in China behind the upsurge is also a social psychological design projection. Many car owners buy SUVs, do not value their off-road features, crowded in the city people may not have a chance to drive a long journey. The strength of the SUV is that its seat is relatively high, there is a sense of security in the driver's seat, which allows the driver to feel a strong grip on the car, and the emotional effect of the situation is that the driver will feel an unrestricted freedom, all in the grip of a sense of sureness.

If you understand the above background, it is not difficult to understand why Gerhardt "luxury" and "time" linked together. In his view, in today's increasingly fast-paced society, time for many high-end people is the most extravagant, such as he wants to learn Chinese but suffer from no time. The treasure of time derives from the design of what Gerhardt called "the sense of concentration"--the driver who, after entering the driving space of the car, will focus on this space, without being disturbed by other firms, and calmly and intently experiencing the pleasures of driving without being disturbed by the chaos of urban life, in Gerhardt's view, This tranquil driving environment is just one of the most luxurious experiences.

Beyond that, of course, there is a deeper interpretation of time. For example, the California retro style that the big car companies pursued in the past is an interpretation of "time"--"ancient" represents a "slow time", contrary to the fast-paced, suffocating urban life. For example, Marlboro Pen luxury experience is not only its expensive materials, but also the various details of its design, Marlboro Pen design needs to rotate the cap to use the link is not unintentional inserted willow, but hope that the user in the process of rotating the cap to slow down, and thus have time for luxury thinking. In addition, the luxury of luxury, whether it's a handmade car or a handmade custom in a fashion bag, is the cost of more than enough skilled workers.

Behind the evolution of luxury

In fact, "time" is increasingly associated with the concept of "luxury", which has only happened in recent years.

Designworks the creative director of the USA Shanghai Center and Director of Singapore An Yang (Magnus aspegren) have been more aware of this change in the process of customer service for the aviation industry in recent years.

In the process of designing a lightweight jet for the Brazilian Aerospace Corporation (known as the "Feihong business aircraft" in China), An Yang found that business aircraft buyers have changed dramatically in recent years, through years of research on the corporate jet population.

The passengers of traditional business jets are usually rich and old business people or rich, their aesthetic decision in the past to design the traditional business aircraft is to pursue a larger space and add more functions, anxious to put all the valuable things into, luxury more through a very "full" and very "expensive" to reflect, in the past, Luxury means bigger and more, but also more bloated.

However, many successful people in the Internet and other industries are increasingly flying around the world, unlike the previous generation, who live in a faster paced era and grow with the popularity of the internet, and they are more stingy with time, compared to the elegant spacious cabin, This generation of young upstarts needs to be able to reach their destinations quickly.

This change in demand is reflected in the product that traditional business jets are mostly in pursuit of large volumes, and now the demand for upstarts is increasingly pointing to small planes, even the best size and sedan, which can quickly reach destinations, consume less fuel and be able to land at smaller airports. "Luxury" in their view, is no longer just external piling up, but in the art of processing and fine design behind the formation of a strong sense of sharp. "Just as many people use the iphone, you can say it feels like an iphone, and a good product conveys a special feeling." "An Yang said.

In An Yang's view, the traditional business aircraft design too much attention to "first impressions", seemingly luxurious but the lack of unity of style, unable to convey a vital sense of sustainable prosperity. Today's young upstarts need more "intelligent luxury", they need products that are more connected, concise, and allow people to escape from a busy moment of rest, and need an opportunity to escape from worldly hierarchies and symbols, which means that they need to find more important driver elements in their design.

"For example, the so-called luxury embodied in the design can be further decomposed into the following elements-lightness, tranquility, transparency, space, and so on, in addition, luxurious design is also embodied in a" exclusive sense ", people in the purchase of cars in addition to standard, the more willing to pursue customization, so that owners enjoy a personal space exclusive. "An Yang said.

Luxury is not a concept of nothingness, but an external projection of social psychology. Every era has its own luxury of this era. Today, the rising pace of life and the rise of the more internet nouveau riche have made the term "luxury" more different than it used to be, which will profoundly affect many products from the design perspective.