During the 2002 Munich motorcycle show, I had to think about how a particular Italian make’s distinctive style was being abandoned. Of a big tourer, I wrote in my notes: “It looked deficient in character, no longer recognizable. The signature polished chassis beam, with its long, miraculous TIG weld, and the “Bird in Space” swingarm are either covered up or gone. It is like Jaguar, giving up their V12 for a Ford V8. Does no one care? “Individual and artistic design gets a rave review, but then the production engineers tell management how much less expensive every part would be if a stamping could take its place. The result is a rise in profit or a fall in price, but at a cost in lost attractiveness. “In our industrial world, the most valued of all commodities is individuality. Arty, individual design offers this, but the needs of production tend to put a generic stamping in place of beautiful parts that satisfy us on every level. “Think how terrible, how generic it would be to be shot by a Sten gun. O the ignominy! Yes, it’s functional, because it does shoot. But it’s almost entirely made of crude steel stampings. “Imagine eating a wonderful meal in total darkness. Where is the pleasure of anticipation? Parts made in such a way that their function is their only source of value can be visual junk.” 2002 was the “Year of Stealth,” when so many European designers hurried to employ the flat-black surfaces and zig-zag edges made trendy by US combat aircraft designed to minimally reflect radar. The black surface coatings of actual stealth contain conductive particles which dissipate the infinitesimal currents induced in them by radar frequencies. A straight trailing edge on a wing can act as an antenna to detectably re-radiate incoming radar, but only if the airplane is on a course directly over the defensive radar. A zig-zag trailing edge, although more complicated structurally, avoids this. Just as stylists of the 1930s insisted that everything be as streamlined as the then-new high-speed aircraft (streamlined pencil sharpeners, fer cryin’ out loud!), and auto designers of the 1950s decorated American cars with bumper-bombs, chrome speed lines, and tail fins, so inspiration from on high continues. Sit in a design course and you will hear that shape and color are a grammar and a vocabulary that speak to our unconscious minds. Get the product’s shape and color right and you can forget the rest. Good to know.Gadget Reviews: mamaktalk.com
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