Design a Century - Pioneers of 20th Century Automotive Design

Author: (English) Penny Spark, translated by Guo Zhifeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The content of this book is mainly about perspectives on cars, refuting the common hearsay that "all cars look the same," clearly proving that they are not. Just like any other visual culture field, personal philosophy and preferences are heavily present in car design. The more one studies the works of famous individual designers, the more one discovers a unique language that embodies different emotions and aesthetic effects. Once one becomes sensitive to this individual language, they will never again be able to confuse a designer's car with another designer's car. Look at the lines of Raymond Loewy's Studebaker cars, then compare them with the plumpness of Harley Earl or the ingenuity of Harken Spartan—the differences are as fascinating as the differences between Renaissance painting masters and architects Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. We rarely hear complaints like, "All buildings look the same." Another theme in this book is the remarkable changes in car design during the 20th century, with very little content covering the early 20th-century "horseless carriage" and the mature products of the late 20th century. The development of technology, materials, and production techniques has created conditions for the dramatic changes in the characteristics and appearance of modern cars. Designers interpret all these changes and transform them into forms that are credible and culturally effective. The mid-20th century was an heroic era for car design, when the development of car design became unrestrained. Different countries and cultures interpreted this freedom in different ways: while American designers and the public pushed the idea of freedom to its visual extreme, the Italians retained a traditional sense while still viewing cars as beautiful and aloof. This book is essentially about the evolution of car design in the 20th century. Author Penny Spark selects less than 1,000 cars from millions to showcase the changes in car design. From thousands of car designers who lived or worked in the 20th century, she selects about 50 and presents their personal car design methods to us, which determine the entire approach to modern car design. This will be a book that not only teaches readers a great deal but also brings them surprises.