Recently, a masterclass was given by Laurens van den Acker (Senior Vice President Corporate Design of Renault) at the Industrial Design program in Delft . The Masterclass was held at the Faculty of Industrial Design of the TU Delft, where Laurens van den Acker studied himself. A meeting that taught me 2 things: the value of a story as a guideline for your design, and… that Renault has some really nice cars.
The sacred cow
Car enthusiasts and owners can be divided in many ways. Those who swear by the car and do not want to use any other means of transport. The enthusiasts of a certain brand, model, type. But also people who see a car as a means of transport, something that takes you from A to B. On the other side of the spectrum you have the people who detest the car. They think that we should not have cars and should do everything by public transport. Please note, this is a free division.
I myself am in the position that a car takes you from A to B with a degree of comfort. But also with a degree of independence. Whether that is brand X, Y or Z, I honestly do not care. I went to new zealand whatsapp number the meeting in Delft by train, because then I could still do some work during the journey.
But when you hear the story like this, and see the beautiful concept models, the car speaks more than you think. The entire masterclass can be viewed below.
One of the things Laurens van den Acker talked about was the recognizability of the car. That was one of the things he tackled first. There was no 'face' to the models that Renault had at the time. He showed a picture of a number of models where the logo had been removed. I couldn't really tell what brand it was without the logo. In the video above that is around 20:30.
That is quite a special thing, you can also try it yourself. If you do not look at the logo, can you see what brand or type it is? With many cars not, but with BMW for example.