Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
6/11/16
This is not a post: Rio Olympics 2016 Logo.
It's zero percent surprising that the Brazilians, when faced with the challenge of inventing a logo for their Olympics, produced something that looks exactly like a thong.
8/12/15
Quick-Wedge screwdriver. Enough, already.
This 1960 ad for the Quick-Wedge screwdriver gets points for using the correct spelling of both words, instead of using the more easily trademarkable, but intellectually corrosive, trend of spelling product names like an idiot. They easily could have gone with any of the following, (and contributed to the national problem of adults that can only spell phoenetically, and resent anyone who actually paid attention in school), but thankfully didn't...
Yes, the advertising industry missed one small opportunity to contribute to the dumbing down of America when this ad his the pages of Mechanix Illustrated.
The Quick-Wedge screwdriver claims to grip the screw, instead of the standard behavior for flat screwdrivers, which is to leap out of the screw head and plunge deep into your radial artery... again.
How does it grip the screw? The explanatory illustration in the ad explains nothing, so don't waste your time rotating your eyes towards it. Toolmonger.com explains it thusly:
So the Quick-Wedge blade (whose company still exists!) is split, and the halves are cleverly wedge-shaped in such a way that, when you push on the telescoping handle (which telescopes), the two halves of the blade spread out in the screw's slot, hopefully gripping it, instead of making it spring off of the screwdriver, skittering under the refrigerator.
We could just discontinue the use of stupid, horrible, slotted screws entirely, which were made obsolete in 1908 with the invention of the square-drive screw, and again in 1936 with the Phillips screw! Why buy a special, expensive, complicated, articulating screwdriver to restore some utility to a primitive, outdated design, when you can just use a better, widely available screw that only requires a simple one-piece screwdriver that won't make you stab yourself, first on accident, and then in rage? Haven't you wiped enough arterial spray off your walls already? I once read that the Japanese names for Phillips and slotted screws are just "plus" and "minus" (...possibly because of the shape of the hole they make in your skin when you slip?). So smart and straightforward, the Japanese.
It must be pointed out that Quick-Wedge are not to blame for slotted screws. They simply figured out how to finally make them work, and the answer is a robotic telescoping scissor-action screwdriver, and that is pathetic.
Here's a neat article on the history of screws, to get you good and mad at stupid, horrible slotted screws.
Of course, the reason everyone still has a stupid, horrible flat screwdriver at all is the fact that there are still slotted screws in the world. Mostly, I find them on older devices. How older? Well, they're not from 1936, that's for sure. So, any object less than 79 years old has no excuse to use stupid, horrible slotted screws - the perforators of thumbs. Every time I'm taking something apart, for whatever reason, and I find a slotted screw, I replace it with a Phillips screw from the Chest of Many Things. I have a policy of only turning slotted screws counter-clockwise, so that I can throw them in the recycle bin. I fucking hate them.
It's a little surprising to find that square-drive screws (whose driver is square in cross section, duh), predate Phillips screws by like thirty years. The story of why they took off in popularity and then came crashing back to Earth in popularity is one of patents and lawyers, and can be read in the neat article on Mental Floss, linked a few paragraphs back. I have a box of those somewhere, and a screwdriver to match, but I will never voluntarily use them unless I have no choice. But, at least the squaredriver isn't as blade-like as a flat screwdriver and as a result, doesn't slide as easily into my wrist, if it does slip out of the screw, which it won't, because it's merely uncommon, and not stupid or horrible.
- Quik-Wedge
- Quic-Wedj
- Kwik-Wej
- Cuique-Uedgje
- Kuik-Oueg
- Qooicke-Ooij
- Coic-Wj
- Kwihk-Ouedjgj
- Grunt-Grunt
Yes, the advertising industry missed one small opportunity to contribute to the dumbing down of America when this ad his the pages of Mechanix Illustrated.
The Quick-Wedge screwdriver claims to grip the screw, instead of the standard behavior for flat screwdrivers, which is to leap out of the screw head and plunge deep into your radial artery... again.
How does it grip the screw? The explanatory illustration in the ad explains nothing, so don't waste your time rotating your eyes towards it. Toolmonger.com explains it thusly:
To use the Quick-Wedge driver, seat the slotted screw on the tip of the screwdriver. Then move the tube forward to apply force against the edges of the screw slot. Drive the screw, then release it from the screwdriver by sliding the tube back towards the handle.
So the Quick-Wedge blade (whose company still exists!) is split, and the halves are cleverly wedge-shaped in such a way that, when you push on the telescoping handle (which telescopes), the two halves of the blade spread out in the screw's slot, hopefully gripping it, instead of making it spring off of the screwdriver, skittering under the refrigerator.
Orrrrr.....
We could just discontinue the use of stupid, horrible, slotted screws entirely, which were made obsolete in 1908 with the invention of the square-drive screw, and again in 1936 with the Phillips screw! Why buy a special, expensive, complicated, articulating screwdriver to restore some utility to a primitive, outdated design, when you can just use a better, widely available screw that only requires a simple one-piece screwdriver that won't make you stab yourself, first on accident, and then in rage? Haven't you wiped enough arterial spray off your walls already? I once read that the Japanese names for Phillips and slotted screws are just "plus" and "minus" (...possibly because of the shape of the hole they make in your skin when you slip?). So smart and straightforward, the Japanese.
It must be pointed out that Quick-Wedge are not to blame for slotted screws. They simply figured out how to finally make them work, and the answer is a robotic telescoping scissor-action screwdriver, and that is pathetic.
Here's a neat article on the history of screws, to get you good and mad at stupid, horrible slotted screws.
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The Chest of Many Things. Home of screws. Make a left at the
Peeewee Herman bike, and open every drawer in turn,
muttering under your breath about labeling these goddamn
drawers some time.
|
It's a little surprising to find that square-drive screws (whose driver is square in cross section, duh), predate Phillips screws by like thirty years. The story of why they took off in popularity and then came crashing back to Earth in popularity is one of patents and lawyers, and can be read in the neat article on Mental Floss, linked a few paragraphs back. I have a box of those somewhere, and a screwdriver to match, but I will never voluntarily use them unless I have no choice. But, at least the squaredriver isn't as blade-like as a flat screwdriver and as a result, doesn't slide as easily into my wrist, if it does slip out of the screw, which it won't, because it's merely uncommon, and not stupid or horrible.
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| Click for big. |
5/29/15
BMW 3.0 Hommage Concept - Looks like the lunch you will lose.
BMW has unveiled it's latest concept showpiece at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. It's a concept car paying tribute to the old CSL which many regard as kind of a pretty thing. The new thing is, uuh.... rather ornate.
Upon seeing this brave new design, it occurred to me that the new BMW flight of fancy looked very "fashion forward". I think that royalty may take a liking to their fancy new car...
Credit where it's due. We got these pictures (well, the ones of just the car) from Jalopnik, who got them from Paolo Garella.
Upon seeing this brave new design, it occurred to me that the new BMW flight of fancy looked very "fashion forward". I think that royalty may take a liking to their fancy new car...
Credit where it's due. We got these pictures (well, the ones of just the car) from Jalopnik, who got them from Paolo Garella.
4/8/15
Automotive Design Trends - Big pretend grille awards!
Hey, car spotters! In case you hadn't noticed, there's a huge trend in automotive styling towards big fake grilles. We've noted some of the most notable examples and handed out some awards, so that you will also note them. Let's see what they won!
First, some explanation. There are people at every car company whose job it is to work out the styling of the car. This may sound like fun, but there are a few things that drain every stylist's will to live. First, there's the sheer volume of government-mandated safety regulations. Then there's the giant committee of auto executives that love the idea of "fresh new designs" while simultaneously hating anything that's actually different from what they've seen before. There's also the huge amount of money at stake if the model is a consumer failure. So combine massive pressure, design constraints like handcuffs, and mico-managing oversight from terrified bosses, and you have an environment for designing the perfect stupid-looking car.
Every country has crash-safety regulations, and the U.S.A. standards are pretty strict, requiring large rubber-baby-buggy-bumpers of identical height on all vehicles. You often hear about differences between the Euro-spec bumper on a given model and the dorky, bulbous U.S-spec version that completely wrecks the look of the car. Designers would love to abandon the idea of bumpers. They hate them. They're big and lumpy and they make it hard to design a cool-looking car.
In the past, the bumper was a big chrome metal thing. If you liked chrome, it wasn't a bad compromise. Might as well glam up the bumper with some shiny chrome, right? But in recent years, designers have been trying like hell to absorb the bumper into the silhouette of the car's body, enveloping it within the body panels, and as a result, concealing it. This is an expensive game, since the body panels (which are ...protecting the bumper?) will suffer visible damage after even the gentlest of fender benders. Still, everyone loves a sleek shape, so, this is the way the wind is blowing. Have a look at the AMC Matador in the picture. That's about as safe as a bumper can get: a spring-loaded bash guard way out in front of the vehicle. Imagine how much nicer the car would look if we just deleted the bumper? Can't.
So, this is the dream of the automotive stylist: no more bumpers, But, it can never be. Instead, they're trying to pretend it doesn't exist.
Along with the no-bumpers wish, there's a strong desire to have a car with a gigantic grille. Maybe this implies that the motor is massive and needs loads of air. Why? Dump trucks have huge grilles, and they're slow as hell. No matter! People are basically huge children, and fads defy reason. To the six-year-old brain inside your average adult, a huge grille means POWAH! Better still if your giant grille is all frowny and angry-looking, because you're a child whose afraid of the world and you want to scare off the bigger kids that may pick on you. If you're a stylist and want that child's money, you'd better have a big angry grille. So what do you do when you're told to follow the massive grille fad while hiding your bumper shame?
Let's explore some great examples of Big Pretend Grille Syndrome!
Ford Focus
First, some explanation. There are people at every car company whose job it is to work out the styling of the car. This may sound like fun, but there are a few things that drain every stylist's will to live. First, there's the sheer volume of government-mandated safety regulations. Then there's the giant committee of auto executives that love the idea of "fresh new designs" while simultaneously hating anything that's actually different from what they've seen before. There's also the huge amount of money at stake if the model is a consumer failure. So combine massive pressure, design constraints like handcuffs, and mico-managing oversight from terrified bosses, and you have an environment for designing the perfect stupid-looking car.
In the past, the bumper was a big chrome metal thing. If you liked chrome, it wasn't a bad compromise. Might as well glam up the bumper with some shiny chrome, right? But in recent years, designers have been trying like hell to absorb the bumper into the silhouette of the car's body, enveloping it within the body panels, and as a result, concealing it. This is an expensive game, since the body panels (which are ...protecting the bumper?) will suffer visible damage after even the gentlest of fender benders. Still, everyone loves a sleek shape, so, this is the way the wind is blowing. Have a look at the AMC Matador in the picture. That's about as safe as a bumper can get: a spring-loaded bash guard way out in front of the vehicle. Imagine how much nicer the car would look if we just deleted the bumper? Can't.
So, this is the dream of the automotive stylist: no more bumpers, But, it can never be. Instead, they're trying to pretend it doesn't exist.
Along with the no-bumpers wish, there's a strong desire to have a car with a gigantic grille. Maybe this implies that the motor is massive and needs loads of air. Why? Dump trucks have huge grilles, and they're slow as hell. No matter! People are basically huge children, and fads defy reason. To the six-year-old brain inside your average adult, a huge grille means POWAH! Better still if your giant grille is all frowny and angry-looking, because you're a child whose afraid of the world and you want to scare off the bigger kids that may pick on you. If you're a stylist and want that child's money, you'd better have a big angry grille. So what do you do when you're told to follow the massive grille fad while hiding your bumper shame?
Let's explore some great examples of Big Pretend Grille Syndrome!
Ford Focus
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| Here is the front end of a 2012 Ford Focus and a 2015 Ford Focus RS. We didn't get the fast RS version of the 2012 Focus here in the states - maybe because Ford thought it would eat into sales of the Mustang? I dunno. Anyway, look at that huge Grille! It must need a lot of air! |
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| Here's the 2012 Focus. The pink area on the left shows us what Ford wants you to think is a big, manly intake. The green area on the right shows us the actual open area of the fake grill that lets in air. They've pretty much painted on a big shouty mouth using black plastic. Why didn't they also add a mustache and goatee? What about some glasses around the headlights? Missed opportunity, if you ask me. |
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| Here's the 2015 Focus RS. It's a desirable, fast car with a hatchback - eminently justifiable as a daily driver. Check out the huge pink pretend grille! The last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it. Hey, good crowd! The actual grille is marked out in green on the right. Did you notice the bumper? Probably not, since Ford wrapped it in black plastic, making it totally invisible, right? When I look at this I see the following, in this order... A) Ford's shame that their car has to have a dorky bumper. B) Ford's lack of ideas how to hide it. C) Ford hoping I'm dumb enough to think that their huge pretend grill is real. So, both of these masterful designs earn Ford our Good For The Kids Award, for designing a front end to make an eight-year-old boy open his check book. Well done, Ford. Now how about a Focus for grownups? It might as well have plastic Nerf machine guns stuck on the fenders. |
Hyundai Genesis Coupe
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| The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is a quirky design that you either love or hate. I think they get a few points for being different. Some have mumbled that the car looks too much like an Aston martin, and this is shameful for what reason? A 305-hp sort of Aston-ish looking car for about twenty five kilobucks? Right on! The first generation of the car started out with an unfortunate amount of bogus black plastic polluting the nose, but it wasn't too offensive. Then, in 2013, Hyundai jumped on the idiot bandwagon and gave their car a big dump truck grille that looks like it's biting its tongue. For this uglification, Hyundai brings home the You're Not Helping Award. Gentlemen, it was better before you improved it. |
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| Here's the 2010 Genesis Coupe. The mouth at the bottom is supposed to simulate, what? ...brake ducts? At least they had the good taste to cover the bumper area with body color. |
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| Here's the improved 2013 model. The big mouth puts the bumper on proud display, but don't worry. A little black plastic makes it disappear! It sort of looks like an angry teen wearing his retainer. Kid, you don't scare me. Go home. As a cool bonus, don't miss the fake nostrils on the hood that do nothing but make you impulsively buy Axe Body Spray. |
Audi A4 (but really most Audis, really)
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| Audi has been loving the dump truck grille for a number of years now. Please fail to notice the bumper blocking about 30% of the pretend grille on their 2015 A4. |
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| Audi wins our I Know Nutting Award in the Pretend Grillympics. The ratio of plastic fakeness to actual intakeness is laughable. But at least it has that dump truck racing cache' that's sweeping the nation. Once again, black ABS makes the bumper absolutely invisible. It's a Teutonic masterpiece in metal und shteel, but mostly schwarz plashtic. |
Ford Fusion
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| "But," you say, "If you're so smart, show us what the front of a car should look like, clever trousers!" There are lots of less dopey-looking nosejobs than those displayed by the stars of today's awards. An easy example is the Ford Fusion. See? Ford's not completely clueless. Put this nose on the Focus RS and you'd have me up late trying to figure out how to afford one. |
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| See? It CAN be done. Only the fake brake ducts are fake. The Ford Fusion gets our Ray Of Hope Award. |
Toyota Corolla S
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| After the sixth generation Celica and before the Scion FR-S (a span of about 14 years), Toyota was the champion of beige, forgettable transportation appliances. Even now that they've started glancing in the direction of their customer base that still has a pulse by producing the FR-S coupe, they're still desperately trying to shake off the mantle of "grandma's sensible car". Their half-assed "S" version of the 2015 Corolla takes the beigemobile and makes it faster by adding a frowny face and by painting on a baffling mouth using the magical hue of "plastique nior". Toyota's "we're still hip.... pretty please" ad campaign uses fire imagery and lots of dancing teens to convince you this snowboarding granny is ready to pump out the jamz. |
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| Please don't tell me the "S" is supposed to stand for "sport". Toyota's desperation makes us feel sorry for them. Their Corolla S gets the Participation Trophy that every kid gets, just for showing up. It's an award for taking up space. Well done, Corolla S. |
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| Taking this trend to its logical conclusion, we have simulated an even faster version of the Corolla S. Everything forward of the front axles is covered in textured black plastic. Therefore, it's an air intake. Therefore, the car is more aggressive and also faster. You're welcome. |
Tesla Model S
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| The Tesla Model S is the first electric car that can be fun to drive and (mostly) nice to look at. It doesn't have an internal combustion engine, so it barely has any need at all for a grille, apart from cabin ventilation and maybe some light cooling of the batteries and electric motors. That said, why did Tesla feel obligated to basically put a picture of a grille on their flagship model? We're guessing it's because they felt customers would be turned off by a car that didn't look conventional enough. |
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| This pretend grille is almost entirely pointless. It's a big black dot on the nose that serves little purpose other than possibly meeting the expectations of buyers weirded out by being too different. What a letdown. It sure doesn't look like an eighty-five-thousand dollar car. This silly black dot gets the Clown nose Award. It's an electric car. It doesn't need as many holes as a piston engine car, so don't make fake holes. |
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| Interestingly, Saleen, the guys you may know from their many years tuning Mustangs, has made available their better, faster, and MUCH PRETTIER version of the Model S. It's called the Tesla Saleen FourSixteen, and it not only fixes the goofy black dot problem, but it makes the whole car look like it's worth the price you paid for it. This pretty thing gets the Yes! Yes! Oh God YES! Award. Thank you, third party manufacturers, for showing the big companies how it's done. What are you doing after the show, gorgeous? |
2/11/15
Crane's Papers - Would that I needed paper.
This 1935 ad from Crane's Papers is an object lesson in why Art Deco was pretty much the best design style humanity ever came up with. This ad is so beautiful, it's like they don't even need my business!
In case you don't see what all the fuss is about, here are the highlights.
-The wide margins and generous use of "negative space" imply a relaxed luxury. It's like the art doesn't feel the need to fill up every available corner of the page.
-The thin lines aren't shouty. This makes the art feel dignified. It's not trying to leap off the page at you. Notice it or don't. It doesn't care one way or the other.
-The picture doesn't seem to have any direct relation to the product. You have to read the copy to get it. "Our paper goes all over the world, constantly." But with a picture that pretty, we hardly care if it relates to the product or not.
Mostly, the text in the ad brags about Cranes' achievements at market domination. I guess they really don't need our business. The bottom line is, the ad mirrors their attitude, and that's this: "Wouldn't you feel better using Crane's than the loser paper you have now?" I'm inclined to agree.
Believe it or not, Crane's is still around (http://www.crane.com/), but it seems that the look of their site, which in the modern world is the front door of your company, has lost a lot of the grandeur and class they had in 1935. Better get on that shit, Crane's.
-The wide margins and generous use of "negative space" imply a relaxed luxury. It's like the art doesn't feel the need to fill up every available corner of the page.
-The thin lines aren't shouty. This makes the art feel dignified. It's not trying to leap off the page at you. Notice it or don't. It doesn't care one way or the other.
-The picture doesn't seem to have any direct relation to the product. You have to read the copy to get it. "Our paper goes all over the world, constantly." But with a picture that pretty, we hardly care if it relates to the product or not.
Mostly, the text in the ad brags about Cranes' achievements at market domination. I guess they really don't need our business. The bottom line is, the ad mirrors their attitude, and that's this: "Wouldn't you feel better using Crane's than the loser paper you have now?" I'm inclined to agree.
Believe it or not, Crane's is still around (http://www.crane.com/), but it seems that the look of their site, which in the modern world is the front door of your company, has lost a lot of the grandeur and class they had in 1935. Better get on that shit, Crane's.
5/8/14
Expo '67 - The future was then!
Breaking news now, from Expo '67! Everything will look cool in the future! No it didn't. The actual future seldom lives up to the giddy optimism of the World's Fair. Ah well. We'll always have these pictures from the April 28th, 1967 issue of LIFE magazine.
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| The Australian pavilion. Nope. Those picto-trumpets aren't video screens. They're just backlit photos. Expensive and elaborate? Check. Cool looking? Super check. Loud? Not check. |
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| The Cuban pavilion, which came in a flat box and was assembled with a 5mm hex wrench (included) in about three hours. |
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| The |
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| La Ronde, a futuregasmic amusement park just inside the gates of the expo. |
4/22/14
Cadillac LaSalle - Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.
In the opening credits for All in the Family, Edith sings "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great", right before she shrieks the final line "Thoose were the daaaaayyyyys!" with Archie. So this is the car she was singing about. The ad is from 1931, and it's a minimalist eyefull of Deco class. Swing, baby.
Art Deco generally means pulling your punches and taking the high road. Any time I've been required by a job to do the Deco thing, it has meant leaving a lot of negative space, repeated geomoetric shapes and visual restraint. Notice the large areas of empty space around the ad copy, and the surprisingly small size of the illustration at the top, with lots of breathing room around it. All of these art decisions communicate dignity and grace, as if the ad doesn't need to shout at you to communicate. It's an ad that doesn't care if you read it or not. Cadillac doesn't even need your business. They want you to feel like you can buy some of that dignity if you buy their car. They're THAT classy.
All of that is B.S., of course. You can still be a vulgar prick and have a nice car, as we all know. Somehow, as advertising ruins every tool with overuse and cheapness, Art Deco hasn't been destroyed by the ad biz. It still works as a communicator of calm aristocracy.
Sure, The Eighties did it's best to drag Deco into the toilet of Miami Vice cocaine culture, but somehow it's been able to recover from abominations like this dining room, and the juvenile "more is more" mentality that swept the nation in that decade.
Miraculously, I can look at the people in this 1931 clip art without imaging them doing rails of blow off the hood of the LaSalle in the ad. Deco still works.
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| Click for big. |
Art Deco generally means pulling your punches and taking the high road. Any time I've been required by a job to do the Deco thing, it has meant leaving a lot of negative space, repeated geomoetric shapes and visual restraint. Notice the large areas of empty space around the ad copy, and the surprisingly small size of the illustration at the top, with lots of breathing room around it. All of these art decisions communicate dignity and grace, as if the ad doesn't need to shout at you to communicate. It's an ad that doesn't care if you read it or not. Cadillac doesn't even need your business. They want you to feel like you can buy some of that dignity if you buy their car. They're THAT classy.
All of that is B.S., of course. You can still be a vulgar prick and have a nice car, as we all know. Somehow, as advertising ruins every tool with overuse and cheapness, Art Deco hasn't been destroyed by the ad biz. It still works as a communicator of calm aristocracy.
Sure, The Eighties did it's best to drag Deco into the toilet of Miami Vice cocaine culture, but somehow it's been able to recover from abominations like this dining room, and the juvenile "more is more" mentality that swept the nation in that decade.
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| There's a reason mirrored surfaces were so popular in The Eighties. You never know when you'll need another taste of booger sugar. Those weren't the daaaayyyys. |
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| Click for big. |
Miraculously, I can look at the people in this 1931 clip art without imaging them doing rails of blow off the hood of the LaSalle in the ad. Deco still works.
4/1/14
Street Dragsters, 1966 - A Way-Out Look at the Future!
Well, not really. It would have been nice, though. This article from a 1966 issue of Popular Customs featured two designs for streetable dragsters, with room for two people, and enough cooling to possibly survive a life spent partially in traffic. The designs have shortcomings, of course. Since they're based on dragsters, they'd be good at going in straight lines only. The little bicycle wheels in front would make them super prone to understeer (when you turn the wheels, but the car keeps going straight), due to their tiny contact patch. So, you'd need to take the corners reeeeally slow. We won't even discuss crumple zones or crash safety.
Anyway, that's not what these designs are about. They're plausible design ideas for street dragsters, and they look really cool. I love the old slingshot style of dragsters from The Sixties (where the driver sits behind the engine). They had the mass of the car all the way in back, so it looks like a dart. This was the style of Sixties hot rods. I miss them. Of course, having your engine in front of the driver without a firewall separating the two was horribly dangerous if the engine exploded, which they sure did, but that's not my problem. I'm just here to look. Even the front-engined design in this article has all the visual mass of the car piled at the back, where my eyes want it to be. Bad for handling, good for the eyeballs.
There is, in my opinion, a laziness with the current tastes in custom cars. Generally, if you want to have your own car show in the Two-Thousands, you can get one by taking old sedans, putting on hideous chrome wheels as tall as you are with a little rubber band of tire stretched around it, and then painting the car a bright color. There. You're now a visionary car designer. Customs by guys like George Barris (who had nothing to do with the designs in this article, just to be clear) were usually drastic modifications of the cars they were based on, if they weren't completely built from scratch. Custom cars these days are fairly conservative, if you ask me. The sixties were bonkers.
Here's the full article.
Anyway, that's not what these designs are about. They're plausible design ideas for street dragsters, and they look really cool. I love the old slingshot style of dragsters from The Sixties (where the driver sits behind the engine). They had the mass of the car all the way in back, so it looks like a dart. This was the style of Sixties hot rods. I miss them. Of course, having your engine in front of the driver without a firewall separating the two was horribly dangerous if the engine exploded, which they sure did, but that's not my problem. I'm just here to look. Even the front-engined design in this article has all the visual mass of the car piled at the back, where my eyes want it to be. Bad for handling, good for the eyeballs.
There is, in my opinion, a laziness with the current tastes in custom cars. Generally, if you want to have your own car show in the Two-Thousands, you can get one by taking old sedans, putting on hideous chrome wheels as tall as you are with a little rubber band of tire stretched around it, and then painting the car a bright color. There. You're now a visionary car designer. Customs by guys like George Barris (who had nothing to do with the designs in this article, just to be clear) were usually drastic modifications of the cars they were based on, if they weren't completely built from scratch. Custom cars these days are fairly conservative, if you ask me. The sixties were bonkers.
Here's the full article.
9/4/13
RCA - Inspired and uninspired.
This two-part ad ran on consecutive pages of LIFE magazine in 1970. It's a good thing the identical layouts make it clear they're from the same company, because the designs couldn't be more different.
On page 72 there was the ad for RCA stereo components. Square boxes, just like every component system you'd see in every rec room for 20 years to come. Were they designed to be invisible? I hope so, because if they were, mission accomplished. The specs seem impressive, because in my experience, stereos that looked like this always sounded muddy, with five watts of power. You know. You'd pull off the foam screen from the speaker and find that, although the thing was 15 inches tall, it had one single 4" speaker cone in it? I think memories like this are a symptom of the grey market imitating the look of name brands like RCA, and we mustn't let the imitator color our impression of the real thing. Anyway... turn to page 74, and there was this:
Super cool spacey 1970s futureclockradios. I would buy the hell out of the one in the middle, closely followed by the one on the right. How could RCA design fun stuff like this at the same time they were producing ho-hum rectangles like the one above? Maybe RCA demanded people take their audio gear more seriously? I don't know. Does serious have to mean "dull and forgettable"? There were some cool looking audio systems designed in The Seventies. See?
I wonder what made RCA keep the designer on such a short leash with the audio components? The world may never know, no matter how many times you lick that lolly. I must confess to being curious how 100 watts of 1970 match-blowing music sounds, though.
On page 72 there was the ad for RCA stereo components. Square boxes, just like every component system you'd see in every rec room for 20 years to come. Were they designed to be invisible? I hope so, because if they were, mission accomplished. The specs seem impressive, because in my experience, stereos that looked like this always sounded muddy, with five watts of power. You know. You'd pull off the foam screen from the speaker and find that, although the thing was 15 inches tall, it had one single 4" speaker cone in it? I think memories like this are a symptom of the grey market imitating the look of name brands like RCA, and we mustn't let the imitator color our impression of the real thing. Anyway... turn to page 74, and there was this:
Super cool spacey 1970s futureclockradios. I would buy the hell out of the one in the middle, closely followed by the one on the right. How could RCA design fun stuff like this at the same time they were producing ho-hum rectangles like the one above? Maybe RCA demanded people take their audio gear more seriously? I don't know. Does serious have to mean "dull and forgettable"? There were some cool looking audio systems designed in The Seventies. See?
I wonder what made RCA keep the designer on such a short leash with the audio components? The world may never know, no matter how many times you lick that lolly. I must confess to being curious how 100 watts of 1970 match-blowing music sounds, though.
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