Things in common

The car is currently owned by a TNFer, I believe.

The curvy shape of the design and the fact that you have to look through the front element to operate it, probably help give it away!

Would they both be suitable for a fresh-air holiday in Germany? The Black Forest perhaps, or maybe the countryside around the Nurburgring?

The Canon T90 body was designed by Luigi Colani, also the perpetrator of the Eifelland March 721.

Really? Bet it doesn't utilise the original bodywork!

What does it have in common with a '60s Indy winner?

DCN

Ah, Doug, wasn't that a T92?

Edited by gkennedy, 03 December 2012 - 11:43.

Nicely worded Dolomite - I like the implied criminality of the Eifelland design

I'm glad Luigi stuck his neck out even though his idea's did not work.

It's not like the 721 was setting the world on fire if you compare Pescarolo's progress, best 8th place finish in the 'standard customer' Williams 721, with Rolf's two best 10th place finishes in the Eifelland example, or with the works 712X which achieved a best 9th place finish one might conclude that it was worth Eifelland taking a risk even if it did not pay off

Fair point Arti, mine was just a cheap shot! The look of the Eifelland car never really caught my imagination, whereas I rather liked the 711, the 721 and the 721G, if not the technically interesting 721X.

Edited by arttidesco, 03 December 2012 - 09:10.

Can't comment on Sig. Colani's work on the March but I think he did a good job on the camera. Mine gets exercised once or twice a year and is still quite intuitive to use. The most technically advanced manual focus film camera ever produced, at least for the non-pro market?

Edited by David Beard, 03 December 2012 - 13:21.

Can't comment on Sig. Colani's work on the March but I think he did a good job on the camera. Mine gets exercised once or twice a year and is still quite intuitive to use. The most technically advanced manual focus film camera ever produced, at least for the non-pro market?

Interesting topic. I suppose Designers turn their hand to all sorts of things.

Am I right in thinking that Owen Maclaren of Maclaren Pushchair fame also designed the under carriage of the DeHavilland Mosquito?

Edited by David Beard, 03 December 2012 - 14:36.

The Canon T90 body was designed by Luigi Colani....

Am I right in thinking that Owen Maclaren of Maclaren Pushchair fame also designed the under carriage of the DeHavilland Mosquito?

The Norris brothers, famous for designing Donald Campbell's Bluebird cars and boat, and having some aerodynamic input on the Hill Lola(or maybe GH1) also designed hundreds and hundreds of non-motorsport items including the inertia-reel seatbelt, concrete pumps, micro switches and a rotary engine for motorcycle use.

Edited by 2F-001, 04 December 2012 - 06:56.

Graham Hill won the 1966 Indy 500 in a Lola T90.

Can't comment on Sig. Colani's work on the March

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 04 December 2012 - 22:08.

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 04 December 2012 - 22:39.

Thanks - very good points, very well presented. I guess I'm too sensitive because of my dislike for the careless synonym-like use of "designer" and "stylist" in modern parlance.

Edited by D-Type, 04 December 2012 - 23:26.

I wholly appreciate and embrace the need in real-world product design to merge art and function to create a product that people want to buy or possess, sometimes against their better judgment.

Nigel, their function is precisely not to be ridden too far!

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 06 December 2012 - 10:25.

The fact is that Niemeyer, nor Giugiaro or Pininfarina – and the latter two surely would have some qualification - ever had the pretence to “design” an F1 car, which – as already said – is the ultimate in terms of purpose and function.

The fact is that Niemeyer, nor Giugiaro or Pininfarina – and the latter two surely would have some qualification - ever had the pretence to “design” an F1 car...
For Colani, Kayemod’s post 38 says it all.

One must be pretty much fluent in most areas in order to come up with something that works and satisfies the brief and at the same time to have the credibility to direct top level specialists in their own fields. You never can separate the high level concept from the actual realization, the detailing: their interaction is constant.

Edited by Nigel Beresford, 06 December 2012 - 16:05.

You can't just "throw the drawings over the wall" to production and leave them to figure out how to make it. It's a similarly iterative process to that of converting concept to detail design. There is so much more to "design" than styling.

Indeed.. and so it goes on, because then Design has to follow a similar process of interaction with respect to Production. You can't just "throw the drawings over the wall" to production and leave them to figure out how to make it. It's a similarly iterative process to that of converting concept to detail design. As you imply, there is so much more to "design" than styling.

Quite, but in the case of the cameras - and with so many other things too - the process starts a long time before any of those drawings exist. For the Canon T90 and Nikon F3/F4, I should imagine there was quite a lot of the camera function engineered and designed before any styling input from outside. So the consultant stylists would have had some pretty solid parameters to work to.

Not trying to diminish the work of people / companies like Giugiaro, just get the balance. It's annoying to see Giugiaro credited as "the" designer of the F4, when so many other hands worked on it too.

There always were / still are some "designers" who take far too much credit for products on which they had almost no measurable input. I always think of 'Count' ( tee hee ) Albrecht Goertz as a prime example of this.

It's annoying to see Giugiaro credited as "the" designer of the F4, when so many other hands worked on it too.

Edited by kayemod, 06 December 2012 - 17:13.