“Providing our students with the experience of going from research, concept formulation and ideation on paper all the way to the real size tangible form helps them to understand the fundamental workflow in a more realistic and motivating way.” says program director Demian Horst. “They become familiar with how many experts are involved in the process, the time it takes to develop, test and refine an idea, the consequences of decisions made along the journey and above all, the importance of team work in the design practice.”
This was the first time a model of this scale and definition has been produced at UID. Interior components, lamps, rims, cameras, visor, roof concept and graphics were areas assigned to different students and they took charge of their implementation on the model.
“During the refinement process the simplicity and young feeling was a bit lost, the form became too complex and grown up,” Rossnagel cites. “Students learned the fine balance of complying with the brand design language and ignoring it partially to be able to develop it into the future; keep the initial chosen concept and keep the essentials when refining the concept.”
The last design review took place on November 14 with the participation of two Audi designers. Improvements on the full-size model were suggested and during the final weeks the team of students focused on finalizing the model, implementing the adjustments and preparing it for the journey from Umeå to Ingolstadt.
“With this project we challenged some of the typical automotive styling by proposing a vehicle with a relatively simple construction and form language,” says Horst. “When the car is parked and resting (or charging) its main functions are hidden. That does not keep the novice from understanding the product. A simple look at the subtle top features and its carefully laid shut lines will trigger the viewer’s intuition about how to use the car. The iconic roadster can be configured from a monolithic sculpture to a dynamic single or two-seater. A simple idea that we believe would boost even more the sophisticated and sporty character of the Audi brand.”
