With the vigorous development of the automobile industry, automobile styling design has gradually become an important means for major car companies to create product differentiation competition. Different car brands and model positioning as well as different series have their own unique shapes. The styling design of the car carries the appearance identity and emotional attributes of a brand, which triggers the most direct perception of people. After all, people are visual animals, and first impressions are important.
Nowadays, the car shapes on the market have their own characteristics, and the models with rich muscles and sports "expressions" are emerging in an endless stream, all of which highlight the uniqueness of their own brands in order to quickly attract the attention of consumers. Among the many "angry eyes" and very dynamic car exterior design, the box car "cute and cute" appearance image is unique, what is the story behind this?
Today we will listen to yao Xiangyin, head of box car styling design, how to evaluate and explain the original design concept of box cars.
Break through the traditional design more pure
Box cars, car names, positioning, shapes, all give people a refreshing feeling, presumably everyone will have a consensus - the sword is a strange move. It takes a little courage, a little innovation, to break the rules and find a new world.
As the name suggests, the box car is taken from the English "thinking out of the box" - jumping out of traditional thinking and breaking new paths. Box cars focus on the B-end track, and the appearance of the model is a direct visual representation of the name, full of geometry and futurism.
When talking about the design inspiration of the box car, Yao Xiangyin said: "The taxi has its particularity, it gives people a memory time of only a few seconds, how to achieve enough recognition and meet the user's imagination of future travel is the starting point of the design concept." The brand name is reasonably integrated into the design, on the one hand, to give the visual visual image of the figurative words to be better remembered; on the other hand, the shape of the 'square box' can bring more interior space to meet the needs of passengers for travel space, while enhancing the sense of the future with a simple and pure design style. ”
Yao Xiangyin believes that the ultimate purpose of design is to convey function, throw away the cumbersome decoration, and keep it pure. "Box car adheres to the box body aesthetics, creating a geometric image style and a morphological language that emphasizes the sense of volume. In order to meet the needs of different use scenarios and ride experience, many asymmetrical elements have been added to the design. In addition to this we simplify and discard all decorative objects that have no purpose. All of this is designed to create the most iconic future of mobility. ”
Have you found that innovation is not a flash in the head, but a deep insight into market demand. It is not to stick to the inherent products in the market, but to create new products from the demand.
The clever use of geometry is even more impressive
In a bustling city, it's hard to impress with the vehicles that come and go, so it's important to create a unique vehicle look. Yao Xiangyin believes that the simpler and purer the symbol, the more recognizable it is, and the stronger the symbol features, the more impressive it is. To this end, most of the BM-400 body uses horizontal and vertical lines, geometric design throughout the entire body, the geometric color block of the body, the use of graphics and color to quickly win the attention of pedestrians.
The BM-400's real car appearance is really refreshing, especially the design of the side sliding door sensing area. The BM-400 sliding door sensing area forms a light interaction between the passengers, and the light is used as a signal to convey the switch of the sliding door, which adds fun to the riding experience and deepens the memory of the BM-400.
It is also a sense of geometry and a sense of line, and when this concept runs through the development process, what is branded at the product level is the user's sense of trust and security.
Peace and comfort lead the way for the future
Yao Xiangyin believes that as a travel car BM-400 should present a peaceful and intimate feeling, creating a warm and relaxed space, "The most distinctive attribute of the BM-400 is that it needs to face everyone, and its design needs to be accepted and liked by men, women and children. Therefore, the BM-400 presents a peaceful and confident posture as a whole, hoping to create a quiet and comfortable space, allowing pedestrians to get a short moment of relaxation and become a mobile harbor during the journey. ”
"The BM-400 was more affinity through a calm and tense face language, and in an era when vehicle exterior design was more radical, we chose a new route to make the brand stand out." Yao Xiangyin believes that the BM-400 is loyal to the minimalist design concept of function, and the rounded appearance full of geometric sense will become a new design direction for B-end travel models.
Mutual benefit and win-win BM-400 is inherently outstanding
Anyone who knows the BM-400 knows that its biggest feature is its modular design, which divides the body into several large sections. So, what is the meaning of this design concept?
As a travel vehicle, it has strong urban attributes, commercial attributes and local characteristics, and the modular design concept can realize the needs of cities and operating companies for body painting, and meet the needs of different car buyers. Yao Xiangyin believes that the modular design can provide more publicity space for different cities, and add more added value to the BM-400 through careful selection of materials, making it easier to achieve a win-win goal.
"Modular design for the body painting to give more possibilities, not only to meet the body advertising bearing, but also to provide a new position for urban publicity, in addition, modular design can effectively reduce the maintenance costs of the later stage, such as the freehand replacement of the three-stage bumper, the outermost vulnerable protrusion of the body, can be cheaper and time-saving to replace separately." Although such a design sometimes increases our own car construction costs, in the long run, it can really save maintenance costs for vehicle operators, so the necessary balance is made. Yao Xiangyin said.
Design can bring, in addition to the first glance of good looks, but also from the cost, texture and other different perspectives to consider. The modular symmetrical design of the box car can effectively save R & D costs, after all, the same module can be copied, such as the design of taillights and headlights, integrated into the logo of the box car, and the highly symmetrical graphics can reduce some of the research and development costs, thereby effectively reducing the price of the vehicle.
Exquisite presentation Challenges
Design is ultimately integrated into the product. Good design can be landed because advanced manufacturing capabilities and quality control capabilities make ideals come true, but they are also filled with more difficulties and challenges.
"The various elements of the body should maintain a high degree of unity, maintain the overall sense of the BM-400, the modular design brought about by the body module splicing and the module connection of the car itself are very complicated, how to create a minimalist style in line with the aesthetic direction of the times has become a new challenge." When Yao Xiangyin revealed the design difficulties, he said, "Minimalist design is actually more difficult to achieve than complex design, and there are many body parts, but we require that we merge and streamline as much as possible." It may be that the body is on a section, there are 3-5 pieces or more, but the dividing line of each piece requires a perfect straight line, which is a very complex calculation process, which requires repeated negotiation between design and engineering, especially the design of the side sliding door needs to span all the parts on the body, which is one of the biggest challenges in the design of the BM-400 body. ”
"Generally speaking, there are many ways to design electric sliding doors, but for the BM-400, in order to pursue the ultimate in streamlining, we require the sliding door boundary and the body block on the same line, and at the same time meet the width of the door on the wheelchair, requiring a very strict logic between each line." To this end, the design process should be repeatedly communicated with various departments to modify, after a long period of 'fighting' and discussion, to optimize the section, and finally find the best way to build. ”