A shape grammar approach for automotive styling: the case of the French cars
Year: 2012
Editor: Assoc. Prof. Poul Kyvsgaard Hansen, Professor John Rasmussen, Assoc. Prof. Kaj A. Jřrgensen, Assoc. Prof. Christian Tollestrup
Author: Bluntzer, Jean-Bernard; Ostrosi, Egon; Sagot, Jean-Claude
Series: NordDESIGN
Institution: 1: Aalborg University, Denmark; 2: Design Society, United Kingdom
ISBN: 978-87-91831-51-5
Abstract
Today, an important quality of a brand or a strong family is its clear and precise identity. Moreover, in order to obtain a winning brand, the company managers should continuously be innovative without forgetting the product history of the brand and should use the culture of the country like a value system and as inspiration background. In this paper, we analyze a selection of French cars from the Peugeot, Citroën and Renault branch. The proposed methodology is based on the extraction and the analysis of characteristic styling lines of the cars. We deducted from this approach that a French identity is available. With the comparison with the German lines, we exposed that specific lines are particular to French car. We have considered that the characteristic lines of the car, the joint elements and the connection elements formalize a French language. The finite generic description of this language was done by a car grammar. To maintain and develop the French identity of a brand or a family brand, a computer based system of future lines based on elementary primitives reflecting the car identity is under development.
Keywords: CAD, Design, brand identity, shape grammar