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Aragorn
August 30th, 2003, 03:05
I picked up a rather interesting book today: "A Century of Car Design," written by Penny Sparke. Apart from spreads on the designers of Ferraris, Porsches, Citroën, and the McLaren F1, among numerous others, there is a section on Peter Schreyer, who's penned several recent Audis.

Here's the text:

Peter Schreyer

Principal designs:
* Audi A3 (1996)
* Audi TT (1999)
* Audi A4 (new model, 2000)
* Audi A2 (2000)
* Audi Rosemeyer (2001)

Since the mid-1990s, the car designer Peter Schreyer has been responsible for the transformation of the design policy and achievements of the German manufacturer Audi AG. Schreyer studied industrial design in Munich before moving to London's Royal College of Art in 1979. After a period at VW with J. Mays he took over the reins at Audi in 1994, and set about putting a new culture in place that highlighted the role of design. The policy he introduced focused on the use of a clearly identifiable design language for all the company's products and the establishment of a strong Audi brand through the creation of a family resemblance for all its vehicles.

Past and Future
The look that Schreyer developed for Audi's products--including the A8, A6, and A4 launched in 1994, the A3 of 1996, the TT of 1999, the new A4 and the A2 of 2000--was decidedly futuristic yet reminiscent of the aerodynamic, all-aluminum sports cars produced in the 1930s by Auto Union, a name given to a group of four manufacturers of which Audi was one. The TT had a particularly strong retro feel to it. Its evocative form was inspired by a doodle made by Freeman Thomas, who had been brought into Audi by Mays in 1991.

Some of Schreyer's initiatives were based on earlier developments, several of them initiated when Hartmut Warkuss had been in charge of Audi's design policy. In 1980 the company had produced the Quattro and had begun to show a newfound confidence and a determination to compete with Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the luxury car market. In 1990 the Avus concept had gone on show, while 1991 saw launch of the Quattro Spyder, which began to make commentators take notice. In the same year two aluminum studies were shown pointing the way forward for the Audi brand.

Into the Future
The use of aluminium was a mark of both technological and ecological progressive thinking on the part of Audi (it also provided means of evoking the past). Both light and recyclable, aluminium was taking on a new meaning for designers in the 1990s, and in 1993 Audi pioneered the development of what it named its ASF (Aluminium Space Frame) which made it possible to use this evocative material for car bodies. Its light silvery colour also proved to be a key branding exercise for Audi's cars of the second half of that decade and came to be a hallmark of these stylish German cars.

Schreyer's styling approach emphasized simple body-shells made of large, clear panels that looked as if they were made out of one piece of metal, a reduction of lines, the implementation of a single curved line from the front pillar right through to the tail-lights, and a continuity of line from the metal areas to the glass surfaces. Wheel arches were reduced and radiator grilles and headlights made to conform with the lines of the curved metal panels. This reductive approach resulted in a simple, sporty profile, which was more or less common to all vehicles, varying only according to the size of the model. From the large A8 sedan down to the compact A2 the Audi look is clearly recognizable, providing a coherent image for this progressive company.

"I am less interested," Schreyer has said, "in following the spirit of the age than in finding shapes that possess a timeless beauty." His commitment to such a strong aesthetic over more than half a decade confirms his belief. At the same time, each new model is a little more daring than the one before. In 2001 one of Audi's most radical designs was launched, a study for the first of its "supercars"--the Project Rosemeyer, named after Bernd Rosemeyer, one of Auto Union's best-known racing drivers. As Audi's designs become increasingly futuristic the links with the company's heritage become stronger and stronger.


I hope you enjoyed it!

Cheers,

Aragorn