Chronodynamics Is A Drag

"CHRONODYNAMICS IS the coefficient of styling in time". Having just thought of the term, I now feel obliged to define it. As a metaphor that pertains to aerodynamics, it helps to understand why some shapes date faster than others. What does it mean to date? Let's think of design as something that creates aesthetic turbulence as time passes. The greater the degree of turbulence, the quicker the form dates, and thus the level of attactiveness decreases. For example a car whose styling is considered timeless will have a low time-drag –the Porsche 911, perhaps. It will pass through time creating minimal drag, and continue looking attractive for longer. A car such as the Chrysler PT Cruiser, by way of contrast, has dated more quickly: its aesthetic concept is bluff retro, creating greater time-drag.

There are cars, however, that share the principles of the PT Cruiser that have stayed fresher for longer, the Mini being the notable example. How is it then that the Mini still looks attractive, but the PT Cruiser is no longer desirable? Partly this is down to styling resolution in volume and proportion, but there is more: marketing momentum. A more bluff chronodynamic form relies on momentum: this can be achieved through consistency in styling themes matured in successive generations of a given product; it can also be achieved by advertising. Mini uses both to provide the impetus behind a retro projectory. The Clubman, special editions, tightly kerned Helvetica caps, and Superleggera concept all bring life to what LJK Setright described as a ‘very convincing little brick’.

Now consider a more classically timeless design, say, the Honda S2000, designed by my former boss Daisuke Sawai. Many have all but forgotten this was Honda’s 50^th birthday present to itself; there was little to no memorable ad campaign. However the S2000 endures as an attractive car over a decade since its inception. It is chronodynamically efficient. The low time drag is achieved very simply: by being very simple. Its proportions are classically revivalist –long hood, short butt –the door-section is clean, the details are sparing and the product concept –that of a two-seat sports car –is the clearest in terms of relaying the package concept through styling. I use the term classically revivalist as this was a period in Italian art history when Helenistic, Roman and Egyptian objects were referenced in everyday items such as jewellery and clothing: that is, using the past to define the identity of present day items. It is retro retro.

There were no two-seat sports cars whizzing Caesar Augustus around, and I won’t be drawn into horses-pulling-chariot analogies; instead the classicist reference the S2000 revives is the 1901 Mercedes Simplex, the bedrock of today's car. This turn-of-the-century sports car nailed the package we still use today: engine out front, long dash-to-axle, seats behind engine just in front of rear wheels, trunk out back. We take it for granted now, and it is because we take it for granted that cars that assume this description will be inherently timeless.

Visualise then, for a moment, the drag your design will create in history. A design which leans towards nostalgia will need more push –ergo a rationale to support the whimsy. Yet a design which is advanced is equally and no doubt ironically also in need of support: a bridge that takes the casual observer/potential customer from the present day scenario to a believable future context in which the given product is more relevant. The bridge must vindicate the investment. Toyota successfully did this with the Prius. The media did the hard work for them, by embedding in popular thought the impending peril of the planet. So with the future context established, Toyota created a believable solution.

It is a lot harder when the future scenario is less clear, particularly during a time of economic flatlining. All those customers who so recently worried about the plight of the environment in ten years time now turn their eyes and their wallets to ten days time when the next pay-check arrives. Companies must replace the media in outlining a future scenario if they wish to sell eco-minded products, else natural conservatism will prevail. Conservative products free of garnish are ripe for timeless themes, but it is at the expense of communicating advanced technologies through styling. Whereas once car styling once used space ships and aeroplanes to flaunt technology of the future, today advertising does this job for us instead. This allows one design to be locally targeted across a range of markets, being easier to change words than bodysides. It makes perfect economic sense. But in diluting the exterior styling by forfeiting its communicatory role to marketing, when the check has been paid and the slogans forgotten, customers could be left with products devoid of the personality promised.