Discovering the meaning of form by exploded sketching

Abstract

The means of the automotive stylist to express a unique brand identity through automotive form, the main objective of automotive styling, have diminished. Platforms and technologies, formerly brand owned and specific to a brand’s identity and styling, have to be shared among the many, as do market
segments and geographical domains. This increases the responsibility of, and the pressure on, styling to perform on a strategic level.
In order to allow automotive stylists to negotiate form with other disciplines on that strategic level, the dialogue on form must extend beyond the mere tacit knowledge vocabulary. In our automotive styling research, embedded in our education program, management models and methods are being developed
to frame and facilitate tacit knowledge and achieve the aforementioned objective.
These management tools must contain familiar elements for both disciplines that are involved in negotiations, i.e. styling and engineering. The ‘styling’-side of these management tools assesses automotive form through a form hierarchy. The application thereof requires a methodical way of explorative sketching.
This explorative sketching, with the aim to detect a leitmotif in automotive form that represents brand identity, has been developed over two years in an education environment. Results suggest that specific sketching methods are appropriate for each level of the form hierarchy, a combination of views that
develop into explorative sketching, and a connotation dialogue to be combined with sketches.