Under the title “Porsche Unseen”, Porsche has for the first time published some of their design studies from 2005 to 2019.
The sports car manufacturer is showing spectacular visions of 15 different cars. In this way, Porsche Unseen offers an insight into its design process – from the first concept drawings to the finished model ready for series production.
“People all over the world love the timeless and innovative design of our sports cars,” says Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche AG. “Visionary concept studies are the foundation of this success: they provide the pool of ideas for the Porsche design of tomorrow, and combine our strong tradition with trailblazing future technologies.”
The design process: from the first drawing to the drivable prototype
The design process starts with a sketch. This is visualised in the next step as a 3D CAD model. As soon as an idea is to be developed further, small models are produced in a scale of 1:3, then followed by hard models in the scale 1:1. “The virtual world is the first step, but you especially have to experience the unusual models in reality in order to understand whether a car has small, large or surprising proportions,” says Michael Mauer, Vice President Style Porsche.
“In contrast to the development of a production model where several models are always developed with different styling formats, the vision projects, on the other hand, concentrate on a single vision model which serves as a protagonist for the central idea.
“Porsche intentionally has just a single design studio – located in the direct proximity of development,” says Michael Mauer. “Weissach is our epicentre. Instead of opening advanced design studios in the distant metropolises of North America and Asia, our designers come from all over the world to Porsche in Weissach in order to create the latest production sports cars and automotive visions at the heart of the brand. More than 120 designers, experts for interior, exterior, colours and materials, model builders, modellers and study engineers work in the Porsche Design Studio.
The design studies: on a journey of the mind into the future of mobility
“When it comes to the visions we develop, it is not about bringing every car onto the road. Instead, it is more a question of establishing creative space and a relationship with the future,” says Michael Mauer when describing the design process and adds: “There are two possibilities for continuing to develop as a brand: either you improve your products from the present, that is to say step-by-step. However, it is difficult to be really innovative in this process. Or you give free rein to your creativity. The idea is to let your thoughts jump to the day after tomorrow, and to then move back from there to tomorrow.”
Based on this idea, Porsche develops the product and brand identity which characterises and secures the appearance of all models in the long term. The design language for future models develops from the long-term vision. In this process, the higher-level goal is to combine the Porsche design DNA with state-of-the-art vehicle engineering.
On the one hand, this secures the innovative capability of future Porsche models and, on the other, also provides an evolutionary reference to the rich history of Porsche.
Have a closer look at some examples here.
