those of you interested in car design certainly remarked that automobile manufacturers have moved into several diversified business areas beside the automobile itself. in this context you might want to read an earlier post about branded accessories sales of car manufacturers from last month.
while high quality car design for consumer markets is still associated with names like: VW, BMW, Mercedes or Porsche the french automobile company “Renault” made huge efforts to catch up with these brands.
Renault’s main design driver is the new “Megane” in different variations (station wagon, limousine, convertible etc.) which attacks the attractive “VW Golf” segment very successfully. to support these efforts Renault Deutschland set up the “Renault Traffic Design Award” in 2000. this award honours visionary design concepts for the public traffic space like: train stations, bridges, parking garages, gas stations etc.
while most car manufacturers extend their brand experience to end consumers by accessories among other (see my earlier post) Renault does it in a different way. I think the idea of establishing a bridge from ‘making cars’ to challenging ‘mobility and experience concepts’ by linking car design with environmental design and architecture is a comprehensible means of differentiation. VW does this in a similar way with their ‘autostadt’ concept.
as a part of the design award website Renault promotes automotive thinking by publishing a series of “Design Trends” brochures which present a selection of high quality architectural sites in germany. while past editions of the guides can be ordered for free the “renault design award” website also offers the latest edtions as PDF downloads.
unfortunately the website is only available in german. however the address information might also be of value for non-native design-minded speakers who visit germany. >>>
