It’s easy to be completely engrossed by the cars at the motorshow. Clearly, they should be the number one priority but, increasingly, stand design is important too, not only influencing how the cars themselves are perceived, but as a way of communicating brand values. Here are a few of my favourites stand details from this year:
Joe Simpson
VW’s Bulli is an exceptionally well-executed piece of design, evoking a spirit of a by-gone era. It’s especially impressive to see VW’s modern twist on the petrol pump with this electric charging unit that stands alongside the car, topped with a vast VW roundel. The petrol pump and station has formed such a strong part of the automotive-inspired architecture of the last century that it’d be sad to think we will lose that with the onset of the electric car. VW shows it needn’t be so…
Continuing the propulsion theme, Porsche chose to show what (isn’t technically) their oldest car, but one that makes a good story all the same. The first hybrid vehicle ever built, stood proudly on Porsche’s stand next to the company’s newest hybrid, the Panamera. Though many observers seemed to prefer its looks to those of the more modern car…
Seat showed off a simple, eye-catching way to display their range of colours, in this circle of mirrors. It’s not a new idea, but the bright and bold Seat palette was more notable for being somewhat more visually arresting than the IBx concept that can be seen behind…
Volvo’s accessories and stand displays often impress, and Geneva 2011 proved no different. Showing the company’s exterior colour range as a display of ‘jeans cut-outs’ made for a sweet and original display in the corner of the Volvo booth…
Audi is a master of stand design. This is a detail shot from the accessory range for the A1. Is it just us or is that checker-pattern reminiscent of fashion brand Burberry?
Elsewhere, the company’s quattro ice-block might be familiar to those who’ve visited an Audi stand before, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive…
We thought one Vision ConnectedDrive concept would have been enough, but BMW brought two Geneva 2011, fixing one to the wall of their stand. The display features a screen that rolls open or shut, depending on what aspect of the car’s technological aspects is being demonstrated…
We featured it in a previous post, but couldn’t resist sneaking in that half of a Renault 4 display again
I thought the VW stand around the Golf convertible was really interesting with the “impressions” of driving open/top down (like the lavender fields with the perfume of lavender or the open-driving-feeling where suddenly wind was blowing in your face)
Interesting Hugo – I didn’t actually get as far as the Golf Convertible (made it as far as the Bulli on VW’s stand!) so didn’t see that. Was it a physical impression, or done digitally?
It was a mixture of both, really interesting (the images, on LCD displays placed horizontally to create a “human” field of view, of “endless” moving lavender fields mixed with lavender perfume really felt like driving open in the south of France) I think there were 4 such “impressions” and they were “hidden” a little (there’s a small “platform” behind the Golf convertible) Another nice detail were all the city impressions made with (local) flowers…it sure was different compared to the other, “cleaner”, presentations