Keywords: automobile; Form; Plastic arts; Aesthetic style
1. The appearance of cars
Karl benz (1884- 1929), one of the pioneers of modern automobile industry, is called "the father of automobile". 1June, 885, designed and manufactured the world's first three-wheeled gasoline vehicle; 1886 65438+1On October 26th, he obtained the patent right of automobile invention, and the Germans called1886 the year when the automobile was born. Since then, automobiles have officially entered the historical stage as industrial products.
2. Division of automobile development stages
According to the evolution process of automobile form and function and different design aesthetic styles, the development of automobile can be roughly divided into seven periods:
(1) automobile production stage (1885—1900);
(2) automobile development stage (1901-1915);
(3) the mature stage of automobile manufacturing (1916-1929);
(4) The development period of automobile engine design breakthrough (1930—1951);
(5) Injection age (1952—1964);
(6) individualization period of automobile style (1965-1979);
(7) The period of diversified automobile styles (1980-).
2. 1 Design aesthetic style in automobile production stage (1885— 1900)
In the stage of automobile production, designers only focus on technical design, which is only to meet the technical functions of automobiles. It is a kind of technical exploration and invention, and it is a "one-sided" design that completely turns to functional technical design, while plastic arts is in a subordinate position and is an overwhelming design form. Nevertheless, the birth of automobile as a great industrial product itself conforms to a rational and rigorous aesthetic style-mechanical aesthetic style.
1885 The world's first car designed and manufactured by Mercedes-Benz still feels like a tricycle in the traditional sense. Mercedes-Benz pays attention to the coordination between parts, function realization and manufacturing technology, and mainly considers the design from the aspects of function and technology, but there is no obvious trace or even consideration in aesthetic style. At first glance, this car has only a little trace of machining, which conforms to the mechanical aesthetic style.
1894 Mercedes Velo only changed three wheels into four wheels. Although the fender is added to the body, the form and style have not changed. At this time, the car is just a rough industrial product, and there is no design concept about aesthetic style. At this time, the inventor (also a designer) thought that changing the three-wheel operation mode to the four-wheel operation mode was far stronger than the simple form improvement, and the mechanical mode was still in a monopoly position. In other words, the automobile design between 1885- 1894 is a pure technical and functional exploration, which belongs to the pure mechanical aesthetic style, and this style has continued until about 1900.
2.2 Design aesthetic style in automobile development stage (1901-1915)
During the period of19011915, cars were produced in small batches with the appearance of assembly line production mode. Designers began to pay attention to the local decoration of the car, and used aluminum plates, gold-plated plates and other decorative materials with strong texture on the front face of the car, which made the car in this period look very decorative, in line with the popular trend and taste of the "Art Nouveau Movement" at that time, and it was a decorative style that paid attention to local decoration.
1900 Mercedes-Benz has changed its previous "mechanical style", giving people a brand-new feeling: the engine is front-mounted, and the hood is installed according to the shape of the engine; Round headlights are installed on the front face, which has a strong decorative meaning in form; The wheel hub is no longer directly interwoven with round steel bars, but adopts the wheel hub with plane decorative charm, which increases the formal beauty of the wheel; The fender above the wheel is no longer a simple iron plate, but an arc carefully designed according to the position of the wheel and the transmission gear, which is very decorative to the whole vehicle; The armrest and backrest are added to the car seat, which further develops the function.
The Michelle station wagon produced by 1905 has little change from the former in overall form, but the front face, seat, steering wheel and other local decorations are far more than the former: the lights are gilded; The ventilation fence around the front face is inlaid with golden decorative strips; The hub is plated with gold and the edge is sprayed with bright red paint; The car body is also painted in bright blue, which increases the visual beauty of the car and is a gorgeous decorative style.
19 14 Ford -T car inherited the design features of this period-the details of the front face, nose bridge and seat decoration. Trivial decoration is the greatest interest of this period, even the aesthetic standard of this period. Although the body is still a carriage shape, the fender has begun to adopt a coherent arc design, which enhances the sense of form of the body and makes a breakthrough in modeling.
Although there have been some subtle changes and breakthroughs in the local form in the automobile development stage, the overall form is still relatively dull. Designers only beautify the car body by enhancing the local decoration of the car, and fancy decoration has become the "standard configuration" of the car in this period, as if fancy decoration is beauty, fashion and truth. Around 19 15, "decorative style" was gradually replaced by "anti-decorative style" and became a cultural fossil, which was buried by years.
2.3 Design aesthetic style in the increasingly mature stage of automobile manufacturing (1916-1929)
During this period, automobile processing and manufacturing became more and more mature, automobile parts were basically standardized and mass-produced, and more and more middle-class people owned automobiles. The appearance of automobiles gradually became an important factor in automobile design. Decoration once regarded as fashion is firmly opposed at this time, and instead it pursues a whole formal beauty.
On the Porsche Turbo body produced by 19 16, there is no more detailed decoration as before-there is no golden decorative strip on the front face, no exaggerated headlights, and it is replaced by a ventilation fence with only air intake and heat dissipation functions; There is no decoration around the fender, seat and steering wheel; Every component exists only to meet a certain function, and the whole body aims to highlight "functionalism", which is an anti-decoration style.
On the ballot of 19 19, we can clearly find that it is very different from the previous one:
(1) In the past, the distribution and connection between the front part and the body were uneven, lacking a sense of wholeness. However, the design of this car combines the front and the body, and begins to pay attention to the overall shape, which has also become an important content in car design.
⑵ The body color is gray, which is no longer like the "decorative style" period, but prefers bright and lively colors.
⑶ The whole vehicle still can't find any decoration, and it inherits the anti-decoration style of this period in design.
After more than ten years of development, the anti-decoration trend has gradually bottomed out. From the Mercedes-Benz sedan produced by 1928, we can see that although the body conforms to the overall characteristics of this period, the details of the hub and front face begin to appear again, and the whole car is full of decorative charm more than ten years ago. The appearance of the automobile declared the end of the anti-decorative style period.
2.4 The design aesthetic style of the breakthrough development period of automobile engine design (1930-1951)
The progress of automobile engine technology has brought the rapid development of automobile modeling art, and automobile design has begun to pursue a kind of dynamic beauty and speed beauty, and has begun to attach importance to external repair modeling with unprecedented enthusiasm. At this time, cars with smooth lines are considered as good designs, and "streamline" has become popular all over the world.
The Ford -A car produced by 1930 has a completely different appearance from the previous box car. Its body is novel, and the front and rear fenders and cockpit are round, just like a beetle. By comparing with the previous car body, we can easily find that the car has the following characteristics:
1) The front, body and rear are completely an organic whole.
2) The lines of the whole vehicle are smooth and winding from beginning to end. 3) The whole vehicle has no sharp edges and corners, and the intersection between any curved surfaces strives for a smooth and soft transition.
195 1 Mercedes Benz Benz300 adopts circular arc design in the design of the front face and fender, and adopts built-in headlights, which enhances the integration of headlights and front face and makes the front face lines more beautiful and smooth. The sleek front face, soft body and smooth lines of the car reflect the characteristics of streamlined style everywhere.
Because streamlined cars have great defects in the utilization of internal space, in the 1950s, a ship-like car with engine compartment, passenger compartment and luggage compartment gradually replaced streamlined cars and became the new favorite of the times.
2.5 Design Aesthetic Style in Jet Age (1952— 1964)
With the advent of the jet era, automobile design began to tend to add a large tail at the rear of the automobile in order to pursue a style closely related to the shape of the aircraft. This design style that pays more attention to organic form is called organic style, that is, the style that pays more attention to sculptural expression. This style gradually replaces the dominant position of streamline and becomes the new standard of design aesthetic style. The automobile modeling in this period has two characteristics: one is the anti-collision design of the car body; The first is the popularity of tails.
On Mercedes-Benz 1953, it can be seen that the exaggerated and smooth lines unique to the front face and hood during the streamlined period disappeared, and they were replaced by simple and almost flat hood and simple arc headlights; The biggest feature of the car body is concise and lively, and the cab space is larger than before; There is a conspicuous anti-collision bumper outside the car skirt; There are two raised organic shapes on the side of the car, which seem to be specially carved and belong to typical organic style design works.
1960 Lincoln car, the overall shape is like carved with a meat cleaver, with a simple formal beauty. Like the previous two cars, there is a rigid raised organic shape on both sides of the car body, and a pair of tail wings on the luggage compartment, which is very close to the shape of an airplane and is a concrete embodiment of the jet age.
In the mid-1960s, the jet plane was no longer curious, and the times once again forgot the organic style and turned the interest into a new design style.
2.6 Design aesthetic style in the period of individualization of automobile style (1965 ——1979)
In the personalized period of automobile style, influenced by the "Pop" movement at that time, novel, eccentric and unique shapes won the favor of consumers, and small cars based on Beetle were very popular. Automobile plastic arts belong to the pop style of pursuing unique aesthetic feeling.
The Corvette produced by 1965 has a strange shape and its body is much smaller than before. There is no tail at the rear; The front bumper is also more hidden than before; There are no raised organic shapes on both sides of the car body. There is an exaggerated and novel change in the style of the whole vehicle-that is, paying attention to the overall form rather than sticking to the local depiction, and the aesthetic style belongs to the pop style.
The Chevrolet sedan produced by 1975 is also beetle-shaped: two headlights are like two eyes; The body surface is small, tough and has a strong sense of form; The body lines have changed from smooth to angular, from soft to tough, and the headlights have changed from round to rectangular ... The plastic arts have, as always, inherited the pop style of pursuing formalism.
The general Buick produced by 1979 has changed greatly in overall shape, and the body volume has begun to show the characteristics of length, size and width. The body style abandoned the pop style dominated by the little beetle and turned to the tough and rational modeling style, and formalism came to an end.
The car design in this period paid more attention to the overall shape of the car, and the shape was mostly based on the Beetle shape. The appearance of this car is very vivid and beautiful. Although this one-sided emphasis on the design style of automobile form has made great achievements in form, it also reduces the efficiency of the use of automobile interior space, so it will eventually be eliminated.
2.7 Design aesthetic style of diversified automobile styles (1980-)
Since 1980s, the competition of automobile sales has become more and more fierce, and automobile shape has become the key to competition. Various styles of cars have appeared all over the world, flooding the whole world with wave after wave, and plastic arts have completely become a powerful means of promotion. As far as its design aesthetic style is concerned, there are mainly the following four types:
(1) minimalist style
Lexus LF-A concept car is a typical minimalist style, which pursues a simple and capable appearance, a design concept that can achieve a high degree of coordination and unity in the overall form, and advocates "simplicity is beauty".
(2) bionic style
The shape of a creature is the product of natural evolution, and it has a magical and beautiful form. Applying biological form to automobile design can achieve a peculiar effect and endow the automobile with the spirituality of a certain creature. The Beetle is a classic Volkswagen, which looks like a lifelike Beetle and belongs to a typical bionic style.
(3) Carving style
Greek sculpture can be divided into two styles: sublime and great, that is, the style that expresses greatness, silence, sacredness and sublimity; Beautiful and elegant style, that is, a style form that expresses beauty and elegance. In modern automobile design, these two styles have been widely used.
First of all, the lofty and great style shows a great, quiet, sacred and lofty beauty. If this style is integrated into car design, these cars will have a solemn, solemn and powerful sense of form, thus making them more in line with aesthetic functionality. Chevrolet Camaro concept car conveys solemn, vigorous and tough temperament through solid, fit and powerful body lines and orderly concave-convex relationship.
Secondly, the elegant and generous style is reflected by flexible lines or beautiful arcs and surfaces on the car body, which highlights an elegant and generous appearance temperament. This style is widely used in the plastic arts of cars and sports cars. The body of Porsche Carrera GT is composed of graceful arcs and curved surfaces, with elegant and atmospheric quality.
(4) High-tech style
With the rapid development of modern science and technology, there is also a high-tech style in automobile design that tends to show technology and reflect the future. This aesthetic style not only absorbs the advantages of carving style, but also has a strong futuristic atmosphere and high-tech charm in appearance. Audi RSQ concept car is a typical high-tech style, which absorbs the essence of elegant and elegant style in form. With the exaggerated appearance and silver-gray color matching, the whole car reveals a strong futuristic atmosphere and high-tech charm.
In recent twenty years, although the aesthetic styles of automobiles are complex and diverse, the aesthetic ideas in automobile design are the most successful in history.
3. Overview and future development of automobile design aesthetic style.
[Charles Barto] (1713-1780) divides art into three types, namely, beautiful art, mechanical art and intermediate art. As far as automobile design is concerned, it is neither beautiful art nor mechanical art, but intermediate art. It is not difficult to see from the emergence and development process of aesthetic style in the seven stages of automobile development that the relationship between technology and art in automobile modeling design has undergone the following complex changes: technology > art, technology ≥ art, and even technology ≤ art, from mechanical aesthetic style, decorative style, anti-decorative style, streamlined style, new organic style and pop style to today's minimalist style, bionic style, carving style and high-tech style, which directly reflects designers in various periods.
Human beings are progressing, society is developing, and automobile design has never stopped moving forward. The aesthetic style of automobile design is also constantly developing, and it is also meeting people's growing diversified needs through its own continuous development. For a long time to come, as far as the aesthetic style of automobile design is concerned, carving style, bionic style and high-tech style will still be in a dominant position for a long time.