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The folks over at Freethink have put together a killer video on Jonathan Ward's Icon. This one isn't just drooling over the cars and Ward's legendary attention to design detail; instead they ask the larger question, what if this level of thought, design, future-proofing and craftsmanship were applied to all products? What would that do to our perceptions of disposability and long-term use?
"They're taking a 40 year old car," says a familiar voice in the video, "and essentially preparing it for its next 40 years." Yep, Icon collaborator Michael DiTullo makes an appearance in the vid, along with some of his sketches.
Check out the video, and let us know in the comments what you think of the presented philosophies.
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See Also:
- An Interview with Jonathan Ward, Founder of Icon
- Ward's Obsessive Approach to Industrial Design
- Ward on Designing Without Corporate Interference, and Where Icon Could Go
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Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
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Design vs. Disposability: The Icon Approach
I'm sorry, I don't understand the value. If you take a vintage car and strip it to a shell, then replace the entire chassis, drive train, electronics, glass, upholstery, what have you preserved, the vintage look? In this case, at an extraordinary cost, you are left with a brand new all-be-it vintage-looking car. I certainly don't have a problem with what ICON is doing, I quite like it, but don't equate it with preserving the past, being environmentally sensitive, or building a better car than a current production car of the same cost.
I absolutely love the work of ICON and would love to see their prduction live. I think there certainly are some great lessons to be learnt from their work, but bear in mind that what they do is not for the masses but very much a niche market who can afford it. What they do with cars is basically what a lot of furniture upholsterers and joiners are already doing with old valuable furniture. It would be interesting to see what ICON could do with a moden budget car like a VW Up or Toyota Aygo that is basically built to a budget and not expected to last 40 years.