Apple, Ferrari, Lamborghini; a Throuple of Swiping Talent
What do Ferrari, Lamborghini and Apple have in common? If you said "expensive Italian cars and overpriced tech gadgets," you'd be half right. But the real answer is that all three companies are design powerhouses. Ferrari and Lamborghini are known for their sleek, beautiful cars that combine form and function like no one else. And Apple is the undisputed king of design in the tech world. Whether it's the latest iPhone or the newest MacBook, everything from Apple oozes style. So what's the secret to their design success?
For Ferrari and Lamborghini, it's all about passion. These companies pour their heart and soul into every car they make, and it shows in the final product. They're not afraid to take risks, and that willingness to experiment is what sets them apart from the competition. As for Apple, they simply understand people better than anyone else. They know what we want before we even know we want it. That's why their products always feel like they're one step ahead of the curve.
With that segue, I want to chat about automotive electrification and what upcoming car designs could be as these 3 legendary sannin of design; Ferrari, Lamborghini and Apple have started to poach product and design engineers from each other.
Last year, 2021 Ferrari hired, Lovefrom, the design agency created by Jony Ive (Chief Design Officer at Apple) and Marc Newson (Special Projects at Apple), whom together, are credited in working on the iMac, Power Mac G4 Cube, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macbook, Apple Watch, parts of the iOS user interface, Apple Park and Apple Stores.
And, a few weeks ago in July 2022, Apple swiped Lamborghini’s Head of Chassis, Luigi Tabarrelli, who worked on shaping the Huracan, Aventador and Urus. He’s been working on Lamborghini’s PHEV including the fully electric concept car, Asterion and the last iterations of the Huracan, the Sterrato, Centenario and Veneno. With Tabarelli, Apple’s super-secret EV, codenamed “Project Titan” seems to be heading in the exotic car category.
With all this talent combined, Apple, Ferrari and Lamborghini’s future EV cars could look and feel like what Marc Newson developed at the 1999 Tokyo Motor Show. The Ford 021C Concept Car that is still very futuristic to this this day.
“Every component of the car was designed and fabricated from scratch from workshops all over the world; the tyres were custom-made by Pirelli in Italy, for example. The composite exterior featured seamless shapes and deceptively simple surfaces, including a wraparound, retractable trunk that opens like a drawer, and door handles that are simple aluminium buttons surrounded by translucent plastic rings, which illuminate when remote locking is activated. The doors themselves open to expose a completely open 'pillarless' interior. The windows were designed to allow as much light as possible to enter. The single horizontal headlight and rear light are powered with LEDs which, at the time of making, was a state-of-the-art technology never seen in automotive design. The entire interior ceiling is illuminated with optical fibres. Other innovations include a hovering instrument panel that adjusts up and down in its entirety.
The car interior is a primary focus, relating strongly to Marc's signature furniture designs. It is predominantly silver and white and features a variety of textures and materials, including aluminium and rubber. The floor, which remains completely flat due to the front-wheel-drive technology, curves smoothly up into all vertical surfaces. The instrument panel and seats appear to float in the interior, designed to accentuate the feeling of spaciousness in a car that is in fact smaller than any other Ford production vehicle. Further merging design with functionality, the front seats swivel 90 degrees to facilitate entering and exiting the vehicle. Marc's stamp is on every element of the design, from the strikingly reduced and intuitively simple instrumentation to Ikepod dials, switches, wheels and even the tread on the tyres.”
So next time you're admiring a Ferrari or drooling over the latest iPhone, remember that great design doesn't come cheap.
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