Lamborghini was always interesting to me because it seemed to be the ultimate audacious design, and the ultimate booster of the ego.

But now — no more.

Why? The recent scandal with the ‘new’ (re-booted) Lamborghini Countach. Lamborghini (parent company is Volkswagen), had a chance to do something insanely different, yet they went for boring. They played it insanely safe, only to appeal to their (older, rich) clientele, who grew up loving the original Lamborghini Countach. Even the original designer Marcello Gandini said:

“I have built my identity as a designer, especially when working on supercars for Lamborghini, on a unique concept: each new model I would work on would be an innovation, a breaker, something completely different from the previous one. Courage, the ability to create a break without sticking to the success of the previous car, the confidence in not wanting to give in to habit were the very essence of my work.”

Anti repetition of past success:

“…as far I am concerned, to repeat a model of the past, represents in my opinion the negation of the founding principles of my DNA”.

Marcello Gandini

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Why was it so sneaky what Lamborghini did?

Truth be told, making money ain’t a sin. In fact, from a business perspective– very smart. However–

Lamborghini put out a blog post (grey lie) *suggesting* that Marcello Gandini ‘approved’ of the new Countach design. However, he was presented with a toy model, not the real thing … and Lamborghini didn’t tell Gandini that they were working on a ‘real’ model.

Had Lamborghini not done ‘the dirty’, it would have been fine. But the egregious thing:

They made the press *think* that Gandini was low-key a part of the design of the re-booted Countach.

True daring?

What is *true* daring? To do something totally carte blanche and to do a daring new design … something that might even hurt you financially. This is true design freedom?

ERIC

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DESIGN THOUGHTS

1. DESIGN PHILOSOPHY IS AN ETHOS.
2. LESS SURFACE AREA.
3. ANTI IN-BETWEEN
4. CLASSIC/TIMELESS IS BORING.
5. Photographers are Designers
6. Why Perfect?
7. Beautiful but Boring
8. AGGRESSIVE DESIGN.
9. DESIGN IS KING.
10. WHY DESIGN?
11. THE RAGING BULL.
12. BARE BONES.
13. The Best Car for Thinking
14. Zen Aesthetics
15. Why Minimalism?
16. SPARTAN DESIGN.
17. Generic Design
18. An Elite Aesthetic
19. Not Hateful Design
20. New Forward Facing Design vs Retrospective and Nostalgic Design
21. Depressing Design vs Uplifting Design
22. The Best Design Towards What Ends?
23. Exciting or Boring Design?
24. On Design & Photography
25. A Designer Desires to Design and Create Things!
26. Delightful Technology and Design
27. Dynamic Aesthetics
28. Design vs Brand Prestige
29. Classic Proportions, Modern Design
30. Why Does Design Matter?
31. The Best Design
32. MUSCULAR DESIGN.
33. Camera Design
34. Watch Design