DESIGN STORY OASIS 72
PART 1
When Aston Martin used a BMW Kidney Grill on the new Vantage Roadster
Did you hear about the design controversy over the design of the new Aston Martin Vantage Roadster now in manufacture at the Gaydon factory? After the styling of the bodywork was done one of the administrators in the Lagonda Group expressed his preference for the BMW kidney grill and would like to use on the new roadster. The head of product engineering said it couldn't be, shouldn't be done.
The design department would be furious. It would complicate matters of design copyright and lead to a lack of confidence in design direction of the company. Potential customers for the new car would be totally bewildered. "Never mind, lets keep it secret until the dies are made. By the time the design department finds out it will be too late to change it".
Of course this is absurd. This would never happen in the motor vehicle industry. But in the boating industry? This story is an exact parallel to events playing out as we put pen to paper. And unfortunately incidents like this are all too common in the boating industry.
One of my first digital journeys when I start work most mornings involves a visit to Bembli's YouTube channel. Bembli has a designer's eye. He understands how proportion, volume and curves are manipulated by skilled design teams to generate an emotional reaction, to suggest high performance, elegance, aggression, luxury, or shear beauty.
He'll opine whether a tail light could have been lifted a few millimetres, whether a crease line in the side panels should have wrapped around to the rear, whether the daylight opening is too high or too low. You can agree with him or not, but you have to agree he's a keen observer and a very capable designer in his own right.
It your\'re interested in design of any kind of product a visit to Bembli's YouTube pages is as rewarding and thought provoking as any I have found on the www.
PART 2.
A designer's vision praised, commissioned, and then unceremoniously hijacked
Motor Vehicle companies take design seriously and are far more likely to have a successful product when they get it right.
There is one fundamental principle that professional designers understand; that successful design makes a clear and unambiguous statement. A statement that clearly defines the intent of the designer or the design department if it's a larger company. The more clearly defined that statement, the more carefully crafted that statement, the stronger and more powerful will be the emotional response to the design.
All the parts of a zebra look like parts of a zebra. There are no lion parts, no camel parts. No other animal parts that look out of place. Well constructed designs by the human hand are developed as a unified whole, as a cohesive entity, not a random assembly of parts from here and there .
We humans have the tools to mess with that unified whole and unless the design work is done with skill and empathy for the product it can become a real mess; the design team's statement becomes muddy and confused.
Most cars have a hump over the rear wheel arches. Sometimes subtle, sometimes quite pronounced. It gives the car a muscular appearance. In the human brain it subconsciously conjures the image of a lion or a panther poised to pounce on its prey. (see the example of the Aston Martin Vantage in the image above in Part 1.)
Keys to a successful project.
Communication, Cooperation, Collaboration
The boat in the middle image was a concept I sketched up in March 2018 in an effort to inject a little more "animation" into the styling of my cats. Nice clean lines with a sheer line that combined grace with a purposeful attitude.
The top image is the profile that Holld Marine's designers have created by extending the window right aft. They have accurately followed the sheer line for the top of the window as I would have done but the bottom of the window is straight , carefully dissecting the profile and effectively dissipating the energy suggested by the concentration of volume in the aft quarters of the profile.
The Aston Martin in the image in Part 1. also has a straight line in the side panel running aft from the forward wheel arch and accentuated by the hollow under the crease. But the line doesn't direct the eye aft and out of the picture. It leads the eye bang into the volume of the hump over the rear wheel arch, accentuating the power and sporting nature of the design.
The effect of the bottom window line on the Holld Marine 72 is accentuated by the light reflected from the lower edge of the rebate especially where it is further pronounced in the aft most extremity where the topside glass terminates.
The design of our M series cats also makes use of subtle curves to give the boat a more organic appearance than we find on boats with a straighter sheer line. The lines are graceful, but they are also evocative of power and forward motion, a form that clearly defines it as a product that is both distinctive and unique.
The people at Holld Marine in their wisdom have messed with our Oasis 72 design by making a copy of our tooling model, methodically copying the Gunboat 72 topside window and carefully implanting it on the model for the Oasis 72 catamaran for which the tooling is currently being manufactured at the MouldCam factory in the UK.
All of this done under a deliberate plan to hide the changes from the designer until the tooling had been done.
To add insult to injury the management at Holld marine sent us the model they had copied to use for the tooling work, along with two small monochrome photos of the newly machined tools as if to say "this is what we've done and the tools are made now so you can't do anything about it".
Is it a Zebra? Is it a camel? Is it a concoction of various parts that leave a discerning observer confused. Did they have a designer for this project? A designer who took his work seriously and was able to create a form that was both original and cohesive?
For Oasis 72 the our remuneration is specifically tied to royalties for the use of his copyright to the design. What has happened to that copyright now? Does the designer still own the copyright? Does Holld Marine now own the copyright? Can Gunboat claim partial ownership to the copyright? Is the copyright now shared and if so in what proportion?
Holld Marine has made threats of legal action and demands for compensation if the designer does not complete the plans for the boat. But for which boat? The boat that is described in the model held by Holld Marine or the Model held by Grainger Designs that is filed under the name "Tooling Model"?
Who made the changes to our tooling model? We don't know. We haven't been informed. But clearly it was done by a reasonably competent design engineer under instruction from Holld Marine.
Given that Holld Marine has assumed their right to make changes to the design at will, we have to assume they will continue to make changes without giving us any notification.
So we have two design teams preparing plans and machine files for two different boats without any communication between the teams. How many different 72' boats are Holld Marine planning to build and who will be credited as the designer of the vessel?
The sad thing about this is that it could have so easily been avoided. I have a mantra that I use when projects like this are embarked upon. Communication, Cooperation, Collaboration. Humans have the ability to create great products when they work together, especially when those projects are highly complex and raise significant challenges from time to time.
There was no indication there was any dissatisfaction with our design work prior to the changes that were made to the model. The project had been progressing harmoniously with amiable and productive communication and successful problem solving by all of the parties involved.
Some radical creativity going on here. Whoever created the topside window for Oasis 72 (at right) has the extremities of the glass panel sloping the opposite way to Gunboat 72 and looks like they missed out on the pillar at the aft end. If you're appointing yourself as design director for this project how about something a little more original? Or am I totally missing the point of the exercise?
PART 3.
An optimistic outlook
Until the issue over the unannounced changes to the design came to light there had been many issues that had been debated and resolved by way of carefully looking at the various options and the implications of each one, including the layouts, the cockpit design, the helm station, the rig, the keel and other design features. This is a normal pattern that takes place in the design and manufacture of any product.
Design, engineering and manufacture are interactive components that have to be integrated through good communication and careful consideration of the implications for the other two disciplines when one party makes a change.
Just as the designer has to be aware and respectful of the client's requirements and expectations, so too the client has to be respectful of the designer's intent and aspiration to produce an outcome that reflects the designer's integrity and skill. This includes creating design features that are original and fitting to the product at hand.
Bringing an issue like this into the open is not a pleasant task. But in this particular case, more than five weeks after the issue came to light there has been no explanation, no apology and no effort to put things right.
Building boats like this requires teamwork. My hope is that by publishing this episode designers and their customers will be more aware of the kind of things that can go wrong when communication, collaboration and cooperation are dismissed in favour of the agenda of just one particular group, or just one person who has the power to change the direction of the project.
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