Giannis
Staff member
Stuttgart. The Porsche 911 Carrera has been awarded the prestigious “red dot award: product design 2012” for its unique functional and emotional design. The design icon wowed the 30-strong international jury of experts with its unique design language combining innovation and tradition, power and elegance. In the course of the competition, the 911 prevailed against more than 4,500 product designs from 58 countries.
The design team led by chief designer Michael Mauer has succeeded with the new 911 Coupé in writing yet another page in the 911’s success story, now in its 50th year: “With our Style Porsche design process, we ensure that a Porsche 911 evolves in terms of its appearance, while remaining recognisably a 911. At Porsche we use two concepts to achieve this: brand identity and product identity. Brand identity means that a Porsche has to be recognisable as a Porsche at first glance and product identity means that it is immediately apparent which Porsche it is. The design DNA of our products is our most important asset – which is precisely why we are constantly questioning and developing it.”
Integral to the Porsche design DNA in the case of the 911 is the steeply rear-sloping roofline, the flat, stretched silhouette, exciting surfaces, the air intake instead of a radiator grille, a downward tapering rear window, pronounced shoulders, the visible tailpipes, and of course the ignition lock, which has always been on the left of the steering wheel in a Porsche. The 100 millimetre longer wheelbase and reduced height combined with the up to 20-inch wheels underpin an even more athletic appearance. In the passenger compartment, the driver is now even more closely integrated with the cockpit thanks to the raked centre console with the high-mounted shift lever or gear selector located especially close to the steering wheel in typical motorsport fashion. What Porsche is demonstrating yet again with the 911 Carrera is that outstanding design quality is more than just look and feel and functionality – the design’s unmistakable identity makes it the ambassador of the sports car brand.
This prize also pays tribute to the life’s work and achievements of Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, who died in Salzburg on 5 April 2012 at the age of 76. As the creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture at Porsche that has shaped the Stuttgart sports cars to this very day. His philosophy of good design is an important legacy that the company will continue to honour for all time. His credo was: “A coherently designed product needs no adornment; it should be enhanced by its form alone. Good design should be honest.” Porsche designers profess this conviction to this very day.
The quality seal will be presented on 2 July 2012 at the red dot gala at the Aalto theatre in Essen.
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