The strategy of design

What direction will design take in the future? What influences design? What practical factors need to be considered as opposed to emotional drivers? All of these things and more go into what is called ‘design strategy’ at Audi Audi and is an area that Claus Potthoff knows only too well.

As the Head of Design Strategy at Audi Design, he must look into the future as well as ensuring that the past is honoured. It’s a complex area, but one that Potthoff finds tremendously rewarding.

Since studying Product and Vehicle Design at Pforzheim University, he has dedicated himself to automotive exterior design and has worked with Audi Audi since 1991.
“Design strategy is a very complex topic. You start by thinking about how design will develop in the future. What design will look like, considering future social changes – I’m talking about the importance of design in a broader sense,” he says of his role with Audi Design.

“But design strategy is also about how we design our products, about planning ahead and forecasting how vehicle concepts and design language will change.”

“A couple of years ago, we defined our maxim – ‘We design experiences, and not just products’. The product as such is only part of the design experience. New technologies, communication and digitisation are increasingly determining the design and, above all, the use of vehicles. So, it’s no longer enough to design the shape, but you also have to design the setting. The experiences that come with the vehicle,” says Potthoff.

With technology having a greater and greater impact on vehicles and how the customer will use them, design must evolve to work with that new usage according to Potthoff, which means that it’s important to plan on how best to develop that strategy.

The production of concept design studies is a way of putting design strategy to the test says Potthoff. The development and unveiling of concept vehicles gave the public tangible examples of how the brand sees the future which allows the brand to gauge reactions to these designs.

“The four AI vehicles from 2017 to 2019 showed how the perception of automobiles is changing once automated driving becomes a reality and people may no longer own a vehicle, they will just use them” he says.

“That’s why we designed four use cases and created a vehicle with the latest technologies to go with each. We jumped very far into the future, maybe 30 years.” 

“Whereas with the four Sphere models, we wanted to be closer to the vehicles we’re going to launch in the future. Because technologically speaking, we have the means to bring those vehicles to the market at a much earlier point in time, they’re not as radical, but they show what the future looks like for us.”

So rather than opt for radically ‘futuristic’ design – a term Potthoff is not comfortable with – at Audi, he says ‘we prefer a continuous but dynamic development in design. Because we want to keep the link between what is today and what will be tomorrow’. 

Our steps in exterior design are sometimes a little bigger and sometimes a little smaller. But about every three to four years, you can recognise them in our new models. Currently, many of our vehicles are very emotional and very much defined by clear lines. We are now taking a step towards a design language that is somewhat softer and more flowing again. We’re reducing the number of lines, so to speak, working more with volume and stretched surfaces.

Our world is very complex, we are constantly exposed to so many visual impressions, so Audi vehicles should be a haven of calm. We want our vehicle design to touch people emotionally and create meaningful experiences for them.

One of the most important drivers of current and future design is of course technology says Potthoff. But so too is internationalisation and the influences of three key markets – Europe, North America and China – with China developing at a much faster pace the than the other markets.

Our aim is to immerse ourselves in these markets and regions to find out what is new and what will be important for customers in the future. Particularly the Chinese customer structure is completely different. Our customers there are much younger than in the other markets. Very many customers of premium vehicles are first-time buyers. That means they approach the idea of a car very differently. That’s precisely why we took a new approach in the development of the Audi urbansphere concept, which we unveiled in China last year, by co-creating it with specially selected Chinese trend receivers and potential customers. 

So, does that mean that progressive influences from customers also have an impact on the design strategy? According to Potthoff that’s exactly the case:

“You can see that the rapid development of the Chinese market already does have an impact. It will be very interesting to see how this continues over the next few years,” he says.

“A lot is changing in the area of vehicle concepts, too. Will these very classic stereotypes of a sedan, a hatchback, a station wagon, or an SUV still exist? In terms of body shape, there are more and more hybrid vehicles. We are keeping up with the times and have a lot of ideas right now. 

“That’s why now is a very exciting time for us in design, it determines how we develop our design further so that we really can meet these new requirements well.”