Think fast! You are strolling across the street and this white apparition appears out of nowhere. You have no time to bob, weave or make any other maneuvre, that will get you out of harm's way. Punted to the side of the street, you'll live, thank goodness, but now comes the inevitable question from the copper, "What kind of car was it?". This is easy, as any fool (including you) knows a BMW front end when they see it. Time and stable design logic have kept this front end in the public eye since the 1930's. Brand identification in its smartest form.
Now this is a soapbox, that I've been on before. Surely for designers paid mucho dinero, coming up with a unique and attractive front end to identify the brand, can't exactly be rocket science. Ah, but that is where I'm dead wrong. Just look at these two big name cars.........
They are almost identical, except maybe for their unique logos. Funny how designers working thousands of kms or miles away from one another, can come up with the same solution for their brand's identity. So it must be rocket science or great minds think, or in this case, design alike. I wish this was only a coincidence, but alas, it is not to be.......
Not as similar, but pretty darn close. Close enough, that your very car astute (in my own mind) blogger, has to look twice and specifically for that company logo in those very similar grilles. How I pine for the good old days of car design, when each and every car looked very different. Sure, the cars weren't as good, but your neighbours knew if you had changed cars, but kept the same colour. Not so easy these days.
But that's only the front end, surely the rest of the car must look different? Care to take a shot at identifying these three?
Gawd! One has to be an expert in taillight identifying to know which one is which. Let's go back to our poor, unfortunate pedestrian, who has just been hit by that Bimmer. What the heck would they say, if one of the cars above ran into or even backed into them. "I have no idea officer, but I know it was a car."
So, you think, I'm being unfair focusing on those rear three quarter views? Ok, so let's go full side view, bucko.......
Our distressed pedestrian, also won't have any luck identifying the car in question, if he's broadsided. What a dilemma.
Discouraging. Does money have anything to do with it? Maybe the cheaper brands have to look over one another's shoulder and copy their designs? Maybe their designers don't make enough money to be creative?Ya think?
Ok, let's see what the high rollers are doing......
A Rolls is readily identifiable as a Rolls, just as a Bentley is ready identifiable as a Bentley, but what about the car here that isn't a Bentley? Think that knocked about pedestrian would know what the heck it was? I might, but then again, I'd probably look both ways before crossing the street, so unlikely I'd ever be hit (knock on wood).
Maybe, just maybe the designers' corporate bosses are telling then what to do. Pointing to the other brand and telling them to replicate their look. If this is truly the case, then they should back off and give the designers the freedom to create a unique and attractive new grille, that will immediately identify their brand. Maybe if they did this, the front end pictured here would be the result........
On the other hand, maybe they are better off saying, "Copy, copy, copy!".
Until next time......
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