I’m a Squary You’re a Roundy
I while ago I was “debating” with friends the relative merits of “rounded” vs. “angular” design. Over the last ten years or more, there’s been a move in design circles (hmmm) towards making everything curvier, more “organic”. At first I was quite keen on this, the results seemed somehow more natural and beautiful than straight edges and corners. But in the last couple of years I’ve started to tire of it, especially as it’s usually done very badly. It seems that, Jugendstil aside, humans are nowhere near as good as nature at doing curves.
The thrust of my argument was that it’s time for a renaissance in the boxy design of the early 1980s, big blocky digital watches with big blocky numbers on them, ZX81 computers, Doctor Who’s assistant K9, etc etc. Most of my bile was directed at car manufacturers, who used to come up with classy, individual designs where each brand had a distinct look of its own, but who now all produce ugly steroidal clone banana wagons en-masse.
So I was delighted to find yesterday (via Scattershot) the Isuzu Zen Concept SUV. Beautifully, unashamedly boxy. And whatsmore, in the true spirit of the Transformer robots it so resembles, the car turns into Japanese tea room with bamboo flooring and tatami woven mats (I kid you not!). If ever I feel the need to drive a tank, I would like it to be one very much like this, thank you.