During my junior year at The University of Cincinnati, I was on the fast track to become a car designer.  I was part of a studio sponsored by Dodge/Chrysler, and Industrial Design program at UC offered internships with some of the best design studios in the country.

Car design is by far the most glamorous and “prestigious” sect of industrial design.  Historically, the most talented designers with a keen sense of style, trend forecasting, and uncanny drawing skills go on to dream up the cars of tomorrow.  It is the ultimate symbol of brawn and brains, beauty and power, fashion and technology.

And for good reason.  Cars are a symbol of America.  They are external manifestations of who we are or who we aspire to be.  They help express our personalities, our style, and our financial status.

A Brief History of Car Design & Planned Obsolescence

During the 1920s, one of the nation’s most influential designers – Raymond Loewy – helped the auto industry develop a concept that would increase the demand for new cars whether people needed them or not.  As a result,  ”US auto makers adopted regular – and mainly superficial – design changes to seed consumer demand in the 1920s as they reached market saturation with their vehicles” (Boston.com, 2008).

Those mainly superficial design changes continue today and help fuel the new car industry year after year.  There are car shows and websites dedicated to the promotion of the latest and greatest designs the auto industry has to offer.  As a result, Americans own more cars per person than anywhere else in the world (765 cars per 1,000 people!).

To make things worse, most consumer product manufacturers have adopted the concept.  Ever wonder why the price of a new iPod never goes down?  It’s because they systematically release new “versions” of the product to keep consumers saying, “Oooh, I need that one!”

Today I still love sketching cars, but for a completely different purpose.  I doodle cars on the tops of all my notepads during conference calls, meetings, and during my down time as a way to clear my mind and help me focus.  It’s a habit, and I often find myself drawing them without even noticing.

It is ironic because I completely disagree with what cars stand for and the financial burdens they place on most American’s lives.  Automobiles and even The Interstate Highway System (enacted by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956) are symbols of freedom in America.  They represent the ideal that people have the choice to travel when they want, where they want.

Unfortunately, driving a newer, fancier car does not make you a better person.  My 1998 Honda Civic gets me from Point A to Point B just as quickly and reliably as your 2010 Mercedes Benz that you are leasing for the next 5 years.  That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate a well-built new car or that I think you’re a bad person for driving it.

My Point

There comes a point where we have to ask ourselves, “Are the things that I’m buying actually improving the quality of my life, or am I simply wasting my money?” At some point we need to be able to remove ourselves from a system that has been refined to make us “want” something and decide if we truly “need” it.

A little Twitter wisdom: http://twitter.com/MatthewRusso/status/6307836505

What do you think?