Frankfurt Motor Show 2011
At the 2011 Motor Show, GIN4B had the opportunity to meet with design experts and business leaders form all over the world. Stefanie attended the Automotive Designer’s Night, the trade show’s kick-off event for the international car design community, with leading car designers like Adrian van Hooydonk (BMW), Stefan Sielaff (Audi), Gorden Wagener (Mercedes Benz), Peter Schreyer (Kia), Malcolm Ward (Opel) and Thomas Ingenlath (Volkswagen, Volvo starting 2012). Representatives of several design and brand experience studios were present too, amongst them Munich-based Schmidhuber+Partner – the creators of Audi’s exhibition space – and Frankfurt-based Atelier Markgraph, which designed Mercedes Benz’s trade show appearance.
The Frankfurt Motor Show or Internationale Automobil Ausstellung (IAA) is one of the worlds most important car shows. From September 13 to September 25 2011, nearly 1000 exhibitors from 32 countries and over 800,000 visitors attended the 64th edition of the show.
At Frankfurt Motor Show you can meet many creative leaders. Sven Baacke, Head of Design at Gaggenau Household Appliances, explained: ” If you’re interested in state of the art brand and exhibition design, then the motor show is an absolute must-see”.
Out of all exhibitors, Mercedes Benz impressed us the most with outstanding exhibition design created by architectural studio Kauffmann Theilig & Partner and Atelier Markgraph. The ceiling of Mercedes’ pavilion mimics a blue firmament with hundreds of stars, referring to the company’s logo and brand color blue. Sharp edges and angular lines dominate the overall design of the exhibition and communicate strength and determination. In contrast, the massive media-fed LED wall brings dynamic and playfulness to the space and creates impressive 3D effects on stage. Along the three-leveled exhibition, new car models are showcased and interactive screens and installations provide technological data and inform about safety tools and alternative fuel methods. In terms of car design, the new A-Class concept car caught our attention. Revealed at the Shanghai car show in April, it could hardly be more different from today’s utility-orientated A-Class. Inspired by “wind and waves”, the design communicates lightness, flow, dynamic and power. With its ‘BlueEfficiency’ turbocharged engine it is expected to go on sale end of 2012. We can’t wait.
And yes, another car left us breathless: Lamborghini’s Aventador LP 700-4 in black matt finish with its aggressive though smooth aesthetics. And on its rear end we discover again those bold angular lines as seen throughout Mercedes’ exhibition space.