Michael Mauer’s success as an automotive designer was once again showcased when it was announced that Porsche has won the prestigious “red dot award: product design 2012” for the Porsche 911 Carrera. A panel of 30 international experts found the Porsche’s “unique design language” combined innovation and tradition, power and elegance into a functional and unique design more so than over 4500 other product designs from 58 countries. If you can’t see the video below in your email you can view it directly on our site by clicking on Video of Michael Mauer Explaining the Design of the Porsche 991.
“With our Style Porsche design process, we ensure that a Porsche 911 evolves in terms of its appearance, while remaining recognizably a 911. At Porsche we use two concepts to achieve this: brand identity and product identity. Brand identity means that a Porsche has to be recognizable as a Porsche at first glance and product identity means that it is immediately apparent which Porsche it is. The design DNA of our products is our most important asset – which is precisely why we are constantly questioning and developing it.”
Integral to the Porsche design DNA in the case of the 911 are elements like the steeply rear-sloping roof line, the flat, stretched silhouette, exciting surfaces, the air intake instead of a radiator grille, a downward tapering rear window, pronounced shoulders, the visible tailpipes, and of course the ignition, which has always been on the left of the steering wheel in a Porsche. What Porsche is demonstrating yet again with the 911 Carrera is that outstanding design quality is more than just look and feel and functionality – the design’s unmistakable identity makes it the ambassador of the sports car brand.
Additionally, this prize pays tribute to the life’s work and achievements of Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, who died in Salzburg on 5 April 2012 at the age of 76. As the creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture at Porsche that has shaped the Stuttgart sports cars to this very day. His philosophy of good design is an important legacy that the company will continue to honor for all time. His credo was: “A coherently designed product needs no adornment; it should be enhanced by its form alone. Good design should be honest.” Porsche designers profess this conviction to this very day.
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