Thinking different: A sketch to stimulate ideas
The modified car scene is a place chocked full of talented people, producing fantastic feats of engineering and design. It can however get stuck in a bit of a rut occasionally with people turning out vehicles that are all very similar. Fashion trends are inevitable, as people want to try out the new ideas for themselves. However before you jump into your next project, take the time to consider these principles and maybe you’ll be the person that sparks the next trend, rather than following a current one.
The principles are:
Know the rules
Break the rules
Look outside your scene
Really look outside your scene
Be true to yourself
What follows is a bit of an explanation of each… to help you get creative.
Know the rules
There are many different looks you can go for when modifying cars. Each look has an associated set of rules that means the car sits within the bounds of that look. Not all looks have written rules, although some do. So why should you need to know these rules if the plan is to think different? These looks have evolved for a reason, they are usually aesthetically pleasing. Take for example the very defined set of rules for VW Cal-Look.
Nose down stance
Period, rare wheels
De-chromed
Single colour
Non-standard but not mega-loud exhaust
Some competition inspired details - no bumpers
Competition mirrors, bonnet scoop
They are the rules, they are aimed at VW Beetles. So why not apply them to something that isn’t a VW. How about a Morris Minor? Or a Renault 5? Or a Datsun Cherry? There is a set of rules for numerous different looks including euro, rat, mooneyes, hotrod, bosozuku, when you find out, or work out, the rules think about how to apply them to your car, now think about how to apply them to your neighbour’s car, no matter what it is. How would you apply those rules to the car in front of you at the lights? Get thinking beyond what you see in a photograph of a car and think about why it looks good.
Break the rules
The real reason to know and absorb as many looks and rule sets as you can is to be able to understand what makes an aesthetically pleasing car. What makes a car look complete and ties it together into a look. Once you know this you can a look and apply new ideas to it. To break the rules. Take our Cal-Look rules. Which rules can we break and get away with? The trick is to avoid breaking more than one or two rules at a time, you still have the essence of the style but you are adding your own twist.
The stance is pretty important, if you look at Cal-lookers they all have the stance, so we keep that. Period, rare wheels, that is a possibility to change, how about a set of very modern billet wheels instead. De-chromed, we can do this, or we can polish up the chrome, or paint all the chrome bits in a contrasting colour. Single colour, again this can be replaced with a two tone paint job, or how about picking a colour people wouldn’t expect? Change any one or two of these things and you maintain a cal-look inspired ride but you have moved away and innovated beyond the rules that you started with. The more you do this the more you will create your own style, you’ll be learning what works and occasionally what doesn’t. Maybe the lime green paint wasn’t a good idea,… or maybe it was.
Look outside your scene
One of the best places to pick up something interesting to apply to your ride is to look beyond the edges of your particular scene. Assuming retro cars are your thing, then you should have a look a what the hot rod scene is doing, and the circuit racers, and the aircooled VW scene, and the watercooled VW scene, in fact any scene you can find that has cars, look at what they are doing. Look at what people are doing in other countries. Europe has a particular style, but then so does Australia, North America, South America, Malaysia, Japan, anywhere that people modify cars will put it’s cultural stamp on them. The internet makes this easier than ever, with a few searches you can usually find images from car shows all over the world.
Just because you are on a limited budget don’t disregard the ideas you can pick up from big budget builds, equally if you are building big budget, don’t forget that a lot of innovation comes about when people are on a tight budget. Make sure you take it all in, from everywhere including modern car modification, you never know when you’ll see that little thing that will click something in your brain and make you want to get out into the garage and start playing.
Really look outside your scene
So you’ve looked outside your scene, you’ve got a little catalogue of looks in your head, or on paper, you know how to twist and change styles with the things you’ve picked up from all over the world. What now? Well now the real inspiration begins. Now you look beyond the world of cars. The easiest way is to start with other attractive machinery, look at Spitfire aircraft, how can you apply the look and feel of that to your car? How about the Mallard, the worlds fastest steam train? How about if we apply the Mallard’s aesthetic to a Volvo Amazon?
Red steel wheels to start with, two tone paint work light blue with a black front, all chrome polished to within an inch of it’s life. Take it a stage further and get the chrome replaced with brass equivalents.
You can go even more abstract, look at trends in graphic design, the colours being used, the nature of the design itself. Look at interior design, remember Brian Burrow’s designed and built a VW Type3 Squareback, based around the Bauhaus form over function design method. Find an object you like the look of, then work out why,.. then work out if you can apply that to your ride.
Be true to yourself
At the end of the day you can have as many rules, broken rules and influences as you like, he real reason to modify a car is to reflect your personality. Being able to think and be aware of all the options open to you will help you express I as full as you possibly can, but the only real rule is to express yourself, not what is the general accepted norm, but what you want to express. If you do that as fully as possible, then you can’t fail.