A Century of Car Design

The car has been one of the most important icons of 20th-century design, whether as functional object, vision of the future or design statement. Designers, influenced by changes in technology, in society and by contemporary intellectual movements, have created some of the most forceful expressions of the integration of art and function. This book is a comprehensive history of these developments. Each chapter covers a classic era in car design, including the emergence of the luxury cars in America and Europe during the 1920s and 30s, the explosion of mass-production in the automobile industry from the 1950s, and the consumer-orientated approach of the last decades of the 20th century. The work of individual designers such as Giorgetto Giugiaro and Raymond Loewy is discussed alongside features on the evolution of styles, for instance the impact of aerodynamics on the American car of the 1930s, the German machine aesthetic exemplified by BMW and the importance of the Italian coachbuilding tradition. With over 600 photographs of some of the greatest cars ever produced, this book is aimed at both design and car enthusiasts.