ec: What is the Marilyn Monroe effect?
Wd'S: When we started on the redesign process for the TT, they showed me a few proportion models. I said: "Sorry, you say to me that is a TT, but I don't recognize it as such. The proportions are wrong." In preparation for a follow-up meeting, I requested a full-scale print of Marilyn Monroe. I showed the picture to my team and asked if they knew how tall miss Monroe was. Their answers were much taller estimates than she really was. I said she was only 1.6 meters (5ft. 3in.), but her proportions were perfect. Then I told them to go redraw the TT.
ec: Audi's Bauhaus styling has been a design staple for decades, yet you figured on a change.
Wd'S: I can still hear them now: "Ah, this guy, he wants to destroy the Bauhaus design." I say why not? I'm not afraid to take risks with new and creative design language. It is better to lead than to follow and you cannot lead without taking risks.
ec: What was your motivation behind the recreation of Audi's corporate face?
Wd'S: I believe it is important to lead with character and emotion, in this case a bold and easily recognizable face. Most iconic cars have at least one clearly identifiable feature. For the Porsche 911 it's not necessarily the front, but its unmistakable silhouette. It is something you can identify at a mere glance. You don't mistake the distinctive grille of a BMW or Alfa Romeo for any other car, and now it's the same for Audi. The single-frame grille is an iconic style element. It provides the personality for the car and for the brand.
ec: We're told that the idea of the single-frame grille came to you while on vacation.
Wd'S:: Yes, I was on holiday and I started drawing. I made a few sketches incorporating the grille, inspired by the original Auto Union cars, and I knew in an instant that this would be the new face of Audi. Not everyone agreed we should make such a drastic change. Comments from the press were not so positive, but now everything is so and Audi now has a very visual and identifiable face. It too will continue to change and evolve.
ec: Which automotive designer do you admire most?
Wd'S: Flaminio Bertone, an Italian. His cars were beautifully sculpted, especially the Citron DS. The car is really quite simple in design, yet it is very elegant.
ec: If you could choose any car to design or redesign, which one would it be?
Wd'S: The Golf. Can you imagine a more important car? The success of the Golf in the past 25 years, the five generations of platform design. It is truly an icon like the Beetle or TT, but even more important in terms of the history and the impact its has made and the millions it has sold.
This will be a challenge, the biggest and most important of my career. And you ask me how I stay motivated?-Robert Hallstrom