At the end of this video of BMW’s GINA fabric-covered, shape-shifting concept car, designer Chris Bangle describes the philosophy as “Context over dogma”. It’s a nice moment to close a remarkable three-minute video presentation, but there’s something more profound lurking there as well.
Certainly it’s about, as Bangle says, being flexible and acting flexible, but it’s also about challenging the traditional way of doing things in favor of ways that work in their particular circumstances. It’s a concept that’s easy to understand in a number of fields, for example, how web design and information architecture should favor what makes sense over a rule that there needs to be a link in a particular place on every page. 37 Signals promotes this in their Getting Real book as “Context Over Consistency” and even demonstrates how the home screen of the iPhone puts an icon not where it must be, but where it makes sense to be.
Bangle has been a controversial figure while at BMW, but it’s exciting to see his refreshing approach to the automotive industry.
1 response so far ↓
1 Rodrigo Loaiza // Jun 20, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Its not about an ideology anymore, its about reading the context. He talks about flexibility, and how something flexible its shaped by the context vs. an great idea which has to be frozen regardless the stream of change demanded by the context.
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