Description
Nano: The people car's
NANO: The people’s Car – A Design Story from
India
Seema Khanwalkar
Center for Environmental Planning and
Technology, Ahmedabad, India
NANO
The People’s Car ? A Design Story from India
by
Seema Khanwalkar Ph.D
• It is becoming
increasingly evident that
cars have become the
leading examples of
‘emotional design.’
• They are ‘objects of desire’
and their utility value is
second to the pride in
owning them and their
symbolic value.
• This presentation will explore the automobile design in
India in relation to the emotional quotient of the
average Indian.
• The aim being, to understand, how design ‘sells’ to the average
Indian.
• What are the implications, images, and the reference points that
could possibly influence the acceptability of a car design in India.
• This presentation will take the Tata Nano as a case in
point.
• The presentation
is influenced by semiotic approach to design.
• The presentation will highlight the significance of semiotic
concepts in understanding the value of a design in a given socio?
cultural context.
The Nano playing field
Discourses of New India
• Elevated life planes
• Upward mobility, increase in aspiration
• Changing landscape of financial offers
• A new Indian pride
• A global smartness/bold/adventurous zeal
• Equal opportunity
• Mythical India: unshakeable residue
Indian Pride
Level?playing India
Nano: stirring the social, political,
emotional, economic fabric!
• What is the Nano all about?
• Is it about the cheapest car in the world?
• Is it about the most cost?effective design for a
car ever?
• Is it about its size, its fuel efficiency, its
technological engineering?
• Is it about the Tata Motors? Is it about India?
Essential India in the small car
• A reflection and a refraction of modern India's
ability to exist and manage the chaos
• Youthful
• Car as a child – you can ‘own’ a child’
• Can be maneuvered and driven into the
cultural template – not formidable
• Fulfilling aspirations/dreams – owning a car,
growth in social status, marital eligibility….
The Design Challenge: comfort of the
old with the style of the new
Overall structure
of the Maruti Zen,
but the cost of
Maruti 800
The roomy
interiors of
the
Ambassador
Designing Nano: conduit to
exhilaration
• Cost?effective
• Quality control
• Sophisticated and economical
• Performance with low?cost car?parts, and
small?size body
• Design with a 360 degree view – economy,
aesthetics, comfort
• Inclusive, warm, welcoming – product appeal
Indian Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness: an entrenched Indian value it is a
transformative ability that helps to maintain
an unfazed personality
Naivety and hope mark the Indian world view very
strongly – Sudhir kakar
The syntax and the paradigms of
Indian cars
From the 20
th
cen,
Morris Oxford era to
?
Luxury cars and
SUV’s
21
st
cen, Cars
for the middle?
class
Masses (Maruti
zen, Fiat,
indica, santro,
21
st
century
Small car
revolution
Stately, officious,
tough
Practical, ease,
economical
Design
revolution?
Emotional Design
appearances
Pleasure and
effectiveness of use
Intellectualization
of the product
Nano: the ‘emotional design’
• A signifier of Indian resourcefulness:
transforming for comprehensibility
• A signifier of the eternal Indian belief in
‘karma’ – the wheel of time turns with the
deeds (the state politics)
• A signifier of the ‘savior’ – of pride, of human
conditions
• A signifier of a child seeking attention, love
The Nano effect
• Euphoria
• Hope/Optimism
• Inter?state rivalry (competition to bring the
Nano)
• Catalyst for change /harbinger of economic
prosperity
Nano: the divine child
• The savior
• The delightful, playful and lovable
• Small and sprightly
• The child god
Nano and the Krishna Myth
The Indian imagination today is still
deeply influenced by these myths?
Sudhir Kakar.
Waiting for the Nano
What does it all mean?
• Design is no longer merely an organizational or a
corporate issue. Nano has become a subject of national
debate.
• From semiotics to the politics of design – appropriation
of car design as a symbol of state power.
• Nano is more than a mode of transportation – but it is
designed as a vehicle for social transformation – (from a
two?wheeler to a four wheeler).
• Nano may very well become a design model for
emerging markets – since the whole world is waiting for
the ghost to become a reality….
A universal car dream
Excitement over the newborn
Thank You
doc_890594715.pdf
Nano: The people car's
NANO: The people’s Car – A Design Story from
India
Seema Khanwalkar
Center for Environmental Planning and
Technology, Ahmedabad, India
NANO
The People’s Car ? A Design Story from India
by
Seema Khanwalkar Ph.D
• It is becoming
increasingly evident that
cars have become the
leading examples of
‘emotional design.’
• They are ‘objects of desire’
and their utility value is
second to the pride in
owning them and their
symbolic value.
• This presentation will explore the automobile design in
India in relation to the emotional quotient of the
average Indian.
• The aim being, to understand, how design ‘sells’ to the average
Indian.
• What are the implications, images, and the reference points that
could possibly influence the acceptability of a car design in India.
• This presentation will take the Tata Nano as a case in
point.
• The presentation
is influenced by semiotic approach to design.
• The presentation will highlight the significance of semiotic
concepts in understanding the value of a design in a given socio?
cultural context.
The Nano playing field
Discourses of New India
• Elevated life planes
• Upward mobility, increase in aspiration
• Changing landscape of financial offers
• A new Indian pride
• A global smartness/bold/adventurous zeal
• Equal opportunity
• Mythical India: unshakeable residue
Indian Pride
Level?playing India
Nano: stirring the social, political,
emotional, economic fabric!
• What is the Nano all about?
• Is it about the cheapest car in the world?
• Is it about the most cost?effective design for a
car ever?
• Is it about its size, its fuel efficiency, its
technological engineering?
• Is it about the Tata Motors? Is it about India?
Essential India in the small car
• A reflection and a refraction of modern India's
ability to exist and manage the chaos
• Youthful
• Car as a child – you can ‘own’ a child’
• Can be maneuvered and driven into the
cultural template – not formidable
• Fulfilling aspirations/dreams – owning a car,
growth in social status, marital eligibility….
The Design Challenge: comfort of the
old with the style of the new
Overall structure
of the Maruti Zen,
but the cost of
Maruti 800
The roomy
interiors of
the
Ambassador
Designing Nano: conduit to
exhilaration
• Cost?effective
• Quality control
• Sophisticated and economical
• Performance with low?cost car?parts, and
small?size body
• Design with a 360 degree view – economy,
aesthetics, comfort
• Inclusive, warm, welcoming – product appeal
Indian Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness: an entrenched Indian value it is a
transformative ability that helps to maintain
an unfazed personality
Naivety and hope mark the Indian world view very
strongly – Sudhir kakar
The syntax and the paradigms of
Indian cars
From the 20
th
cen,
Morris Oxford era to
?
Luxury cars and
SUV’s
21
st
cen, Cars
for the middle?
class
Masses (Maruti
zen, Fiat,
indica, santro,
21
st
century
Small car
revolution
Stately, officious,
tough
Practical, ease,
economical
Design
revolution?
Emotional Design
appearances
Pleasure and
effectiveness of use
Intellectualization
of the product
Nano: the ‘emotional design’
• A signifier of Indian resourcefulness:
transforming for comprehensibility
• A signifier of the eternal Indian belief in
‘karma’ – the wheel of time turns with the
deeds (the state politics)
• A signifier of the ‘savior’ – of pride, of human
conditions
• A signifier of a child seeking attention, love
The Nano effect
• Euphoria
• Hope/Optimism
• Inter?state rivalry (competition to bring the
Nano)
• Catalyst for change /harbinger of economic
prosperity
Nano: the divine child
• The savior
• The delightful, playful and lovable
• Small and sprightly
• The child god
Nano and the Krishna Myth
The Indian imagination today is still
deeply influenced by these myths?
Sudhir Kakar.
Waiting for the Nano
What does it all mean?
• Design is no longer merely an organizational or a
corporate issue. Nano has become a subject of national
debate.
• From semiotics to the politics of design – appropriation
of car design as a symbol of state power.
• Nano is more than a mode of transportation – but it is
designed as a vehicle for social transformation – (from a
two?wheeler to a four wheeler).
• Nano may very well become a design model for
emerging markets – since the whole world is waiting for
the ghost to become a reality….
A universal car dream
Excitement over the newborn
Thank You
doc_890594715.pdf