38: The new London bus

Like spotting a rare bird, I’d seen the beautiful, new London double decker buses from afar for the past few months. With only a few on the roads (started with 7 in Feb 2011, now up to ?) I would narrowly miss one as it drove off from a bus stop, or chase after another to take a photo. They had eluded me until yesterday – I had my first ride, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Designed by the inspired Heatherwick Studio in London (this post has just had an Olympic update, because Heatherwick also designed the beautiful Olympic flame caldron – see below for a video), its the first time in 50 years that London has commissioned the design of a new bus specifically for the city. The result is a beautiful homage to the curves of the old Route Masters but with a definite future facing ethos. Utterly contemporary in look and feel (asymmetry abound) but also utilizing the latest in hybrid technology (40% more efficient than the current London diesel buses), they are most certainly a confident and intelligent solution, but not without some sentimentality for the heyday of double deckers, the complete combination of which, I find very pleasing.

The interior’s are simple and slightly underwhelming, though what more would they need? Probably nothing. The highlight is the restoration of the hop-on, hop-off, open rear door, like the old Route Masters had,  and with it, a second bus man (again) looking after that rear door. The bars for holding on to disappear into the ceiling in with a pinched profile that I really like. The fabric on the seats is as ugly as ever, though better-designed-ugly ; ) which also feels entirely appropriate. The London underground tube car upholstery has always been “unusual” slash ugly.

The exterior, however, is wonderful. Diagonal windows that follow the stairs upward (or downward), a diagonal slash of red on the front face, revealing a black under-colour, like Robin (Batman’s Robin) lowering his mask to reveal his true identity, and another widening slash of window on the rear leading to the hop-on/off door. Truly beautiful and imaginative, while being completely functional at the same time. More light in the bus, more views of the city, and better visibility for the driver.

We now have at least 3 (maybe 4) generations of double decker buses on the London roads, including the old Route Masters that still have a few token routes. Most of them, regrettably, have been relegated to Wedding transport!

Thomas Heatherwick writes:
“It has been 50 years since a bus was last designed and commissioned specifically for London. This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a team to look again at the opportunities for a new open-platform bus. It has been an honour to be asked by London’s transport authority to take an integrated approach and design everything that you see and experience from the outside down to the tiniest details of the interior.”

Olympic Update: Heatherwick studio design the incredible Olympic torch caldon. Quite a year for Heatherwick Studio: a retrospective show at the V&A, the new London bus, and now the Olympic caldron. To see it action watch this BBC footage from the Opening Ceremonies below:

Design industry pays tribute to Steve Jobs

An article reproduced from Design Week in honour of Steve Jobs:

Jobs served as chief executive of the company from 1997 until earlier this year, when he stepped down due to ill-health.

During this period, and working with UK-born Apple designer Jonathan Ive, Jobs oversaw the launch of products including the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Richard Seymour, co-founder of Seymour Powell, recalls a conversation he had with Jobs at the D&AD Awards ceremony. He says, ‘I got to sit next to him at dinner for three hours and I thought, “What do you say to Steve Jobs?”

‘He was, as he often was, persistently monosyllabic in his answers – then I got on to the subject of why we do what we do and why it matters and he was suddenly online – and I had one of the most extraordinary conversations of my life.

’Under this Barnum-esque brio – and his reputation for being almost brutally didactic – was an extraordinary humanist. What was motivating Steve Jobs was an intrinsicly humanistic agenda.’

Seymour adds, ‘People talk about a Steve Jobs-led digital revolution, but it’s not a digital revolution, it’s an analogue revolution, that is digitally enabled. When you see an Apple product you interact with it using gestures – you stroke it, you polish it – these are all analogue interactions.

‘Steve Jobs could have done this with a car or with a toilet – he had a pathological level of delight in detail, which is why this stuff is so divine. The reason for this is that it’s propelled by a humanist agenda.’

Design Council chief design officer Mat Hunter says, ‘He was amazing in terms of the design values that went right through Apple and the way he managed to scale that up as the company grew. He managed to keep the spark, humanity and passion.’

‘It is very rare for individuals to understand what it is to respect design and designers. Just as much as designers have to respect chief executives, chief executives have to trust designers.’

James Dyson says, ‘Steve Jobs has shown that you ignore good design at your peril. And that breakthrough products come from taking intuitive risks, not from listening to focus groups. He was a master of semiotic design.’

Gemma Curtain, curator at the Design Museum, says, ’Under Steve Jobs, Apple showed a combination of great design and great product innovation. Hopefully his legacy will be that other companies will follow his example and realise the power of design.’

7, Feb 2012: An interesting follow up blog post from Macapper entitled:
10 Surprises We Have Learned About Steve Jobs