College Exhibition: IAAD - Yamaha Project

In early September, Transportation Design students from Istituto d'Arte Applicata e Design - Turin (IAAD) presented the results of 'Yamaha Next Move', a project sponsored by Yamaha, exploring a personal vision of a Yamaha scooter for the near future.

Yamaha guided the students through the next generation of "two wheelers" suggesting two themes:

-  Youngsters, two wheels, 50 cc:
For kids that can only drive 50 cc, there are many products on the market, but sales are in decline. The project brief included evaluation of the possible causes for lack of interest and offers new solutions, including functional and aesthetic proposals.

-  City use, two wheels, 125/250 cc:
Today many users prefer a scooter for commuting from home to school or home to office. The project looked at the factors attracting people to this product and proposals of new solutions for users of scooters in the city.

For each student the realized works consisted of historical research and concept boards, sketches, and traditional and digital renderings. Two of the proposals were selected for development as full scale clay models.

Students were assisted by a team of professionals: from Yamaha, Kenji Otombe (President of ELM Design Europe), Naoki Segawa (Scooter Product Planning Manager) Marco Riva and Valentina Gonnella (Product Development Co-ordinators) and Cristiano Tasca (Yamaha designer); from IAAD, Emanuele Bomboi (Motorbike & Scooter Design teacher) and Mario De Carlo (Modelling teacher).

The projects form part of the three year specialization post-diploma course 'EABHES European Bachelor of Science in Design - majoring in Transportation'.

Street-Player
Emanuela Giusio

Emanuela has designed a scooter for youngster. Her idea derives from the common use of a scooter among young people: gather and have fun. 'Street-player' is designed for them: the shape is playful and customizable with different colours. The screen, placed in the front part of the seat shape, is used both for driving information and as a 'Play Station' when the scooter is parked. From the Yamaha website the user can download games, light combinations, music, horn spunds, and upload to the scooter using a USB key, so you can play with your friends, simulating a race on a virtual highway, without risking your life! Under the seat there's a big bag where the helmet can be stored together with other objects. The seat hides the second passenger place, so fun is easier to share.

Ploof
Axel Dichamp

'Ploof' derives its concept from a comfortable armchair. Axel has designed this scooter thinking of an adult consumer that wants to travel with comfort and protection. The large seat is a real armchair, placed on the scooter body on four legs, so the user drives sitting in a relaxed position. The structure is designed to communicate strength and lightness at the same time: the scooter body is massive, but elegant and graceful. The upper elements seem to lean on the scooter body, as the general idea is to give the sensation of floating on the asphalt. The steering system is not directly connected to the wheel, so the sensation of comfort is higher. In the rear part of the seat there is a hidden trolley-bag that can be taken off when the scooter is parked. Comfort follows you!

By