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copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 University College London Topic 1: A motor vehicle for everybody: the Vespa case study (Un veicolo per tutti: il caso della Vespa) Word count: 2699 1 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Introduction Vespa is an example of industrial product that remains relatively unchanged in its shape and at the same became really universal. This motor vehicle was created in post-war Italy as an answer to an urgent need of society for innovative changes that would give them mobility and sense of freedom. Vespa soon became an icon of Italian design, along with such products as Olivetti’s “Lexicon80” or La Pavoni coffee machine. This vehicle captured Italian imagination, changing the post-war landscape of the country and paving its way for the international market. Vespa marked vital era in 20th century Italian design and accompanied Italian transition into modern society.1 Vespa was designed to be a product for masses. It was a response for the post-war social needs for a low-cost vehicle, easy to maintain and manage even on the pitted roads, with design attractive both to men and women of all ages. However, persuading Italians to buy a scooter instead of a car could not have been so simple. Even the idea that everyone can have their own vehicle was not common which was reflected in difficulties in selling the first 50 scooters ever.2 Why then did Vespa become such a successful product? Was it always perceived as a motor vehicle for everybody? In an attempt to answer those questions, I need to analyze this phenomenon from historical and social perspectives, focusing on changing ideology behind Vespa and a social impact and perception of the product. 1 Penny Sparke (1988). Design in Italy: 1870 to the Present. New York: Abbeville Press, Inc., p.84. 2 Stefano Biancalana (2000). Vespa - from Italy with Love. Giorgio Nada Editore: Vimodrone(Milan), p.15. 2 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Origin of Vespa The idea for an easily affordable vehicle begun in Piaggio, an aeronautical company that suffered bombarding during the Second World War and needed to adapt its production to the peacetime conditions. Post-war Italy struck with hunger, inflation and unemployment needed intellects that would bear the responsibility of reconstructing the country. As Giulio Carlo Argan argues in his essay, designers faced environment that was both “visually and aurally polluted” both in cities and at home, where “dissemination of inexpensive industrial products for everyday use (…) seemed to provide a healthy restorative.”3 High-quality but affordable design was therefore a mean of reconstruction of society, a way of reestablishing relations with civilized world and begun to be dissociated from privileged class and conspicuous consumption. One of the reasons behind the Vespa success is its innovative design which was emphasized by its creator, Corradino D’Ascanio, from the beginning of his work for Piaggio.4 Ironically, the inspiration for a light and small vehicle for peacetime came from the wartime solution for Allied Paratroops in a shape of the Welbike scooters. (Fig.1, Fig.2, Fig.3) 3 Giulio Conrado Argan (1972).’ Ideological Development in the Thought and Imagery of Italian Design’. In Emilio Ambasz, Italy:The New Domestic Landscape (pp. 358-369). New York: Distributed by New York Graphic Society, p.367. 4 Athos Bigongiali (2003). Vespa - Italian Street Style. Florence: Giunti Gruppo Editoriale, p. 12. 3 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Fig.1. During World War II paratroops used less aesthetically convincing Welbike scooters. Fig.2. Vespa’s predecessor was easily folded. Fig.3. Folded Welbike scooters could be dropped together with soldiers in parachute containers. 4 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 The process of developing Vespa’s design shows its tendency to answer social needs as well as to convey the ideology of a practical and democratic design, where “the form of an object does not depend on its function, but rather its function adapts itself to the visual structure of its form”5. Therefore, when Enrico Piaggio saw “Paperino” (Fig.4), the first “scooter for everybody”, he asked D’Ascanio to redesign it which eventually led to the final shape of Vespa. Fig.4. Piaggio MP5(1945) – first prototype named “Paperino” (Eng. Donald Duck) because of its characteristic shape reminding a duck. Fig.5. Vespa 98 (1946) – the first design of Vespa scooter. In this new model (Fig.5), designer used his aeronautical experience to create cutting- edge vehicle with streamlined, contemporary shape. Still, every part of the scooter had its practical justification. The most important modifications included use of unsellable lightweight materials and engines previously used in a production of aircrafts6 – high quality of design could therefore be maintained on a relatively low-cost level of production. 5 Argan (1972), p. 368. 6 Dick Hebdige. (2000). ‘Object as image: the Italian scooter cycle’. In M. J. Lee, The Consumer Society Reader (pp. 125-161). Padstow: Wiley-Blackwell, p.135. 5 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 The comfort of driving was improved thanks to D’Ascanio’s idea of ergonomic studies of a person sitting comfortably and then drawing the scooter under him7 (Fig.7). Following this logic, the front shield was designed to protect the driver from getting dirty on pothole- filled roads, it also provided additional space for legs, avoided using transmission chain, placed all the controls on the handlebars and housed spare wheel neatly balancing the engine cover on the opposite side (Fig.6). Fig.6. Removing cover reveals the spare wheel that can easily replace a flat tyre. Fig.7. One of the first Vespa designs by D’Ascanio (pre-1946). 7 Tommaso Fanfani. (n.d.). The Vespa Communication Exhibition: Beyond the Imaginary. Retrieved December 2010, from Vespa: http://www.uk.vespa.com/en_UK/amo_vespa/vespa_story/comunicazione_vespa/ approfondimenti_1.aspx 6 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Therefore, Vespa from technical point of view was easily and comfortable to ride even for less experienced drivers. Unlike other scooters or bicycles in the market, it protected driver’s clothes from dirt and enabled to ride even in long skirts. Everybody could drive Vespa “even in their Sunday best”, including “women and priests.”8 Although Vespa’s price (168,000 lire) was six times lower than the cheapest car, Fiat Topolino,9 an average Italian, at which the product was aimed, still could not afford to buy it in a post-war crisis. To overcome selling difficulties, in 1948 Enrico Piaggio introduced a new concept of purchase in installments and looked for partners in Germany, England, France and Spain, creating conditions enabling Vespa to conquer the market.10 Installment payments and sale mechanism with delivery right after paying a minor deposit allowed even less-wealthy Italians to believe that Vespa is a vehicle truly for everybody. As Corradino D’Ascanio put it, “the creation of a modern means of transport, with the popularity of a bicycle, 11 the performance of motorbike and the elegance of an automobile became reality” 8 Biancalana (2000), p.27. 9 Ibid., p.7. 10 Fanfani (n.d.) 11 Bigongiali (2003), p.17. 7 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Social impact of Vespa Quick development of media made consumer goods a central concern for most Italians, even the poorest ones. Vespa, that became widely affordable thanks to the installment payments, stood at the centre of this transformation. According to Giorgio Bocca, in post-war Italy mass consumption created a basis for national identity that so far had been virtually absent.12 This statement seems to find its confirmation in the broad theory of design by Bauhaus based on an example of Germany after the First World War according to which design is the process of changing the meaning and value of aesthetic experience to coincide with the transition of society from authoritarian into functional one.13 Indeed, in Italy the period 1940-55 was marked with neorealism and democratic idealism, promoting products within everyone’s reach and brining into focus everyday life of the poor and working class. Vespa was a perfect example of such product – symbol of post-fascist democracy and hope for the future due to its contemporary but somehow familiar shape as many everyday products at the time were characterized by similar organic, slightly curved lines. Therefore, designing Vespa as a mass product was a mean of designing consumption behavior and shaping aesthetic taste of the society.14 The success of the product in a great part resulted from an innovative marketing that managed to create an image of cheerful, likeable product that soon became its owner’s companion both at leisure and work. However, this was possible only when the initial advertising strategy was abandoned which was focused on informing the public only about performance and price of the vehicle.15 More sophisticated and aggressive campaign was launched at the beginning of the fifties where modern tools of communication helped to reach almost all social classes both in Italy and abroad. 12 Adam Arvidsson. (2001). ‘From Counterculture to Consumer Culture : Vespa and the Italian youth market’, 1958 −78. Journal of Consumer Culture , p.49. 13 Argan (1972), p. 359. 14 Ibid., p. 359. 15 Biancalana (2000), p.38. 8 copyright @ Aleksandra Kozawska, 2011 Innovative character of Vespa advertisements was often based on a play of words and simple graphics. The first campaign of this type was born under a slogan: Vespizzatevi! (“Vespify yourself!”) and it paved way for further marketing strategy of Piaggio. Looking at posters from 1950s, it is clear that Piaggio consistently realized its idea behind Vespa as a universal and reliable vehicle for everyday use. Not only was it shown as a mean of modern urban transport, way of commuting for both businessmen and workers (Fig.9.), but it was a vehicle for the whole families (with attached sidecar), enabling them to go shopping or for trips outside the city.