Never

Este anuncio de 1963 está en la mesita de la entrada a mi estudio. Lo veo todos los días, cuando dejo el abrigo en el perchero de al lado. A un lado tiene un Modelo 500 de Henry Dreyfuss y al otro una lámpara que los ilumina. No está ahí casualmente. Me sirve de recordatorio sobre cómo diseñar. El texto reza:

We'd no sooner make an over-chromed, two-toned Volskwagen than we'd change the classic beetle shape.

It's not that the chrome version looks so bad; it just doesn't make the car work any better. That's the rule of thumb we go by: we change the VW only to improve it, not to make last year's model look obsolete.

In 1961, for example, we were able to get more horsepower from our air-cooled engine without making it any bigger or less economical.

(One thing that did get bigger this year: the tail lights.)

Everything on the VW happens for a reason; nothing is for show.

We don't even have a chrome piece that spells out our name. We do a little round emblem with our initials on it, though. After all, we can't let 600,000 Americans go riding around in unidentified cars.