Uros Pavasovic is a Ljubljana born, London based designer. After obtaining a Bachelor degree in Architecture from the University of Ljubljana, he graduated from London’s Royal College of art with Masters Degree in Vehicle Design. His main focus is on product and vehicle design which includes anything from bicycle to a yacht.
He feels that residing in London, the creative capital of Europe and having close ties with south east Europe have not only been instrumental in producing innovative designs for his clients but also in helping them in finding competitive emerging market suppliers for their products.
His designs have been showcased in a variety of museums and automotive exhibitions and presently one can find them in the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto, Italy and at the Detroit Car Show 2007. So, people whip yourself as I take you to the roller coaster ride of the exclusive interview, which we took from the designer himself,
1. Who is Uros Pavasovic outside the professional frame?
Pavasovic: Firstly, I am workaholic simply because I enjoy doing my work. When I am not working I try to enjoy every spare moment by escaping London and going to sunny and warm countries to rest, refuel and get inspired.
2. Pavasovic, please acquaint our readers with ‘Fiat Scratch’ from initial sketch to production modeling?
Pavasovic: ‘Fiat Scratch’ was originally designed as my final project at the Royal College of Art where I took a two year break from my professional work.
The design process started with the initial idea of applying the pre-worn jeans concept to a car and merging it with the Fiat brand. The next step was finding a basic shape of the car that had to embody the Fiat cheerful small car character. I produced many sketches and chose the key one to be transformed into a simple digital 3D model. This digital model was used as a template for the manually modeled quarter scale clay model.
Scale model was exhibited at the RCA summer show 2006 in London followed by the ‘Mitimacchina’ exhibition at the Museum of modern and contemporary art in Rovereto in Italy.
The transition from quarter scale model to a full size model required a complete redesign as the proportions and volumes changed when the scale changed. Also, the full size model was designed completely digitally as this was the only feasible way in which I could design and build the car on ‘long distance work’ basis - I designed, built the 3D model and supervised the fabrication process that took place in Germany and Slovenia from London. Full size model was milled directly from digital data from one block of material on a 5 axis milling machine. Smaller parts such as rear view mirrors, air intakes, door handles and wipers were produced using laser sintering technology. The production phase where I was most involved was painting and creating scratches.
Full size Fiat Scratch was exhibited at the Detroit motor show in January 2007.
3. Your concept car ‘Fiat Scratch’, was sponsored by Autodesk at the 2007 North American International Auto Show, did you expect the way it come to you? How did you take it?
Pavasovic: At the time I presented Autodesk with this opportunity I already had the scale model built and exhibited at the Royal College of Art. The scale model and the idea of ’scratch happy bumpers’ were noticed by both the general public and design community and it received considerable press coverage so I assumed that showing a full size car at a global event such as Detroit Car Show would be a great promotional opportunity for sponsors. That was enough for Autodesk to decide to support the project.
4. Who or what derives the fuel of creativity within you?
Pavasovic: It is primarily the excitement of creating something new that fuels me.
5. Do the contemporary cars focus more features and benefits than looks and style, I mean, how do you delineate the present market?
Pavasovic: To me the most relevant indicator of a good car design, be it features or looks, is the car’s longevity in market as it is the consumer who is the ultimate judge. Longevity shows that design of the car successfully met marketing, production and other requirements and costs and that the car was shaped just shocking enough to wake up the users/consumers but not too shocking to deter them. In today’s market where models are replaced every four or so years there are some exceptions that survived for close to a decade and have become icons of the era - Audi TT, Ford Ka or Renault Twingo to name some. Time will show which of the current models will join those three but my feeling is that controversial and fresh designs from BMW are most likely candidates.
6. Tell us something about your collaboration with worldwide mobile marketing corp.?
Pavasovic: I am in the very beginning of collaboration on new mobile information vehicles for this US based company. My first task was to assist them in communicating their business idea by visualizing how their new vehicles could look like. The next step will be the actual design for production. Collaboration with WWA is a perfect example of the importance of visual communication in business and also the example of efficient long distance design work possible with modern communication tools coupled with the digital/virtual design work.
This type of design work enables me to collaborate with overseas clients such as the most recent one - Asian motor scooter manufacturer.
7. How do you compare the vehicles of earlier times with the present day in terms of safety or environmental regulations?
Pavasovic: Both, safety and environmental regulations have a considerable impact on exterior design of current cars. I however don’t see this as a problem but as a design challenge. Looking at the iconic post war people’s cars one can see that they were designed under extremely strict budget restrictions yet exactly these restrictions shaped them in the way that eventually made them become design icons. Or another example, sports cars have to meet much stricter aerodynamic requirements than ‘normal’ cars yet the resulting streamlined shapes are perceived as more attractive then ‘normal’ cars shapes. In a way I can say: The more restrictions, the better!
8. What are the emerging trends in designing? And where do rank yourself in the array in upcoming designers?
Pavasovic: In short and in general I think the designers are becoming more global and products more virtual.
I would rather leave it to others to rank me.
9. Where do you see yourself, after, let’s say, five years from now?
Pavasovic: I intend to continue designing ‘moving objects’ such as cars, yachts, scooters and other products for both mass producers and private clients.
10. Also, we’d like to have your views on Instablogs News Network and Auto Motto?
Pavasovic: I just checked Auto Motto and couldn’t stop reading it for a few hours. I am sure I will become a regular reader.
What comes to your mind when I say the following:
1. If not a designer, Uros Pavasovic would have been....
Pavasovic: An engineer or a comedian.
2. Choose one, Dante Giacosa or Alec Issigonis and why?
Pavasovic: If I have to choose one than it would be Giacosa. I prefer his Fiat 500’s cheerful character.
3. Most distinct and recognizable contemporary car brands would be?
Pavasovic: The ones that are still successfully selling models from, let’s say, last decade. Excluding government subsidized emerging markets producers.
4. Describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
Pavasovic: I believe in clarity of the concept, of the message and of the shape of a product.
5. If you had to walk in another man’s shoes for a day, it would have to be.....
Pavasovic: I was watching the ‘Girls from the mansion’ show the other day and I was trying to imagine how it would feel to be Hugh Heffner for a day.
Thank you Pavasovic for sparing out time for doing an interview with us, it is greatly appreciated and also I’d like to wish you luck for all your future endeavors.
