To the Rescue

A monument in honor of the 2CV, the little car with a big personality. Designed in 1939 by Pierre-Jules Boulanger the 2CV was a helping hand to the peasants who were not able to afford the car of the day. Boulanger came up with the solution nicknamed the "umbrella on wheels", an inexpensive, as friendly vehicle that could transport a farmer and his goods (including a box of eggs) across a ploughed field without breaking anything.

A new model

The 2CV monument looks like this. It's got that hammock feeling that the original car used, it's colorful to signify diversity and it sits on springs so you can move around on it like you were traveling over a ploughed field! I think the shape of it almost looks like a 2CV too. Nice.

I've made the height of it bigger than a man, when you get in it (you'll have to climb up into it) you'll feel all embraced sitting in the huge seat. I think bouncing around in this thing could be really fun. It looks fun too, just like the car!

Celebrating the 2CV

I'm not sure where this will be in the end but this idea of supporting someone I like. I thought it might be a hand but that might be too cheesy. All I have to do now is bring the digital into it somehow and make it less like a park bench.

The monument would be in rural France, maybe there would be many of them dotted all over the countryside. Maybe a farmer would stroll past one and sit in it for a few minutes. It would be comfortable, lift his feet off the ground and remind him of a time a little car saved his ancestors from breaking their backs on the plough.

Orne, Basse-Normandie, France (photo by Magic Foundry on Flickr).

And here's a model of the seat. Maybe it should be covered and sprayed. It's missing some kind of beauty.

The monument

This is a memorial to the 2CV, a French car designed to carry a farmer, his produce, maybe the wife and some eggs (without breaking them) over a ploughed field into town.

The car was made for the peasants who couldn't afford the car of the day. This one was not only cheaper to buy, it was cheaper to run, yes, 78mpg people!

It's a poetic visual of the poor being carried by good design. The finished guy will be laughing, carrying some eggs in one hand and maybe a bag of potatoes in the other.

FREE concept

For senior show we played with the contrast between freedom and structure. There is incredible structure in a birds wing but yet they have such freedom in flight. Are we like birds, graduating from the nest, about ready to fly free?

Images from 

http://nonsenseverse.files.wordpress.com

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2095452

Curious expeditions on Flickr

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/drawing-techniques/draw-eagle-tattoo.14722.html

http://www.dragoart.com

wdb3b's photostream

Two 2CV Monuments

The first design is 20' high. The monument stands tall and proud as a part of France's history. It's an umbrella on four wheels following the nickname of the car. The two people are carrying the eggs while traveling over the ploughed field. It would be brightly colored to fit the humor of the car. It's only small because the car was small and it would be situated in the countryside of France to honor the farming peasant and the lower classes. You would have to drive out of Paris to see it. The smells of the farm would be all around. The umbrella part could be made of some fabric which would produce a sound in the wind like being outdoors—the top of the car was almost always pulled back and things were sticking out of it. The ground that the wheels sit on could be made of something really textural to symbolize the ploughed farmers field.

The second idea is bigger. It's more like a walk in monument. Again it's an umbrella stretched over four wheels and the building sits snugly underneath. This kind of a size building could house all kinds of artifacts to honor the car and its rich history. The umbrella part of the building would be brightly colored to fit with the humorous side of the car.

Remembering the 2CV

I think the 2CV monument should be low down, in proximity to the people. Not too high, not to big, approachable, like the car was. Pierre-Jules Boulanger was a designer for the people. He wanted to come up with a car that would be able to transport the lowly peasant. The car did 78pmg! He loved the TPV so much that he hid it from the Germans. I think he was protective of his design for the french people.

He designed it to serve people better than a horse and cart. It was able to do off road in the farms and carry 2 people and farms eggs without breaking them across a ploughed field! He was designing something for the lowly peasants who had not adopted the car yet because it was too expensive. He wanted to help them in their rigorous work on the farms. He was an advocate for the people.

Here's another great video. 2CV owners are like a family. "People don't know wether you have 100 euros or 100 million euros!" 

Honoring the 2CV

The 2CV (French “deux chevaux” literally “two tax horsepower”) was designed to move the French peasantry on from horses and carts. Designed for low cost, simplicity of use, versatility, reliability, and off-road driving it had a light, easily serviceable engine, extremely soft long travel suspension (with adjustable ride height), high ground clearance, and for oversized loads a car-wide canvas sunroof (which until 1960 also covered the boot).

The 2CV belongs to a very short list of vehicles introduced in the middle of the 20th century that remained relevant and competitive for many decades, such as the Jeep, Land Rover Series, Fiat 500, Austin Mini and Volkswagen Beetle.

Pierre-Jules Boulanger's early 1930s design brief, (after a pioneering market research survey done by Jacques Duclos), was to be astonishingly radical for the time, was for a low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable two peasants to drive 100 kg (220 lb) of farm goods to market at 60 km/h (37 mph), in clogs and across muddy unpaved roads if necessary. France at that time had a very large rural population which had not yet adopted the automobile, because of its cost. The car would use no more than 3 L of gasoline to travel 100 km (78 mpg). Most famously, it would be able to drive across a ploughed field without breaking the eggs it was carrying. Boulanger later also had the roof raised to allow him to drive while wearing a hat.

André Lefèbvre was the engineer in charge of the TPV (Toute Petite Voiture – "Very Small Car") project. By 1939 the TPV was deemed ready, and several prototypes had been built. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War Boulanger refused to meet Dr.Ferdinand Porsche or communicate with the German authorities except through intermediaries. Several TPVs were buried at secret locations; one was disguised as a pickup, the others were destroyed, and Boulanger had the next six years to think about further improvements.

Text and photographs from Wikipedia.

Then I made a silk screen of a 2CV in my craft class:

Sidewalk project goes national!

One of my senior team projects has won a national award! I teamed up with Tammy Shell and Amanda Laffoon last semester in the Visual Advocacy class to raise awareness of the need for a stretch of sidewalk outside Rosedale park. You can read more here.