Hasta La Ideas

Designer Scott Henderson recently developed the concept for the SCORPION, a 32′ Launch Vessel concept, as a Speculative Pitch to one of his favorite brands: Chris Craft. Here he elaborates on both the what and the why behind his never-to-be-realized project.

Designers are always waiting for that ideal project—the dream project. The question is, why wait? Why not just assign yourself an ideal project?

I’ve been tinkering with marine and watercraft design for a while now—not to mention large aircraft design projects in the past—so I am used to transportation design of this scale. A simple shift in scale from what you are usually designing on a day-to-day basis can be an refreshing exercise in itself.

Why put forth an effort like this on spec? Sometimes you just have a good idea, a strong vision that simply must be executed, a need to design something different. Something self-initiated. Call it the ‘Just-Do-It’ mentality.

I have floated a few yacht concepts out there, which I did mostly for fun when the UK publication Super Yacht Design published a bent wood chair I designed called SLAT, as well as an Octopus sculpture called Vulgaris (which I made for the World Wild Life Fund’s “Faces in The Wild” auction), and invited me to do a concept yacht. Since then, marine as a new category to work in is definitely starting to produce a wake behind my efforts. I am meeting people in that very different world from my usual product design channels who I would have never met before. It also seems to energize my thinking process for my usual type of project by stepping away from the norm.

The concept of creating something completely self-initiated can be unnerving—because in a way, you really are hanging yourself out to dry. I think back to the founding of our company MINT, which was born out of the same kind of self-initiated experiment—the initial products were essentially sketches without homes. Just do it.

I have admired the Chris Craft brand ever since childhood trips to a lake house in the Adirondacks. The company’s mahogany runabouts from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s are iconic, timeless and sought-after pieces of design to this day, known for their deep-V hulls that twist dramatically from an extreme negative slope at the bow, reversing along the way toward the “barrel-back” at the stern. It’s a brand with strong heritage akin to that of Harley Davidson, Levi’s and Coke.

(more…)