No, you are wrong. 6 reasons why the Tesla CyberTruck is great design. (and 3 ways it could have been even better)

I get it, the Tesla CyberTruck reveled last week is different. Not exactly what the general public, the auto industry, or TSLA shareholders were expecting. Thank god. That concept kicking around (below) is boring.

Since then, there's been lots of articles and opinions on it. Like they say, opinions are like assholes - everyone got one.

That being said, while a lot has been said about the design, including words by some really great automotive designers and industry professionals, there actually has been surprisingly little in the way of actual design criticism or comment. So here's mine.

Firstly, I'm not an automotive designer. I am however a design professional, with 20+ years experience in Industrial Design, footwear design, and branding. I run a strategic design consultancy- The Directive Collective.

Secondly, I'm not a truck enthusiast or "truck guy". I live in midtown Toronto, and my garage includes a 2019 Volvo V90 T6 Wagon, a 1998 BMW 740iL Individual, and a 1971 Mercedes 220. But I don't think the CyberTruck is for truck people anyhow...more on that later.

All that out of the way, here goes. My design take on the Tesla CyberTruck.

1. Context. Like any design, the Tesla CyberTruck references past designs and exists in a context of those that have come before. From wedge shape cars of the 60s and 70s to the Delorean or a classic G wagon. Lots have been made about the subtle forms of a 70s and how crowned surfaces soften the forms and have better resolved details, a human design language, etc. All true. This is NOT that. Rather, the CyberTruck design takes a similar approach using a formal treatment of geometry, facets and surfaces and pushes things to a new (extreme) level.

This is no different than the history and evolution of architectural movements - consider Bauhaus modernism (1920s) influencing Beton Brut "Brutalism" (1950s) in turn influencing Post-Modernism (1960s/80s). One could not exist without the other, but all are different.

If you walk into a Brutalist building and think it's an unfinished Modernist design because the walls are concrete, you are missing the point.

If the CyberTruck has surfaces, forms and details that were resolved the same as a 1970's wedge car, it would be a 1970s design pastiche, not something new. Last thing we need is a PT Cruiser but 70s retro design...

2. As little design as possible. #10 on the list of Good Design Principles by design Uber-God Dieter Rams, this is all about focusing on the essentials and removing the non-essentials.

Just look at what happens when you change a few lines to make a more traditional flatbed side profile- an inconsistent and unnecessarily jarring topline that ruins the entire visual and makes the ass look too long.

There are pretty much no lines you could add or take away on the CyberTruck design without substantially changing it, probably for the worse. From the triangle topline to straight as a ruler beltine or trapezoidal front end, the CyberTruck wastes no surfaces.

Yup, those surfaces are flat, and you've maybe heard that slightly crowned surfaces "help the eye visually soften the form" or some other BS. Sure, curves and crowns can be good, but it's not a rule. Your iPhone is flat on the back. Nobody looks at the walls in their house and thinks "these would look better if they were slightly curved"...

The side profile (triangle) is easy to define and memorable. How many car design critiques go on about how the DLO (day light opening) or profile should be memorable, able to be drawn with a single flourish of the pen like a E-Type or other such icon?

Current truck design? It's almost impossible to count the number of surfaces, parts or bits seemingly haphazardly added. All current trucks looks pretty much the same in their excess.

2. Proportion. Proportion is to design what a recipe is to cooking. You can have the best ingredients, but if not mixed correctly in the correct ratio, you end up with a soggy mess.

The proportions of the CyberTruck are well handled. The beltine angle vs. the ground slightly tipped forward to add momentum.

The A/B/C pillars coincide with tire width spacing.

The peak in the roofline is forward from center to add momentum.

The front is flat vertical vs. the rear is angled to accentuate the stability and speed.

The gaps over the wheels are well managed.

Proportion of DLO vs. below the belt line gives strength (visual and physical)

Compare to a traditional/current truck and you can clearly see how a collection of unrelated forms, lines and shapes create an uncohesive whole.

3. Respects for materials. Want to make a designer go insane? Tell him you want to add some stick on fake carbon fiber to your product design. Respecting materials means making materials look like what they are and accepting (and celebrating) the feel, finish and wear of those materials.

The CyberTruck design is stainless steel that is flat break formed and looks like it. The material finish is genuine, unlike all the plastic fake chrome (that tries to look like traditional press formed or hand rolled steel) on a traditional truck, or painted metal, trying to look like painted plastic, that never quite matches. The material finish is natural, paint free. Metal looks like metal and plastic below the belt looks like plastic and glass windows look like glass. I'd also bet this thing would take on an amazing patina over time, as a leather Eames Lounge Chair was intended to have "warm receptive look of a well-used first baseman’s mitt".

4. Design for manufacture. More than respecting materials, great design uses the manufacturing process those materials are suitable for to an advantage. Newness or novelty is not always a factor here. The design is the way it is because of the manufacturing process. The fact that flat pressing is an old technology has nothing to do with it being appropriate. Apple went back 50 years to CNC the unibody Aluminium MacBooks and phones and was able to do something no other manufacturer could do. Nike went back 150 years to knitting/weaving to Flyknit to reinvent the shoe making process and look. Like Flyknit, the manufacturing process of the CyberTruck has not only changed design limits but also impacts price. Less waste, less tooling, and lower prices if Elon is to be believed (that's a big "if" I know).

5. Honesty. The design is what it is. Yup, another Dieter Rams principles of Good Design.

Good Design is Honest. "It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept."

- Dieter Rams

"It's not trying to look more aggressive than it is with slapped on extra chrome and vents and fake skid plates."

-Richard Kuchinsky

Like the Brutalist architecture already mentioned, the CyberTruck is called ugly but is purposeful- it's not an accident a Brutalist building is raw concrete and not an accident the cyber truck looks like it does. A traditional truck however looks so much accidental and the product of design by committee with so many parts and bit. This is no doubt a singular vision. Elon said he was inspired by movies like Blade Runner (they had movie prop vehicles at the launch) and yup, I'd say he nailed it. It looks futuristic because it is.

Good, honest design is also branded design. I don't think there's even a logo on the concept, whereas a Ford F150 has a logo the size of a dinner plate and 100 other logos on it.

6. Design for Market(ing). This design made more buzz in the market than anything recently. My 70 year old father in law had something to say about it. It's got more press than the Ford Mustang E-Tang/Mach-E/iMustang which will probably sell 100x more units than the CyberTruck. Rivian Motors made a nice looking truck with Apple aesthetic and you've probably never heard of it. Bollinger Motors has designed a purpose built electric truck "from the ground up... build[ing] something that didn’t exist." People thought it was too square and geometric and said it looked like it was designed from LEGO. Guess Tesla showed them.

Much has been made about this being an Ford F-150 fighter. Spec for spec comparisons. Tesla even showed a CyberTruck pulling a F-150 up a hill. Here's the thing though, I think this is a "truck" not a Truck. It's not for dairy farmers or steel workers. There's a reason the presentation shows it in a concrete bunker-like urban setting, not like a Ford commercial in a shower of sparks on an oil rig or whatever or hauling a bale of hay across a farm to New Country. 

Traditional truck buyers won't buy a Tesla (they mostly see Tesla drivers as rich Left wing snowflakes I bet), and don't care about the environment (they probably think Climate Change is Fake News). This is not for them. This is a truck that will see as much heavy lifting as the average Range Rover will see off roading. It's a status symbol. It's different to provoke. Pretty much nobody cares if a G wagon can go off road (it can), as long as it looks like it.

What Tesla achieved is the function of a "truck", not a Truck. The function is cultural. It is a symbol of modernism and a "Fuck You" to the auto industry that is stuck in a cycle of everything looking the same.

This is from the same guy that sold a flamethrower and talks enough shit to get banned from talking to prevent stock prices from diving. From a cultural perspective this achieves it's true function 100%. If you drive this you make a pretty clear statement you do things differently and don't give a shit. If you drive a Ford Raptor, you aren't likely hauling gravel, but rather telling people you think you are A-Type and have a small dick.

As mentioned, I don't think it is perfect. I think it should have perhaps been another brand. I think it should have been twice or more the price to match the status it affords. I think the bullet proofing is crazy but then so is the US gun environment where this is even a discussion. I think Musk is kinda bonkers and definitely is high on his own supply.

All that being said as a piece of design, even if not for me, I think it is great. I've been thinking of what I would change, or how I would redline this design and I can't really find much to change that wouldn't change it wholesale. THAT is good design.

Richard Kuchinsky is Owner/Principle of The Directive Collective, an integrated, strategic design consultancy based in Toronto, Canada. He is a Boston Qualifying marathoner, has never driven a truck, and has a 4.5Lb Pomeranian.