Project Description
Chrysler Minivan Taxi Design
One of my earliest assignments after accepting the offer to join the Design Staff at Chrysler was to create a taxi design using one of the company’s minivans. At the time, minivans only had one sliding door on the passenger side. Chrysler was experimenting with adding a second, hinged door to the driver’s side and needed a platform to showcase the idea. Who better to design a livery for a taxi than the new hire from New York City? Wanting to make a mark early, I set about creating a bold, aggressive and fun graphic statement on the side of what was essentially, a box. The images below show the complete process.
From the original rough sketch to the final presentation rendering that sold the program, the design remained intact. One of the challenges was to find a way to execute the side glass graphic design yet allow the passengers to see out. I worked with 3M to develop the screened films that allowed this to happen. Another highlight of the design was the development of the light bar. Taking inspiration from sci-fi movies a full-size prototype was created and fitted to the final, full-size taxi design. The design became quite famous internally and laid the foundation for all the alternative door systems for minivans that were to come.
One of my earliest assignments after accepting the offer to join the Design Staff at Chrysler was to create a taxi design using one of the company’s minivans. At the time, minivans only had one sliding door on the passenger side. Chrysler was experimenting with adding a second, hinged door to the driver’s side and needed a platform to showcase the idea. Who better to design a livery for a taxi than the new hire from New York City? Wanting to make a mark early, I set about creating a bold, aggressive and fun graphic statement on the side of what was essentially, a box. The images below show the complete process.
From the original rough sketch to the final presentation rendering that sold the program, the design remained intact. One of the challenges was to find a way to execute the side glass graphic design yet allow the passengers to see out. I worked with 3M to develop the screened films that allowed this to happen. Another highlight of the design was the development of the light bar. Taking inspiration from sci-fi movies a full-size prototype was created and fitted to the final, full-size taxi design. The design became quite famous internally and laid the foundation for all the alternative door systems for minivans that were to come.
