Behold William Bushnell Stout's vision of the future: The 1936 Stout Scarab. Thought now to be the predecessor of the VW Microbus, it was well ahead of its time, but only a handful exist today. The original production run was short lived due to buyer reticence (think Ford Taurus when it first came out) and Stout's focus on aeronautics during WWII. Borne from that ethic though, his design motto was "Simplicate and Add Lightness". Make it simple and make it fly. There are so many double entendres in that motto to be mined. Make it light - make it joyful. Make it fly - make it cool. It is a sensibility that can be applied as easily to car design as it can to architecture, graphic design, sculpture, even computer programming. It is the pursuit of straightforward and functional elegance.
The Scarab confirms for me that there is such a thing as "utopian design." People had the most fantastical vision of the future back in the 30's. But no matter how far past that period we grow, and with all the technological advancements guiding us towards a more prosperous future, we are no closer to that vision than in the decade when it was envisioned. And rightly so. The perfect vision of the future is perfect because it will never happen, yet it already has. The Scarab looks both futuristic and dated at once. It reminds us of a parallel universe, spurred off in the 1930s and locked now for us in soft focus celluloid memories. A Jetsons vision of the universe where everyone prospers, everyone is loved, and cars fly.
Check out the full article here: A Visionary’s Minivan Arrived Decades Too Soon - New York Times
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