IAA 2011

Mottos, slogans, brand claims and ad lines – on the stands at the 64th IAA international motor show you can read the one or other pithy sentence, and the one or other piece of nonsense. We’ve compiled the best of the best and worst for you.

Crisis, what crisis. At the 64th IAA international motor show, the industry is looking to the future with confidence. So how exactly do the designers think the auto of tomorrow will look? You can get an idea by casting a glance at the trade-fair orchestrations and the latest concept cars.

When developing new models today, existing parameters play the central role: What will be defined by statutory norms and regulations, today and tomorrow? What strategies do manufacturers and their individual brands pursue? Here is a small selection of concepts and studies which were often primarily concerned with changing notions of convenience and usage.

Cruising down the street with your elbow out the car window is a leisurely matter. A gesture that could be read as rebellion, or as communication. Will this youthful stance finally have to take a back seat in an era of fully air-conditioned cars?

In mid-September the 64th IAA, the International Car Show, opens for business in Frankfurt. Alongside new drive technologies, today design is crucial for the success of a new model. So what are the car designers’ preferences and methods? Ten hypotheses on the current state of play.

Traffic in China is steadily on the increase. Naturally, you find cars, mopeds and buses there, too but everything works just a little differently. Car hooters sound like house buzzers, for example and taxi drivers cannot read maps.

The international zeitgeist has uncovered Detroit as America's maltreated "motor city": a growing creative scene is bearing witness to the emergence of new visions and an alternative "do-it-yourself movement" for this post-industrial wasteland.