Their trip towing the trailers home to the NDA studios in San Diego harkened back to the days of caravanning and proved to be the most authentic brand immersion Thompson could ask for. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a project for a full-sized pickup truck, another company’s golf clubs, or an airline interior, you almost have to become a method actor and pretend like you’re that person you’re designing for. The best way to do that is to get out there and get with that audience,” he says. Because the majority of the team had never slept in a trailer before, let alone towed one, the trip was an essential educational step in the design process. Without experiencing the challenges that cohabitation in a confined mobile unit with a lot of gear presents, it would have been impossible for them to develop a design that delivered on its promise of extreme functionality. But by the time they reached California, they had an intimate understanding of the rigors of trailer living and could begin devising fresh and innovative solutions to age-old challenges.

REVISING THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
Airstream’s two-fold vision for the new trailer set its sights on an untapped market. The broad strokes outlined a low-cost, lightweight, entry-level trailer that would appeal to a youthful audience. More specifically, they wanted to target a design-minded urban crowd, the primary buyer of the revolutionary International CCD trailer that Airstream debuted in 2001. The CCD maintained the traditional Airstream exterior shell design, but featured a high-end, ultra-modern interior designed by award-winning architect and designer Christopher C. Deam. The response to this unique trailer was so positive that by 2004 it accounted for 40 percent of Airstream’s sales. This attention to high design was the clear differentiating factor in the market and the team at Airstream knew it was a strategy they should utilize again. Bob Wheeler, current president of Airstream, recalls their initial vision for BaseCamp: “We felt the product had to have tremendous sex appeal, that it visually had to strike you as a must-have product the first time you laid eyes on it, so we knew that design was key to its ultimate success.”

The plan, however, was not without its hurdles. The inherent challenge of achieving such conflicting goals—maintaining Airstream’s identity while developing a racy, new, low-cost design— required a substantial change in thinking. There are two things that have always defined the Airstream look: the “cigar” shape, and the material (aluminum and rivets). By selecting new material and forgoing the classic shape, they were able to reduce costs as well as open up possibilities for the design.

Airstream provided the NDA team with a product brief that outlined fairly general parameters and then joined the team for a “mind map” session in San Diego. This freeform brainstorming exercise allowed everyone involved to toss out “sky’s the limit” ideas. During this session they also broke down the brand to its core positive and negative attributes, noting that Airstream is a well-known iconic brand, but that most people don’t know it’s a modern brand still being produced. To counter this, they needed to create a distinctly contemporary product, which they further defined as being a bare-bones unit, like a backpack on wheels for those seeking a more authentic camping experience—think Swiss Army Knife.

With the project clearly outlined, the team developed a wide range of compelling sketches, but it was a very simple side view done by Steve Moneypenny that everyone from both Airstream and NDA gravitated toward. The design had maintained the trademark simplistic exterior in a modern, elegant, yet rugged manner. When asked if the sleek, almost futuristic sensibilities were something Airstream expected, Wheeler responded, “That was a happy surprise. That’s where the car guys really took over … big wheels, aggressive stance, that’s kind of how car guys dream, but typically by the time a car gets to production it’s toned way down. This product reflected a lot of that aggressive design and we really tried to maintain as much of that as was humanly possible.”