The concept name was coined when Don Sondys, one of the digital modelers working on the project, suggested the trailer be a “base camp,” a place to come back to and recharge for the next adventure.
It’s quite remarkable that two very distinct
companies with well-established brands were
both able to achieve what they wanted and
leave the project with nothing but complete respect
for each other, but perhaps the companies
share deeper roots than what appears on
the surface. In 1959, Yutaka Katayama, USA
president of Nissan, espoused his philosophy:
“Love cars, love people, love life.” Byam had a
similar creed: “See more, do more, live more.”
Whether it’s coincidence or some type of cosmic
connection, the NDA/Airstream love child
is like a little thoroughbred: beautiful, light on
its feet, and of solid stock.
Thompson reflects, “That’s the kind of thing that I really loved
about this project. You’ve got this company like Airstream that’s
very iconic and they’ve got these radius corners and pill-shaped trailers.
Then you’ve got a company like Nissan with very broad planes,
strong bold statements, and fender flairs on all the cars. When you
blend that, that’s where the new aesthetic comes. You can pick the
trailer apart and see who its parents are.”
On the way across country, Anke Mazzei, one of the NDA color and materials designers, woke to see that the reflection of her green sleeping bag in the interior had turned the trailer shell green in the early morning sunlight. Reflectivity not only became an important design concept for the project, but it inspired other Nissan projects the team was working on at the time.
A SHINY ROAD AHEAD
The initial reaction in the market has been overwhelmingly positive.
Some people respond to the shape and are even more excited
when they find out it is an Airstream. Others recognize it as an
Airstream and love the new shape. It’s an extremely different
product from anything Airstream has made in the last 70 years
and has opened up consumers minds to new possibilities for the
brand, which include a BaseCamp line extension. Wheeler is a
critical driving force behind this new vision and is not only open
to new ideas, he’s hungry for them. “I just have tremendous, overwhelming
optimism about the future of the company. And the
product ideas, that’s what really gets me gassed. They’re just waiting
there for us to take advantage of, and we have the freedom, and
also the responsibility, to pursue bold designs.”
Airstream is a brand you have to feel a connection with even
if you’ve never set foot in one. There’s something about it that’s
appealing on a base level. Maybe it’s the soft form, maybe it’s the
shiny exterior, perhaps it’s the fact that it’s always been around.
Whatever it is, designers are like moths to the light: Airstream
receives proposals from respected designers on a regular basis,
which Wheeler refers to as an “embarrassment of riches.”
AIRSTREAM’S attention to branding touches everything they do. WANDERLUST, their 75th anniversary book, features a genuine aluminum riveted cover.
But with that luxury comes the responsibility
of keeping true to one’s self and selecting
only the projects that enhance, rather than dilute
the brand. “We had a vision for a product
that we knew probably wouldn’t appeal to the
purists, but our average customer is 60 years
old and we know that’s not a sustainable strategy.
If you ask that group of customers what
they want in a trailer, you won’t get a Base-
Camp. You have to start with a vision and a
much younger customer in mind and kind of
throw caution to the wind, and that’s what we
did. … To keep the brand relevant we have to
take these chances, we have to push, and we’ll
know when we’ve pushed too far,” he says.
Airstreams are today, as they have always
been, one-of-a-kind works of art that are made
by hand. With only five major body changes in
the company’s history—excluding BaseCamp—
and 68 percent of all Airstreams built still on
the road, it’s clear that Byam’s time-honored
philosophy was prophetic.
AIRSTREAM, INC. | www.airstream.com
BRYAN THOMPSON | www.bryanthompsondesign.com
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