This should really be entitled motorcycle REdesign, as the design concept was based upon the 1982 Suzuki Katana.I've owned several of these bikes - two 750s and one 1100 and have always been captivated by their aggressive design. When they first came out, there was quite literally NOTHING like them. Above, a marker rendering done at the outset of the project. This project was done while I was attending the Royal College of Art in 2004.
The initial sketch for this project - I'm surprised I have this, as I saved almost none of the sketches I did for this project. I was living in England at the time and moved to Germany afterward, and most of my sketches were trashed before the move. I'm very bad at archiving...
A couple more miscellaneous sketches that survived. These were early in the process, and bear little resemblance to the final model, which follows;
A 1/3 scale hard styling clay model. I did this model as a practice for my thesis model, but - as it tuned out, I ended up doing a hard model for my thesis project. In the end, I was rushing this to clear the decks for my dissertation and thesis research and development, and you can see this in the under-developed front forks, the lack of handlebars and the simple wheels.
The same model, shot from a low rear angle. Ideally, I had wanted to expose some of the engine as I thought it was critical to the design concept, but there was no time for that amount of detail, so it got faired in.
Some of my colleagues suggested that my design was looking somewhat "rooster-like". Early in the modelling stage I arrived in the studio one morning to find that these modifications had been done to my model after I left the previous night... I especially liked the little feet.
...and a final digital rendering of the project.
