• Home
  • Services
  • CES 2024
  • Blog
  • Newsletter & Podcast
  • About
  • Contact
Menu

StudioPhro*

Lindfield
Lindfield, NSW, 2070
+61416442060
Look up. Look Out. Connect the dots.

Your Custom Text Here

StudioPhro*

  • Home
  • Services
  • CES 2024
  • Blog
  • Newsletter & Podcast
  • About
  • Contact

On Porsche, CarPlay, and the luxury of consistency

August 7, 2023 Drew Smith

The facelifted Porsche Cayenne allows far greater control of the vehicle's hardware with Apple's CarPlay interface

As GM looks to evict Apple from its instrument panels, Porsche is doubling down. Why? I’d argue that it’s a move entirely consistent with Porsche’s brand values.

Read more
In Automotive, Culture, Design Tags Porsche, CarPlay, Customer Experience, User Experience

Cultural lenses on robots, or: why the BMW i Vision Dee freaks some of us out

January 16, 2023 Drew Smith

In the headlong rush to integrate virtual personal assistants in to cars, Eastern history holds some valuable lessons to smooth their adoption in the West.

Read more
In Automotive, Culture Tags BMW, i Vision Dee, Artificial Inteligence, Robotics, Krakuri, Shinto, Animism
Comment

A social theory for why the Mercedes performance subscription will probably fail

December 7, 2022 Drew Smith

A Mercedes-Benz EQS. Image: Mercedes-Benz.

As car makers try to increase margin through subscription services, social networks offer some clues as to how they might succeed.

Read more
In Automotive, Culture, Design
Comment

Colours for the best of times, and the worst of times

December 7, 2022 Drew Smith

Why are people going crazy for flat-coloured cars? I’ve long had a theory that tries to explain this, one that hinges on our fears and our hopes.

Read more
In Automotive, Culture, Design Tags Colour, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo, Citroen, Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, Pastel, Putty, Grant McCracken, Thunderbird, New Beetle, XC40
Comment

On "resilience"

November 25, 2022 Drew Smith

As we move from pandemic to financial downturn to extinction event, organisations will increasingly call on individuals to be more “resilient”. Beware.

Read more
In Culture, Design Tags Resilience, Organisational Psychology

The Gothenburg aesthetic

October 6, 2022 Drew Smith

Vallgatan 12, a fashion and homewares emporium in Gothenburg, Sweden

As designers, we can’t help but be influenced by our surroundings. That’s why it’s so important to change them up every now and then.

Read more
In Culture, Design Tags Gothenburg, Millennial, Interior Design
Comment

Citröen's oli shouts Enough!

September 30, 2022 Drew Smith

In May, I sent out a prayer for an OEM to buck the bigger battery-is-better trend. Citroen’s answered my plea.

Read more
In Automotive, Culture, Design Tags Citroen, Sustainability, EV
Comment

100 Ways to Leave Your Employer

September 17, 2022 Drew Smith

A big part of a strategist’s job is about looking for shifts suggest and new future, and the signals that show it unfolding. This magazine is one of those signals.

Read more
In Culture Tags Work
Comment

On Severance and the automotive industry

July 8, 2022 Drew Smith

Which way do we want to go? A scene from Severance, on Apple TV+

Severance is an allegory for how we try and fail to separate our work lives from our home lives. It’s also an allegory for the danger of keeping ourselves separate from the world we depend on.

Read more
In Culture, Automotive Tags Severance, Isolation, Connection, Cities, Innovation, Mindset

Making sense of restomods

July 6, 2022 Drew Smith

In a world in which the character of cars is under threat, restomods offer brands the chance to keep their weird and wonderful histories front of mind.

Read more
In Culture, Automotive, Design Tags Range Rover, Prodrive, Lancia, Porsche, Singer, Delta Integrale, 928, 911, Citroen, Grant McCracken, Imprezza, Subaru
Comment
Older Posts →

d.smith@studiophro.com | Schedule a call