The car as a sign of the times Headlights for “eyes”, the front grille for a “mouth”, the front for its “face” – and, of course, the car its “body”, with “shoulders” and “hips” traced by the wheel arches. These anthropomorphic similarities are still used today. How did they come about, and why? The first cars were veritable “horseless carriages”, with no specific embellishments. Since the 1930s, the “coachbuilders” (a name that remains to this day) have become experts in metalwork. They beat the sheet metal into shape by hand, directly onto a wooden frame, creating genuinely unique models with rounded, sensual lines that seem to pursue an organic ideal. As industrial production evolved, the forms tended to simplify, because the molding equipment of that time did not allow for as much refinement and three-dimensionality. At one point, in the late 1960s, the two stylistic inspirations noticeably diverged. The difference between an “anthropomorphic car” and the “car of tomorrow” ...