We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer about their original and creative design work. is an award-winning creative designer, that makes our world a better place with their original works.
("") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work . Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
: The Fastback presents a new electric guitar concept based on a new design language inspired by the shapes of a Ferrari. Form and function united in a lightweight, ergonomic and balanced body sculpted through elegant lines and athletic shapes with sense of flow and speed. Enough innovative to reach new horizons but enough conservative to be welcomed by the global guitarist taste, a new concept projected to the future without loosing its classical roots.
: I wanted to achieve the most beautiful guitar that I could realize but taking always care of maintaining it behind the "Most Advanced Yet Acceptable line". It needed a continuous effort in order to push the limits to reach a new sculpted design language but without loosing the essence of a canonic electric guitar. But also I wanted to achieve a guitar that could be manufactured in a medium production at reasonable cost in order to meet al the requirements needed for a commercial success.
: The Fastback has started its commercialization in www.davidfloresguitars.com and I'm actually developing a semi-hollow evolution of this model.
: The project toke approximately six months from the first sketches to the final result. Anyway, I would say that it toke all my life, because I could not realize it without all my experience collected till today.
: I pursuit my own inspiration. It was done as a particular challenge in the way to design, build and play the best electric guitar that I could do, the guitar of my dreams.
: I'm producing the guitar myself.
: In this work converged three of my main passions and skills: engineering, design and guitar playing. But also was an inquietude about reaching a new design language with sculpted shapes with sense of flow an speed, which I find really beautiful and innovative.
: The target customers for this product are experimented guitarists, coleccionists and amateur guitarists searching the guitar of their dreams. All of them normally own high quality guitars but..for different reasons, also desire a really different and exclusive one, with a completely new design and high level of exclusivity, beauty and artistic value.
: Beyond its lightness and sound quality, it has a new fluid and sculpted design language that gives it a unique identity and a powerful presence.
: The automotive inspiration has been essential in the creation process of this guitar and has provided sculpted dinamic shapes built through energy lines that converge at the rear part of the body. The name Fastback is normally used for sport cars with a clean and aerodinamic rear coupé shape, what clearly simbolyzes the essence of this guitar and sounds preety good, so I thought that was a perfect name for it.
: The design started from concept sketches on a blank paper and continued with Photoshop, complete Autodesk Alias CAD modeling, rendering with Autodesk Showcase and fabrication with a CNC machine.
: Its sculpted body through elegant lines and athletic shapes with sense of flow and speed. And the fact that besides being ergonomic, lightweight and comfortable to play, it is innovative enough to reach new horizons and conservative enough to be welcomed by the varied tastes of guitarists around the world.
: Yes, I collaborated closely with Miguel Botrán and Alejandro Barna. Miguel Botrán is expert working with CNC machines and he has worked hard and highly motivated manufacturing this guitar. Alejandro Barna is a professional luthier and he has worked on the guitar painting, polishing and final adjustment. Without their talent, this project would have been impossible.
: I would say that it has been absolutely essential. This guitar has been designed through a 3D software and manufactured by a CNC machine and I think that it could not have been done without this quality and precision in any other way.
: This project implied a deep research in the electric guitar engineering techniques in order to obtain high quality standards in sound, ergonomics and playability, but also in the search of a new electric guitar design which could be manufactured in a medium production at reasonable cost and become a commercial success in terms of guitarist taste aceptation. My previous experience developing electric guitars provided a solid background in both senses.
: The global taste of the electric guitar world is quite conservative so the first challenge was to reach new horizons with a really new, attractive and lightweight design but taking always care of maintaining it behind the "Most Advanced Yet Acceptable line". The next challenge was a hard and long CAD surface modelling work with lots of concept variations to develop its complex surfaces and all the engineering details, which was followed by a careful cnc and handmade manufacturing process.
: Because it is always a pleasure to challenge at the highest level and I considered that this guitar was able to do it.
: A project like this, which involves a complete creation process, always makes you improve yourself in many different skills. Nevertheless, principally I learned a lot about electric guitars design and manufacturing but also about guitarist tastes and many other important considerations for a real commercial launch.
