.

BRIEF

OZ is looking for an after-market wheel, a substitute product which is sold and installed at tyre shops and specialised centres in place of the original wheels provided by the car makers in their own catalogues.
The wheel will be realised with a light aluminium alloy with heat treatment, it will be obtained with low-pressure casting technology and subsequent cnc machining.
It should embody the RACING DNA of OZ, conveying all the aggressiveness and strength of the brand, highlighting how the lightness, quality and attention to detail are key elements for the products of excellence by OZ.
The target consumer for the wheel is made up of men, aged between 18 and 40 years with a mid-high spending power.

STRATEGY

If we consider current alloy wheel design, we have to make a distinction between the side view and the cross section of the wheel.
Usually wheel design works with side views and tries to impress people with lots of manipulated alloy in all kinds of configurations and shapes. There is an end to this approach however, as all available designs look more or less the same these days.
From this approach we deviated and tried to follow a new strategy:
The frontal side view is made as open as possible by thin spokes and is becoming impressive by allowing deeper views onto the brake disc system.
As a result the spokes between center and rim will develop further in depth into blades, in the cross section of the wheel.
The perspective views onto car body and wheels will get more impressive street credibility because of the contrast between minimalistic frontal side view and more complex and intriguing perspective views.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

We have applied five design principles:
1. frontal side view: Five spokes (blades) are as thin as possible in frontal side view.
2. flange: The center (flange) is pushed back behind the blades and there is no hub cap.
3. blades: All design effort goes into the five blades that connect the center to the rim.
The blades are as thin as possible from the frontal wheel view.
4. OZ logo: The OZ logo is applied to the deep rim, like the decals onto race bicycle wheels.
The logo is cast on top of the rim surface and repeated five times between the five blades. The logos all look different because of a difference in reflections.
5. finishing: The hub has to stay in the back and is finished in dark anthracite color. The rim has a matt alloy surface.
The blades and logos are polished and as shiny as possible. This will give an impressive effect even when the wheels are not spinning.