Air Luxury, Redefined

> Good Design 2006
> iF Award winner 2007

Design Challenge: Embraer, one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, charged us to reinvent the Executive Jet. Specifically, to reinvigorate the Light Jet market that serves leasing and air taxi clients and private owners with two luxurious yet value-oriented, nimble aircraft: the Phenom 100, a 4-seater, and the 6-seater Phenom 300. As we saw it, the main challenge would be to create a premium caliber jet that would reflect and refract the current climate of "Nu Luxury."

Design Solution: Be gone, gold and glossy burled wood! Farewell, fluffy carpet and spangly lights! New values of space, time, connectivity, simplicity, knowledge, and authenticity have replaced the old values of opulence, hierarchy and symbolism. Our process was at once protracted and accelerated, dense and compact as a jet trip itself: we built a full-size foam core mockup and simulated every aspect of a pilot's and a passenger's flight experience.

We designed away, in the strictest sense—what was necessary stayed, what wasn't necessary went, until we were left with two jets that embodied the design principles of Nu Luxury. The impression of the final product achieves spectacle through spareness: clean, simple, elegant lines create a feeling of lightness, serenity, space, and security. Even the details bespeak sophisticated refinement, visible in the seamless ergonomic sensibility revealed in the credenza (that you don’t have to open to use), the seat-to-window positioning (higher windows for a more open feeling), recessed cup holders (that articulate up with elegance), and asymmetrical headrests (so you can tilt your head and stay comfortable. Each quadrant of the passenger cabin becomes the aesthetic ownership of the passenger, seamless and sublime. Recognizing that many owners want to be in the driver's seat, the flight deck is integrated harmoniously with the rear cabin's aura of tranquility and laid out with maximum clarity of usefulness and display