A Three-Year-Old Who Knows Her Porsches

The other day, my mother told me, “I was in the car with ●●(the name of my three-year-old daughter), and she spotted a car diagonally ahead of us and said, ‘Look! A Porsche!’ It didn’t even have a badge on it. How did she know?” I’d written about this before, and at the time I remember thinking, “I know I’m biased, but it’s amazing that my three-year-old can recognize a Porsche.”

When I told my husband about it the other day, he said:

“Porsche really is something else. They’ve created a design you can recognize at a glance.”

…

…

Wait, what? (゜∀。)?

Um…

I was talking about how amazing our daughter is, but my husband took it as an opportunity to praise Porsche. Fair enough—he had a point. So I looked into it a little and came across an interesting explanation.

What Porsche and Anpanman Have in Common

One of the appealing things about the design is how it uses curves and rounded shapes, taking aerodynamic drag into account. The use of circles is also said to make a design feel timeless and appealingly cute from a human-factors perspective. In that respect, its use of circles is similar to what makes Doraemon so appealing.

＊What makes Porsche design so highly regarded? – About Porsche design… – Yahoo! Chiebukuro

I can’t say whether that explanation is right or wrong. But if “lots of circles = Doraemon,” then it stands to reason that “lots of circles = Anpanman,” too. And if Anpanman is a favorite with kids aged one to three, then maybe:

Porsche has the same kind of instant appeal as Anpanman. Just as little kids can pick Anpanman out in a crowd, maybe they can spot a Porsche at a glance, too.

I asked my three-year-old, “Is it because Porsches are round like Anpanman that you can spot them so quickly, ●●?” She answered with complete confidence: “Yes! ヾ(*´∀｀*)ﾉ!”

I wonder if that’s really true.