Hebdidge: Images and Things

Dick Hebdidge, Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things

D'Ascanio's Vespa established the pattern for all subsequent scooter designs and its general shape changed little over the years (the headlamp was later moved from the mudguard to the handlebars but this was the only major styling alteration). It combined three innovations-the stub-axles, open frame, and enclosed engine-which were reproduced over the next twenty years by manufacturers in France, Germany and Britain so that, by 1966, one journalist could state authoritatively that “there is hardly a scooter built today which does not incorporate two out of these three distinctive features”. 14 This fixing of the design concept was made possible through the phenomenal sales (by 1960, 1,000,000 Vespas had been sold, and after a slack period in the late 1960s, the oil crisis led to a market revival and in 1980 Piaggio were reported to be producing 450,000 scooters a year (see Guardian, 21 February, 1981)). Domination of the market led to domination of the image: the field was secured so effectively that by the mid-1960s the words “Vespa” and “scooter” were interchangeable in some European languages. (Traffic signs in Paris still stipulate the times when “Vespas” can be parked.)