Etienne Salomé

After working for 12 years on the design of Bugatti Automobiles, Berlin-based Etienne Salomé decided to create his own company: ‘Salome Yachts and Design’, He officially launched with his team the ‘Atlantic Project’ in September 2019 during the Monaco Yacht Show, a 12 meter sport tender, immediately recognisable on the water, a true head-turner. He keeps one foot in the automotive industry as a consultant for various car manufacturers including the supercar/ hypercar manufacturer Koenigsegg.

“Less but better”

The Bauhaus is a world famous architecture style that was started in 1919, and one of its most important principles is minimalism.

In this movement, artist favoured linear and geometrical forms, avoiding floral or curvilinear shapes, illustrating the principle of form follows function.

The concept of less is more is underlined by the idea of simplicity and effectiveness. Basically, there is no need for additional ornamenting and making things more and more beautiful, they are just fine as they are! I can personally imagine back in 1947 those principles must have been adopted when designing the first ever Land Rover Defender.

This is a real machine, a tool, deprived from any cheap styling. Separating its design from any fashion or trends, and making it totally timeless.

When I started this project in collaboration with Del Gregory at B500X and the Arkonik brand, it was clear we would have to dig back to the essence of this amazing automobile in order to define its future and the guideline of our new design. It was very clear that even though the Defender is a very reduced machine, it still answered some mass production requirements and as we would totally hand craft our limited edition of 5 units only, it allows us even more artistic freedom. b500 magazine

We selected to re imagine the beach cruiser style, and simplified it to the extreme, getting rid of all unnecessary elements : the door openers were first to go, as you can always reach to the interior opener anyway. The fuel filler cap was moved to the loading bay, directly accessible from the rear hatch. These items helped clean the last details of the body side.

The biggest change has taken place at the front of the car, removing all items from the custom front fenders, giving them this naked look from its ancestors.

The headlights are placed in the front grille, which is usually a no go in car design as you want to create maximum width for the car’s proportions, but here the proportions are created by the fenders themselves and not the headlights or day time running lights. The first defender had also its headlight in that position, a little homage to the first Series 1 of 1948 with easily identifiable design cues.

The spare wheel is removed from the front bonnet, and a tailor made system has been engineered to flip the front windscreen and keep it floating horizontally.

All rivets from the body are hidden or removed to create the simplest of all Defenders, a true design statement.

Three basic low back front seats complete the scaled back look, once again for pure functionality and simplicity.

The engine is a V8 Buick 3.9L with a 5 speed manual gearbox, a mechanical experience, with intoxicating sound, while open to the environment.

This Defender will be like no other, strictly limited to 5 units. A narrow body SWB90, handcrafted from the ground up by the experts at Arkonik in Somerset England.