Mercedes SLK Aphelios

Mercedes SLK Aphelios was inspired by Ohrid trout, endemic species in Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. Apostol Tnokovski designed this concept car as part of Macedonian Mercedes Design Contest. It’s a futuristic sports car with fluid body design to give you a sense of power and speed in visually stunning vehicle design. You can read this industrial designer explanation in the next paragraph.

Apostol Tnokovski says:

I can say that one of the things that are mostly typical for me is that, as a designer my concepts are organic, often inspired by the richness you can find in the sea world.

While creating this particular concept, I wanted to bring my own personal mark to it by using organic (fluid) forms, but at the same time I wanted to use something that is a part of the Macedonian heritage. After a careful research I decided, as inspiration for my concept to use the quite famous Ohrid trout.

Ohrid trout is one of the endemic species of trout on the Balkans and in Europe. This species of trout can be found only in the Ohrid Lake in Macedonia. Тhe Ohrid trout during daylight is mostly at the depths of the lake, away from the coast line but at night, it comes at the surface of the lake to hunt. There are cases when it comes very closely to the coast line in search of food. The maximum length of the Ohrid trout varies from 25 to 60 cm, and the maximum weight can reach up to 15,8 kg. What this trout makes it special and different from other kinds of trout are the small head, flat body and the very small, stars-like, gray spots all over the body.

There are four types of Ohrid trout:

    Salmo balcanicus
    Salmo lumi
    Salmo aphelios
    Salmo letnica

These four types of Ohrid trout have similar shapes and the only difference between them is in the way they breed.

The reason why I’m mentioning this classification is because I have used one of the Latin names of these types of Ohrid trout for the name of my sports car concept: MERCEDES SLK APHELIOS.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT
After I decided the subject on which my Mercedes SLK Aphelios concept is going to be based on, I continued to the next phase. That phase consisted on detail sketching, then stylization and simplifying the sketches so I can create a shape that in the end can be developed as a car concept.

SOLUTION
As you read in the text above, MERCEDES SLK APHELIOS is a futuristic, sports car inspired by the Ohrid trout.

What is specific for this concept is that fluid line that gives a sense of power and speed and in combination with the matte silver color it is clear visual sense of the subject of inspiration. Another specific for this concept but at the same time, for all of my other car concepts as well is that huge glass surface that begins with the front windshield over the roof top till the back windshield. The purpose of this huge glass surface is to enable the passengers a complete visual interaction with the surroundings.

Designer : Apostol Tnokovski