First to give credit where it's due: The initial 'gesture' was designed by Ed Schowalter in GPJ's Detroit office. We often begin with simple but powerful gestures because they're great at locking into the 'tone' of a brand.  Tone is so important and so often not considered when designing for brands.

Although there were other ideas, this was the gesture we collectively decided to move forward with.  The baton was passed to me (in the LA office at the time) to complete the concept. I took the concept forward from Ed but I had a lot of help along the way (thanks Chris Lambert).  

BTW, the 2nd image is actually the front of the space.  This is what Ed intended...which is much cooler! One walks under the wooden header and into the greater space. I reversed this when I took the concept forward because it allowed more modularity for different venues. It was a compromise but one we needed to make. 

Autoshows are deceptively complex and this one was primarily designed for for NAIAS (Detroit), but required some flexibility to accommodate the NY and LA shows.  It was my last big autoshow before I left GPJ. Coincidentally, Lexus was also my first autoshow exhibit with GPJ way back in 2000 (it’s included in this Behance portfolio).  That one actually got built...unfortunately we lost the bid on this one. 

Oh no, it looks like ‘someone’ saw this project and stole the concept! I've included photos at the back. It’s important to document this concept theft as this sort of thing happens more than most people realize. It's flattering to be copied but it's also disappointing. It places the new client in a difficult position as the idea was probably sold to them as being unique to their brand. Often copies, as in this case, are never fully understood and executed poorly. 

Unfortunately plagiarism is an all too common threat in the design world. Our design was copied without consent. It’s shameful that people think this accomplishes anything worthy of their efforts. 

What damage will it do for the automotive brand that they are promoting? And why would any brand want a ‘borrowed design’? The design of a space must be unique to the brand it promotes. Does it mean the car company doesn’t understand its brand or that it believes stealing ideas is part of their DNA?

These are images from Wave Studios for Yangwang Auto at the 2023 Shanghai International Auto Show.  These were sent to me by someone who was at the show and saw this Behance project.  He said there was a 'high similarity'.  I'll let you be the judge.