David Bowie has been an inspiration for generations of creatives and we’ve seen tribute art and design pieces in many different forms to honour the last musician. However, this is the very first time we see it as a concept car displayed at Exposition Concept Car in Paris from 31 January to 3 February.

“A Portrait of db” was first conceived in 1997  by automotive designer Takumi Yamamoto  who is a huge Bowie fan and best known for designing the exterior of  GT by Citroën for Gran Turismo 5 around 10 years ago. He was not a designer yet when he saw a poster of Bowie with the initials “db” before he developed a concept car for the singer. He kept building onto the concept, and when he became an independent designer in 2016 he started preparing a presentation to Bowie. Sadly the singer passed away in the first month of 2016 and what could be a potential collaborative project resurfaced as a tribute car.

Yamamoto reunited with former colleague and 3D and industrial designer Cyrille Ancely, who was amazed by Yamamoto’s idea of transforming a person’s attributes into a car. With CGI artist and industrial designer Alexandre Larnac coming on board and turned the sketches into rendering, it caught the eye of  the organisers of the Exposition Concept Car, and “A Portrait of db” is 3D-printed as a full-scale sculpture with sponsorship from  Marie 3D. The two sides on the car look different with angular facets and that connect to the ever-changing, fierce presence of Bowie on stage.