Being born the first son of sportscar company founder Ferry Porsche F.A. Porsche was nearly destined to be involved in the development of cars. His grandfather and his father were engineers, but he got more involved into working out the looks of a product. He never thought of himself as an artist like a designer could be considered, but more as a technically talented craftsman in shaping.[citation needed]
Ferdinand Alexander also shaped another important car, the Porsche 904. He states the 904 was his favorite work for Porsche. Its bodyshell was made of fibreglass-reinforced resin at the aircraft company Heinkel. The car was to be approved by racing homologation officers until a set date in order to attend the same year's racing season. Thus the development team was under extreme time pressure. F.A. likes the design of the 904 best as there was no time for anyone to demand or initiate changes, so it is his most original draft.
As the company grew the product categories diversified. There are three possibilities how designs made by Porsche Design can appear: the Porsche Design brand products made exclusively for Porsche Design, products bearing the manufacturer's name and the writing 'Design by F.A. Porsche' and products with no hint of Porsche Design at all. Porsche Design came up with several bathroom designs, a washing machine, furniture, knives, TVs, desk lamps e.g. one with 3 telescopic radio antennas attaching the light bulb holder to the base and one employing design aspects of a guillotine in its pull-out mechanism, tobacco pipes with air-cooled-engine-inspired cooling fins, pens made out of wire-cloth used in oil hoses for racing engines, computer monitors, computer external hard drives, coffee makers, and even a grand piano for an Austrian manufacturer Bösendorfer. The Design by F.A. Porsche mark is no more used, with the exception of the professional kitchen knives of CHROMA Cnife.
The formerly completely private owned Porsche Design company belongs in the meantime to a cooperation company between F.A. Porsche and the Dr.-Ing. hc F. Porsche AG of which F.A. holds roughly 13%. F.A. Porsche retired in 2005 due to his state of health. He was given the title honorary chairman of the supervisory board, a title that was originally invented for his father when he retired.
