Design
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Nissan and Marc Ecko have joined forces to release fully customized versions of the Japanese car maker’s Pathfinder and Armada SUVs. Revealed recently at New York's Splashlight Studios, the first of the two vehicles, the Pathfinder, follows the lines of ecko unltd.'s street-smart theme, featuring smoothed wheel wells, a modified grille and a custom black and grey camouflage paint job. The interior includes seamless black leather, moulded wood backs and a glossy, safety orange centre console. The Armada adopts the Marc Ecko Cut & Sew design theme, retaining much of the original...
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Predicting tomorrow's most popular car colors
Selecting the next big thing in car paint schemes is a difficult task that companies like color specialist PPG Industries Inc spend a lot of time and money in researching. All areas of design are looked at including fashion, architecture, and consumer goods, as well as experimentation with new...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
RMX-1 becomes automotive art
The creative work of Bangladeshi automotive artist Leepu Awila is more of a design study than anything practical, of most interest is the story of how the car actually came about. The RMX-1 was originally hand sketched on the fly after the designer was inspired by a trip to an aquarium of all...
Kenneth Hall -
L.A. Design Challenge Entries
Eight of the major car manufacturers have entered the third annual Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge, whose goal for this year was to design a new car that meets the environmental challenges of living in L.A. A winner won’t be announced until the end of November at the L.A. motor show...
Ralph Hanson -
Bertone Inducted Into The Automotive Hall Of Fame
Legendary automobile designer Nuccio Bertone, who completed designs for the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo, has finally been inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. A commemorative plate with his signature has been placed at the Detroit institute amongst other important auto...
Ralph Hanson -
In car telematics allow cars to communicate with drivers
A car that communicates with you isn’t that far away. We've already reported about Seat’s intelligent León concept that monitors you whilst you’re driving and can even block incoming calls to your mobile if it wants to. Now there’s talk of an in car system that can warn you...
Ralph Hanson -
BusinessWeek has an interview with one of the most controversial men in design today, Adrian van Hooydonk, who heads up BMW’s design divisions along with the infamous Chris Bangle. Despite Bangle’s notoriety for being the man behind BMW’s design revolution, van Hooydonk is just as responsible for coming up with flame surfacing and the erroneously dubbed “Bangle butt.” Some choice quotes include: Consumers always will give an opinion based on what they know—they can say what they like or don't like today. What we're really asking ourselves today is what cars...
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New Superbus may revolutionize public transport
We have been given a glimpse of the future of land transport with the news of the Superbus project. Unlike high-speed trains, the Superbus offers the benefits of travelling at speeds of up to 250km/h but with the flexibility of travelling on existing road networks. The creation of Dutch professor...
Ralph Hanson -
New images of the Sivax Izana design concept
The current crop of Japanese cars offer good value for money and class leading reliability but are often plagued by boring and unimaginative design that pales in comparison to some of their European counterparts. Japanese design office Sivax may change all that if its Izana concept that was...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
No retro designs for Lamborghini
Lamborghini boss Stephan Winkelmann has laid down the claim that any new models from the supercar maker won’t be following any retro cues. Even though the company’s most recent Miura concept (pictured above) that was displayed back in January was based on a car released 40 years ago...
Kenneth Hall -
Sivax Izana concept planned for Paris
Japanese design house, Sivax, is planning to debut a new concept car labelled the Izana in the following week at the Paris Motor Show. Back in 2004 the company presented its Xstile concept (pictured below) at the same show and a Kira concept before that. This time round their new car adopts design...
Alex Kaufmann -
LA Design Challenge For Wacky Enviro Cars Is On Again
The LA Auto Show Design Challenge is on again, this time getting designers to transform the future of driving into an environmental experience. The initial challenge comes from Mercedes Benz of North America with their Recy roadster entry, which combines spirited driving with an environmental...
Kenneth Hall -
PSA Peugeot Citroën has given its designers at its ADN (Automotive Network Design) studio in France the challenge of creating new innovative designs by dividing the designers into two competing teams, one for Peugeot and the other for Citroën. Each team will adopt the values and core styling themes of their respective brands, while working in four separate studios at the ADN. The success of the competitive design method is evident in the 30 plus designs that have been previously completed. PSA commissioned architect Jacques Renault to develop a building that could provide its...
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The future of McLaren supercar design?
McLaren Automotive in collaboration with students from the Istituto Europeo di Design School in Turin, Italy, has developed a “dream project” range of models depicting the supercars of tomorrow. A total 39 students participated to help produce several 1:4 scale sized models of...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Subaru’s getting a facelift
Subaru’s risky gamble with the bold propeller face for its popular Impreza has failed to attract buyers. The heavily criticized model facelift has been slammed by both media and consumers alike and won’t make its way to the upcoming Liberty and Outback models, to be released in...
Ralph Hanson -
New design boss for Land Rover
There has been a changing of the guard over at Land Rover for its design team. After 23 years of service, Design Director, Geoff Upex (right) is to retire. His replacement will be Gerry McGovern (left) who is presently the Advanced Design Director for Land Rover. Upex will still oversee much of the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Bullet proof Bentley - the ultimate urban assault vehicle
According to Swiss company Rijck, “Terrorism, crime, kidnapping and carjacking have become a part of daily life worldwide.” In that case, we had all better get an armoured vehicle, just to be safe. Rijck have created an extended version of the Bentley Continental Flying Spur that...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
BMW Z29 Concept Car
BMW has created a design concept to showcase the talents of the German automaker’s current crop of designers. The result is the Z29 concept which is closely related to the Z4 Coupe. Technologies implemented that will probably never make it to production include a lightweight carbon fiber...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Atari has picked the winner of a recent competition to design a car. The adjustable pod car designed by David Sichtermann's is to be included in the next version of the popular computer game series, Test Drive Unlimited. Most of the design buffs that entered were just regular gamers who have never seriously attempted a design project of any kind. It’s easy to see where some entrants got their inspiration from. One entry looks very similar to a Lamborghini Murcielago. For winning, David earned himself $2500 and his pod-racer will be able to race against the likes of Ferrari and Aston...
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Toyota Fights Back With Design
Toyota’s cars have long been the white goods of the auto world, but the automaker's been working hard to change that image. BusinessWeek has done an interview with Tokuo Fukuichi, president of Toyota's European design center, discussing what the Japanese automaker need to do to compete with...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
A look in to the design and development process
Here's a fantastic article that follows the process of developing a car concept from sketch to clay model. The designer is 23 year old Ross McSherry, who creates a 2+2 design for Alfa Romeo. The attention to detail is amazing, with this car being designed around a Maserati Quattroporte steel...
James Martinez