Happy Easter all you Fetishers.  Car Fetishers that is.  Are you looking for something to do while with the family?  Go build an Easter Peep Twinkie Car.  I love destroying Peeps (don’t ask) so when you finish your new ride, warm up the engine by putting it in the microwave.  You will see amazing things….

So it is took awhile but the gallery is finally uploaded with all the pics from this years Autorama. This was the first year that I attended and was not overly impressed. Don’t get me wrong the high end show cars were beautifully done, there just were not as many as I thought there would be. Majority of the show had car clubs showing their rides which were nice but nothing special. Somehow I did not have a chance to go downstairs which is where my favorite car types were held - the Rat Rods. It was nice seeing “summer” show cars during a winter storm in Detroit. Although, now I am even more eager for summer to get here. Anyway, check out the gallery to see some hotness from the show.

Are you ever looking for automotive brand logos and clean car pics?  Cartype is a site that has tons of high res images of logos from what has to be every brand.  There are also a lot of write ups and images that we have never seen before.  The site is clean, simple and easy to navigate and we appreciate that there is an “Ugly” car category.  This is a great place to go for those images you need for presentation boards.

Thanks for the link Candice!

Graphic design is a huge part of any design project.  Whether it is a logo for a new product or a layout for a presentation, graphics are something we need to stay on top of.  Here is an article about Grunge design from the website Smashing Magazine.  SM is a site focusing on web design, trends, inspiration, and how-to’s.  They even give links to images and fonts that are hot right now.

Shiny and glossy design elements are now officially outdated. Just like retro is becoming trendy again, grungy look appears to rapidly gain on popularity. And there is a damn good reason behind it. In our everyday environment we’re unlikely to find ideal geometric forms or pretty shadow effects as they are manifested by glorious Web 2.0-designs. The reality is different, and Web is definitely not an exception here.

This isn’t the grunge from a decade ago. The clothes are clean but a little worn. Meaning, graphics that look real (torn paper, yellowed tape, aged) mixed with clean text. Almost like a digital bulletin board or scrapbook.

Check out the rest of the article here.

If you are like us the whole anticipation of these muscle cars is getting old. We have seen them for years with no changes and they still are not on the road. I would say that it is already time for a redesign but this one hasn’t changed since the ’70’s. On another note, I was able to spend a few minutes with a salt covered Dodge Challenger SRT8 and check it out a little more closely.

Here is what I found… Read more

We’ve kept our eyes on the Geneva Motor Show for upcoming trends, as we’re sure to find vehicles that we want (but know we can’t get in the US). One vehicle concept that caught our eye is the Opel Meriva. This is the second concept crafted in the new Opel design language, and if history proves right this will undoubtedly become the US’ Saturn design language as well. Watch the video of GM Chief of Design Ed Welburn explaining the Meriva, and read on for our crit.

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After many comments to a question we raised earlier, here are the results. Are you reading OEM’s?

Here is what needs to go……

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Nissan to Tennesee, Volvo to New Jersey and now Chrysler back to Auburn Hills.  They must be getting too much sun out in Cali.  Somehow the most inspirational place for auto design just isn’t cutting it.  In the forever race to save money one house is cheaper than two.

Chrysler has had a lot of success with designs from the Pacifica studio.   Unfortunately most never made it to production and probably never will.  Cars like the Nassau, Hornet, Treo, Razor, Akino, and the good Compass came from that studio.

Chrysler had a good routine of sending their designers to Cali for a six month breath of fresh air.  Every designer loved going out there and said it was crucial to their inspiration.  It gets tough being couped up in a dark room during a Michigan winter where your manager tells you to be creative.

Will the Pacifica designers buy some snow boots and move to Michigan?  I doubt it.  Which means Chrysler will lose some hugely talented designers.  Auburn Hills is already losing great designers due to the eighty hour work weeks.  What do you get for eighty hours?  Upper management squashing anything good because of a couple pennies.  An employee can only take that for so long.

Designers are very passionate about their work and will stay long hours to achieve their goal.  Companies should not take advantage of this, but instead embrace and praise their hard work and dedication.

So what is next for Chrysler?  They are hacking away their dead weight in products, consolidating studios and currently have some of the worst rated vehicles out there.  There is talk of co-developing with companies in India and China, or will Cerberus just sell of the brands and try to make something off the sinking ship they bought?

Let us know what you think.  What will they do or what do you want them to do?

Since the recent announcement that the H2 is on its way out, I thought it would be a good time to show what is in Hummer’s future. We have already seen the HX in Detroit, but here is a link to a video showing more of the details that were never really shown. Get past the overplayed “designers out of school speech” and look the images. This is a great concept and hopefully we will see it through to fruition.

Hummer HX VIDEO Link

Renault has a great ability to design beautiful cars without all the fluff and unnecessary designer dodads. Mazda has been trying this whole Nagare (flow) theme and a lot of people think all the wavy lines are useless and have no function. Renault pulls off the fluid theme without all the BS. Here is another great Renault concept.

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