The web WOTW this week is none other than DesignerTechniques.com, the website devoted to sketching, modeling, and well, techniques Designers need to have.  While it hasn’t been updated since April, the site is still a valuable asset to Designers, featuring sketching & modeling tutorials, downloads, interviews with Designers, and more.  Especially helpful is the litter of step-by-step tutorials on sketching.  Take a look, and bask in the techniquey-ness of it all.

ZAP, proud owners of once-dead brand Detroit Electric automobile company, have been criticized in the past for showing only model renders and sketches of their upcoming Alias production “electric car”.

Well, a local Ohio NBC affiliate managed to snag an interview and actual video of the prototype in a fancy “electric green” color scheme (probably to match their “green-ness”).  Video includes a few different views of the motorless proto.  While the vehicle is polarizing, it certainly has some Design merit to it.

Click the image to play.

You know, it can be pretty darn difficult to find non-trademarked photos of clay models on the web.  Thank you google and iStock for helping me finally find ONE that I could use.  Regardless, we have a neat little bit of info for those students & professionals who have a spare clay model sitting around in their homes in Detroit.

ABC, the network that brought me my favorite Thursday show LOST (and NOT Grey’s Anatomy), is working on a pilot for an upcoming show based on the goings-on of the auto industry in a family-owned car company.  The show’s producers are looking for clay models of cars to populate scenes.  Your cut is $100 per model as a rental fee.  The show will pick the models up from your home and do all of the transportation… you just tell them where to go and stick out your grubby little palm for the cash.

For more info, contact Beth Marmarelli at the College for Creative Studies at bmarmarelli [at] collegeforcreativestudies [dot] edu

We’ll be expecting a cut of your $100 now.

Complete the following phrase:

Harley Earl is to things that go fast, as James Dyson is to _______.

If you said “things that suck,” then you’re right!  James Dyson is the master of vacuum cleaners.  World famous for his creations, the CEO/inventor is known for bringing about a renaissance of vacuum design, incorporating new materials, cleaning methods, and business models into our everyday, typical Hoovers.

Recently, Dyson also purportedly threw his hat into the electric-car ring, discussing his intentions to create a vacuum motor powerful enough for an electric vehicle.  Those British inventors…  always thinking!

On a recent trip out to Dyson labs, Crunchgear.com had the satisfaction of witnessing Dyson show-off how he tests the durability of their products… by throwing around a vacuum until all the good bits are hanging out, and then proceeding to actually get it to work.

Watch the video, and check out Crunchgear’s journey into his mind.

[EDIT:  Fixed a few of the facts.  Thanks, internet, for your wonderful incorrectness.]

Move over Nalgene.  There is a new bottle in town.  We all know that it is bad for the environment to throw away all those empty water bottles, but we do it anyway.  We don’t want to have to lug around a cumbersome unattractive water bottle all day.  Until maybe now.

The Kor One Hydration Vessel is a sleek stylish vessel made of BPA free Eastman Tritan providing a truly healthy water container.  The hinged cap is a one handed operation and gets rid of the cap/ tether strap design or the loss of the cap in general.  I thought my new Camelbak water bottle was cool but this blows it out of the water (or the water out of the bottle…).  The only downfall is that it will retail come August for 30 bones.  At first I think oh,ok, but then I realize it’s $30 for a water bottle.  Of course once I see one I will still probably buy it.  How about you?  Would you fork over $30 for one?

Check out the pics below of this trendy hotness…. Read more

A couple weeks ago, we came across this article in the HBR, penned by IDEO’s Tim Brown, detailing the positive influence of Design in a company’s product development process.  It’s a fantastic read, worthy of your lunch-time attention, that puts into perspective what we as designers do, our value, and our inherent need to adapt and influence.

Here’s a snippet… read on for the full article.

Harvard Business Review

Design Thinking

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes-and even strategy.

by Tim Brown

Read more

2 comments

This week, Alfa took the wraps off of its highly-anticipated production car, the Me Too MiTo.  How does this little baby stack up to competition from Mini and the Fiat 500?

First and foremost, the vehicle  won’t be overly powerful.  While a 6-speed manual will be a fun necessity that the vehicle brings, it will only come at 78-, 120-, and 155-hp variety of engines.  Hey, it’s a small car… not a racer.

How do the aesthetics hold up?  Read on for the full crit…

Read more

Ah, Wednesdays Thursdays.  The perfect day smack dab in the middl(ish) of the week, designed to let you unwind from the manic Mondays and terrible Tuesdays of corporate life before you begin to snowball towards the weekend.  And what better way to celebrate than to visit this week’s WOTW, Serious Wheels.

If you, like us, love automobiles from every era possible than you are always looking for images of the 4-wheeled machines, whether for reference or for artwork to hang on a wall (or a desktop).  Serious Wheels comes to the rescue with some of the most stunning images of automobiles that you can find, from classics to new debuts.  Now couple that with videos, classifieds, and some auto news and you have enough virtual eye candy to occupy an entire afternoon.  And the best part is that its all free, so hunting for images won’t cost you a penny.

Although the site is a little difficult to get around at times (and definitely not the prettiest site out there) it is a gold mine for images.  Check them out at SeriousWheels.com

I know what you’re thinking:  You’ve used this header WAY too much these last two weeks, Mr CarDesignFetish-writer-guy.

Well, as goes my free time at lunch, so do my blogging & news propoganda writing efforts.

Local Motors’ latest competition is wrapping up in a few short days.   And, with the plethora of truly cool, well-though out concepts entered into it, it’s a value to all the entrants that you look them over and give them a rating (and a comment or two) to help the designs and designers grow and be defined.  This competition had an incredible 51 entries, all with a virtual ton of work put into them.

Take a look, pass on some wise comments, and if you live in the Miami area, pick out the car of your dreams.

Local-Motors.com

Just like in any great night club, it’s officially last call for alllllllll your designs for the second LM design competition, the Miami sports car.  If you haven’t uploaded, do so now.  The deadline is 11:59 PM TOMORROW (June 17th), but I wouldn’t wait that late.  Knowing the wonderful internetz, it’ll probably be a very slow go as all of us last-seconders will be uploading at once, thoroughly clogging the tubes to Local Motors’ site.

Get it in early, folks!

Visit Local Motors’ competition page HERE.

[Correction: Our dates were off.  TOMORROW is the 17th, not today.  You just got yourself and extra day, Mister!]