Ah, Ren and Stimpy, good times. Whatever they did became a fun endeavor. If Ren and Stimpy were to be car designers, I think this would be their style. Getting the point across in a fun and playful way while creating a style all their own. This is exactly what Kimberly Wu has done. Her style is probably the freshest take on automotive technique we have seen in quite a while. The blending of automotive rendering and graphic illustration is a “Joy” to look at.

I stumbled on her work while visiting the website NOTCOT who also stumbled on her work and later interviewed her. Here is a excerpt of her comments posted at NOTCOT:

In her own words, here’s what Kimberly had to say when i asked her about her background and the JOY Project: “To answer your questions, I was very interested in illustration, mainly doing a lot of figure and landscape painting, before deciding to go to Art Center for car design. It was a completely different route than I thought I would be taking, but I ended up using my illustration skills towards my style in designing cars. I think my goal was to try to separate myself from the typical way car designers sketch and design-I’m kind of obsessed with color and style in my work. What’s next is to start working! I was lucky to land a position at the Honda Advanced Design studio in old town, Pasadena.

Check more sketches and some design crit after the jump….

Joy. This design does represent its name. It has a whimsical, glad to be here look about it. The design is definitely more out there and represents Kimberly’s Art Center Background of forward thinking aesthetics and great presentation renderings. Overall we dig the vehicle design, but some areas do work better than others. The graphics and overall form are really interesting but some of the proportions look awkward in certain views.

The greenhouse is the only area that really bugs me. It looks massive in side view which could actually be good if you are trying to sell interior space. The thick roof surface lloks huge when compared to the front graphics and surfaces.

The colors all work really well together and relate nicley to the sketches. Monochromatic vehicle and then a splash of color in the graphics.

This is truly inspirational work and a breathe of fresh air that we love to promote here at CDf. It definitley paid of for Kimberly since she is now working at the Honda Advanced Studio. How long till a concept car? Feel free Kimberly to keep us posted on any work. You have a style that we would love to follow and see progress. Don’t let corporate America and clinics dillute your style.

Kimberly does have her own blog that you can visit here.

NOTCOT also has a nice gallery of himages from the Joy project.