Car Design Fetish

Why are well designed cars considered gay vehicles?  “Volkswagen and Audi are two brands that are over-represented by Gay Men in the study and those brands represent 40% of the Top 10 list.”  “All the vehicles on the most-researched list are expressive, stylish vehicles and with the sole exception of the Maserati GranTurismo, all are fuel efficient and come from gay-friendly manufacturers,” added LaMuraglia.  [gaywheels.com]

So I guess it is true that Gay Men do have good taste because designers will agree that VW and Audi design down to the details.  As designers we always walk that fine line when we put product in our hair, wear stylish clothes and drive nice cars.  It is about noticing the details and there is nothing gay about that.  But since I drive a VW, I must be gay.

Congrats to the top 10 cars for offering what other vehicles do not – style, expression and efficiency.  What other vehicles do you think should have made the list?

The way we interact is definitely changing.  Cell phones do everything but make calls anymore and cars have turned into being a  getting to work necessity instead of the Sunday joy ride.

The IPhone has certainly changed the mobile phone market.  It is more about how “I” chose the Apps and customized this into a media device.  Oh and by the way it also makes phone calls.

Could the same be true in automotive marketing?  Is the car no longer about being automotive transportation but more of a device?  The new, well new in the U.S. Nissan Cube is debuting as a “Mobile Device.”

I think this is the beginning of an auto manufacturing finally finding a way to communicate to the younger generation.  The new generation of buyers is not all about horsepower and bling.  They do not want to think about spending money on gas and would rather spend it on tech/ media devices.  They want a place to hang out with their friends and share music, away from the parents.

Stay tuned and lets see if this isometric rounded box can entertain the newbies and take their parents money.  …..But all my friends have “Mobile Devices.”  Can you hear it now?

We hope you all had a good long weekend.  We sure did.  As you unpack and realize you can’t find your phone charger, toothbrush, beer bong, etc., then you may want to check this out.  Perfect for all your media accessories the Grid-It system is a clever and simple way to customize your storage needs.  Cocoon has developed an elastic grid system that will hold whatever you want in place.  They have also developed a pretty sweet line of lap top cases, messenger bags and the such to put the Grid-It product into.  This is a pretty cool product for not too shabby prices.  Check it out here.

Episode Something-or-Other (13!) in which we welcome Dwayne Vance to talk about his incredible Hot Rod art book, sketching, design, cars, and other forms of mayhem.

Hosts:
Dali Dimovski
Dustin Shedlarski
Arvind Ramkrishna

Special Guest:  Dwayne Vance

For more information:
CarDeisgnFetish.com
FutureElements.net

 Car Design Fetish Podcast #13: Dwayne Vance [40:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3423)

Never the company to ignore students, Autodesk’s ALIAS division has created and ran a web community for students.  The site contains downloads, demos, career opportunities and preparation, students blogs and community message boards.

Whew.

If you’re a student looking to better your ALIAS skills, or just to connect with other designers, take a look.

Find it here: Autodesk Student Community

Happy Monday folks!  What better way to start the week off than to have some fresh inspiration.  The images for today all revolve around quick renderings.  THese are all somewhat loose, not totally descriptive sketches.  Designers seldom have time to do the college level full blown perfect renderings.  So enjoy and hopefully one of these will help this week.

In honor of the new Buick LaCrosse we reviewed last week here is a Canson style rendering.  Very nice line work with some subtle surface highlights is all you need to read the form.  Thanks to IDSketching and Richard Duff for the sketch.

Clicky here for more sketches!

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Here is round 2 from the CIA Spring Show.  Enjoy!!

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The Cleveland Institute of Art Automotive students put on a great show this year with a wide array of talent and skill sets.  The work had a nice range from production ready concepts all the way to futuristic / entertainment designs.  The show took place at the Peter B. Lewis Building on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.  This building was designed by Frank Gehry and was quite an atmosphere to have a design show.  The work shown was some of the best in years.  Best of luck to the students in this hard time of finding design jobs.

If anyone has interest in the work shown and would like to inquire about the newly graduated, contact us and we can get you connected.  There was a lot of work to look at so there will be two posts for the show. This way we won’t slow down the page loading.

Check back later for round 2.

More pics after the jump…..

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Local Motors announced the winners today of the Detroit Motors Competition.  Give them a look and see if any of these designs can jump start our economy.  The entries for this competition were not as strong as the previous ones.  Perhaps it was because of all the student designers dealing with finals and working on getting internships.  I am not too sure about the winner of this one.  Personally the 3rd place winner had a stronger entry.

Check them out and tell us what you think a Detroit car should be.  Press release after the jump.

1^st Place: Michigan by Dmytro Zyubyairov of Germany

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The new Lacrosse is a real step up in quality, craftsmanship and design.  We have shown the exterior and now it is time to go inside.  The interior is a pleasant surprise with a wide open wrap around IP and a “floating” center stack.  The forms give the impression of ample interior space and break the trend of the typical T shaped instrument panel (IP) and center stack.  The T is still there but is at least broken up with offset surfaces.

There is a great use of ambient lighting and the materials are top notch, finally.  If you thought the new Malibu was a great car, check this out because it will blow that away.

More review and pics after the jump…

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