Batmobile Design Competition: WINNER!
Congratulations to Paul Denton for winning the Batmobile Design Competition! Paul's rendering, seen above, captures that "bad ass" feel of the Dark Knight: it's moody, menacing, and full of drama. ...
CDF's Batmobile Design Contest
CarDesignFetish knows that you like cool cars. We also know that you like to sketch cool cars. What happens when you put the two together? A really cool design contest, that's what!
We're...
Dwayne Vance: Design and Render Vehicles Online Course...
Superstar Designer/Artist (and friend of CDF) Dwayne Vance is hosting an online class for rendering vehicles in Photoshop and Painter. This Thursday, March 3rd at 2PM EST (11PST) Dwayne will be hosting...
Sketch P*rn: February Edition
February is over, and that means more awesome sketches were released in the month. Point your eyeballs here for great digital work from Volkswagen, pencil sketches from Renault, sketches over photos...
How to Make Cute Cars
Cars that share the general traits of a baby’s face trigger the ‘Isn’t it cute’ response in consumers.
The Fiat 500 is the latest in a long line of "cute cars." So what is it about cars...
We’re super excited by this new book from designers Matt Morocco and Adam Hubers, recent CCS graduates and full-time product and automotive designers. Youth energy is awesome, and these dudes are harnessing it to the fullest, taking a pet project and placing it on Kickstarter. And you know what? They’ve already blown past their initial monetary goal, but that shouldn’t stop you from picking it up and supporting the duo.
The book is the kind that every designer has been waiting for, professional or student. It teaches the absolute necessary basics for car design. Literally, it WILL make you a better car designer — nothing beats the basics, after all. From perspective and looseness to tight sketches, the book gets it all jammed in there.
What would a possible next-generation Pontiac Solstice look like? Well, had the company stuck around, Macedonian designer Dejan Hristov’s aggressive version might be ready for show rooms. Hristov created a sexy convertible that would look great not only as a concept car, but maybe even in the latest Transformers flick.
Hristov melded sculptural form language with Pontiac heritage, updating the now famous “nostrils” of the brand but maintaining the proportions that it is known for. If the last Solstice was a little too soft or curvacious for your tastes, then this update might be manly enough for you.
Superstar Designer/Artist (and friend of CDF) Dwayne Vance is hosting an online class for rendering vehicles in Photoshop and Painter. This Thursday, March 3rd at 2PM EST (11PST) Dwayne will be hosting a session talking to the basics of setting up a sketch in perspective, using design language to set up a theme, making and utilizing textures, and creating a visual flow for the viewer. The session lasts for about 1.5 hours, and will be a TERRIFIC way for people both new to automotive design AND professionals to pick up and learn new techniques at improving our vehicle renderings. There will also be a question/answer session that follows.
The webinar takes place as a part of the Digital Art Summit and can be found here: CLICK FOR LINK
This is a MUST SEE for all those interested in vehicle design, as we can attest to Dwayne’s awesome abilities and techniques first-hand.
The webinar cost just $47 and will be well worth it. It will also be available afterward for purchase and download.
For a little more on Dwayne, read the press release below. We’ll be there on Thursday, and we hope you will as well!
Cars that share the general traits of a baby’s face trigger the ‘Isn’t it cute’ response in consumers.
The Fiat 500 is the latest in a long line of “cute cars.” So what is it about cars that make them cute? Mostly proportions control the feeling of a car. Most cute cars are compact cars that are a little taller than wider with softer graphic forms. The VW Beetle and Mini are other great examples of cute cars. If you are a people / car watcher then check out the guys that drive these vehicles. I bet the color of the car is darker, the rims a little bigger, the sills a bit lower. All of these attributes help disguise the cuteness and catch you off guard. I fall victim to this driving a VW GTI. I don’t think a GTI is a cute car but a base level Golf is a cute car to me. It is an interesting phenomena and as more cars get smaller you we see more attempts at the costumes to through off the cuteness. Who said cute cars are bad anyway?
Check out the article after the jump which talks about the psychology of car features and how they play tricks on us.
The video above is of The Daily, the new iPad/tablet magazine app from News Corp. Why are we posting about a digital magazine on a car design blog? Hearken back to this video from IDEO that we posted back in September on their vision of the future of the book. In short, it’s a more personalized, yet wildly social experience.
Flash forward to this week in which News Corp and Apple unveiled their own vision of the future of digital reading. In this case, news topics take center stage, and yet the content is again more social yet personalized. The Daily allows for news to be delivered throughout the day to the iPad. The articles are divided into pages, like the Wired app and many web pages before it, with interactive elements, videos, and feedback.
Where The Daily pushes the medium is in its personalization and ability to actively engage in the conversation. Sports scores and news are relative to the user’s preferences, time-wasting games like Sudoku and Crosswords are scored and kept alive on Gamecenter leaderboards, articles can be read or viewed through summary videos, and news can be shared with friends through Twitter or Facebook, with a live stream of comments.
Add in an intuitive multi-touch mechanic and a beautiful presentation, and the evolution of IDEO’s vision is apparent.
So again, why does appear on a car design website? Considering how companies like Apple and Google influence technology within vehicles, with an app like The Daily becoming a personalizable news source, so too will the automotive user experience. This is a clear vision of the future of how we consume content, react to it, and spit it back out. Where we once listened to the radio for our news, we will eventually be interacting and replying to it through audio and video, through our cars reporting live weather and traffic conditions, and through our own experiences. This is the consumable user interface that will (eventually) become a part of our every day experiences.
The Daily is available now for free in the iTunes App Store for the iPad, and will carry a $.99 weekly fee beginning in two weeks.
Chip Foose manages to get into everything it seems. He is a true designer being able to use his talents wherever requested while pulling off great work. Check out his latest endeavor with Oakley. With shoes and watches being, dare I say every designers fetish, Foose can knock this one off his list. I appreciate the fact that he always includes artwork in his projects. Maybe not here in his actual shoes but the packaging is exploding with a composition of shoe sketches inter mingled with of course a hot rod and palm trees.
This year at NAIAS, Chevrolet officially took the wraps off of the new Aveo Sonic. (Yes, we know: we still don’t like the name either.)
The redesign of GM’s key subcompact was a lengthy process, and the Bowtie has been kind enough to post a video interview with John Mack, Design Director, and Allen Kim, Lead Designer, about what drove the direction for the vehicle. From its motorcycle-influenced cluster to the jet-turbine vents, the Designers speak about several of the key decision points.
It’s only about two minutes long, but should provide a good idea as to some of what made the new vehicle a 180-degree turn from the previous generation Aveo.
In a previous installment, we chronicled the ups and downs of the Djet, one of Matra’s forays into the small sports car market. This is the Djet’s successor, the 530.
Friend of CarDesignFetish Mike Smith (Hi, Mike!) was recently featured in Autodesk’s “Sketch Your Way to Success” promotional series. In the piece, Mike, an automotive designer for over 10 years, reveals what drives his work in the design field, where his inspiration comes from (hint: flying and racing bikes), and how digital tools have become an essential part of a Designer’s work. The video showcases some of his terrific sketches, renderings, and his process.
As someone who went to school with and was influenced by Mike, I can attest to his incredible skills as a Designer. This is a great video, not to miss.
Reminder: There’s still time to order your 2011 Rendered Hope charity car design calendar before it is no longer available. Order now, and help make this a great holiday season for some great kids who deserve it!
