Car Design Fetish

Our friends at Mercedes just shot us over this nice little video interview with Mark Fetherston, longtime Benz Designer and creator of the SLS AMG “supercar”.  In the clip, Fetherston cranks out a sketch of the car while chatting up his thought process, the role of form and function, and how it all fits in with Mercedes own Design process.

OEM Design Studios have been surprisingly candid as of late, showcasing their Designers and inner workings through social media like YouTube, Twitter, and dedicated websites.

Personally, it’s just refreshing to see a designer like Fetherston still working with pen on paper.

Watch the clip above, or visit Mercedes’ Facebook and Flickr pages for more AMG love.

I recently attended a car show and came a cross a 50′s Ford Pickup and while looking at the front end it hit me – It’s the new Ford Edge.  Many people are on the fence with this extravagant front end.  But you can see here that there is a history for it and it does look great on the road.  The new Edge just began arriving on Michigan lots last week.  Now you can tell people why the grill looks the way it does.

The AMC brand has been associated with some truly unique cars over the years.  While the AMX/3 may not be the most unique AMC ever, you can make a strong argument for it being the most beautiful.

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The embargo is up, and Ford has revealed the new model year 2011 Explorer.  The new Explorer creates a firm break from current and past generations, styling-wise, taking a more car-like stance and incorporating the new Ford grille and body work.  Streaking, tapering lines define the surface, and a blacked-out A-pillar provides a sort of “360 degree” wrap-around look from the outside, a detail usually seen in the rear of a vehicle.

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When it comes to Formula One helmets, less is definitely more.  This is a principle that seems to be lost on a whole generation of drivers.  Over the past 50 years, F1 helmet designs have become increasingly complex garish — much like the cars themselves.  I used to be able to identify any F1 driver by his helmet inside of a half second.  Now, I haven’t got a clue. Everything seems to be one big spaghetti junction of hot red, neon green and, of course, random advertisments.  This makes me long for a time when F1 helmets were closer to Piet Mondrian paintings than, say, tribal tattoos.  With that in mind, let’s take a look back at some timeless compositions which prove, without a doubt, that less is more.

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It’s great to see automotive design conferences popping up around the world.  Being based in Detroit, we only have access to the annual AutoWeek NAIAS Design Forum and the Ward’s Automotive Interiors Conference.  There are similar conferences in California, the UK, and Italy, but the need for more is apparent: as automobile technology is affecting design, it is increasingly important for Designers to share their knowledge of successful design and innovation.

The Auto(r) design conference, just in its second year, brings this focus to Eastern Europe.  Held recently at Zagreb’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Auto(r) brought two days of lectures and workshops to the attendees and featured several prominent Designers and Design Thinkers: Maarten de Bruijn (founder of Spyker), Sebastien Stassin (designer of the KTM X-Bow), and Giancarlo Perini (Car Styling) were just a few of the individuals who provided insight.

The winner of the Auto(r) 2010 Design Challenge was Croatia’s Zdenko Vukoja.

For the full press release and more photos, read on below or visit www.automotivedesignconference.com.

(Thanks to Daniel for sending this along!)

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Pegaso may not be a household name like Seat or Hispano-Suiza, but they did produce a number of gorgeous sports cars – in between cranking out their commercial trucks, tractors and omnibusses…

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Move over, Bugatti Royale!  This long, lovely machine made an appearance at the Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance in 2007.  As you can tell by the ribbon, it was well received.  Seriously, pictures do not do this vehicle justice;  you must stand next to it to appreciate both its mass and its beauty.

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Dwayne Vance, of Future Elements fame, has put out a terrific new app for the iPod/iPhone/iPad.  His Masters of Chicken Scratch app is chock full of hot rod goodies!  Featuring beautiful car sketches & paintings, bios of several artists and designers, and full-length tutorials about how to sketch a hot rod from beginning to end, the app is a must for any car fanatic (like us).

The app features somewhere around 100(!) images and an hour-and-a-half of videos from various artists, and serves as a great companion piece to the MoCS art book already available..

Have a gander at the app in the iTunes store.  Retailing for $9.99.

More images below.

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The second in the Royal College of Art’s Future Vehicle panel series, titled The role of the vehicle designer – where is it headed?, presented an opportunity to answer a question as perplexing to those already working in the industry as those wanting to gain entrée. As has been previously established in this series, the industry is in a state of flux and as old business models and market requirements change, so must the designer. But how? Read the rest of this entry »