Batmobile Design Competition: WINNER!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. ...

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CDF's Batmobile Design ContestCDF'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...

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Dwayne Vance: Design and Render Vehicles Online Course (March 3)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...

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Sketch P*rn: February EditionSketch 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...

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How to Make Cute CarsHow 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...

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Oakley + Foose Team Up

Category : Design, Fetishing, Product Design

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.

Hit the jump for more images….

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Horological Machines – The Thunderbolt

Category : Design, Fetishing, Holiday Gift Guide, Product Design

MB&F creates some amazing timepieces.  Designer’s are always known to have some interesting hardware on their wrist, but I have never seen anything this awesome.  The inspiration behind this piece is from the designer Maximilian Büsser’s childhood passion for assembling model plane kits.  This sculpture would look right at home with your arm hanging out the window of a mid 50′s Chevy or even next to the huge center vents of a Jaguar XJ.  This is truly a product that is sure to inspire and make its way onto a few designers image boards.  And you may ask, what is a horological machine?

Horological Machines are as much, if not more, art and sculpture as they are micro-engineering: they are machines which tell the time rather than machines to tell the time.

By designing and constructing three-dimensional machines rather than wristwatches, MB&F are able to break free of the constraints imposed by traditional horology and create kinetic art.

Check out the MB&F site for other works of art and hit the jump for more images.

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Mini Marketing Doing It Right

Category : Fetishing, Product Design, Production Car

Mini has always had the most fun and creative marketing group.  Here is yet another example taking advantage of people standing around staring at an empty conveyor belt.  This would be the first time I would actually enjoy waiting for my luggage which is of course always the last one to come off the plane.   I can’t figure out why other brands have not taken some notes from Mini.  Oh wait, I know.  No other brand has a fun factor to it.

[pic via Cool Hunter]

Sketch Table

Category : Business, education, Fetishing, Product Design, tools

There is something nice about drawing on a white board.  No high quality expectations of line quality and always has a nice looseness to it.  What better table then to have at home to sit around and talk design.  Imagine the ideas that will appear and disappear over a few cocktails. Sweet as a Nut is a UK-based company that applies artwork to coffee and side table tops, from roses to tapes to whiteboards. You can choose from one of their designs or you can contact them to create your own.  This is a great high end look to an otherwise low end product.

[thanks to Design Milk for the find]

Holographic Visualization

Category : Business, Fetishing, Product Design, tools

Visualization techniques are constantly evolving.  It started with stone in cave, then pen to paper, then computer modeling and now we are finally getting into the hologram arena.  Holograms have always teased us in movies such as the landscape being spun around in the movie Avatar.  We are so close to having that capability.  This video shows a new form of holographic visualization used for architecture.  Imagine the possibilities of it in the automotive and product world.

Picture going into a sales meeting and showing the customer this.  Get a full size hologram of a car and show multiple versions in a clinic without ever having to make a prototype (maybe then the price of cars would come down).  This kind of visualization could greatly speed up the development process.

Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.

Here is some more info on the product from Freshome.

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Apple IPad Thoughts

Category : Design, Fetishing, Product Design, tools

Like everyone who watched the unveiling of Apple’s new IPad yesterday, we have to throw in our two cents.  Were we disappointed?  Kind of, but give some credit, it had a lot to live up to.  I don’t want to repeat all of the issues that everyone else is talking about so I will focus on a Pro and a Con that relate to the auto/ design industry.  Lets start with the negative.

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iREV Floating Party

Category : Fetishing, Holiday Gift Guide, Product Design

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This Interactive Recreational Entertainment Vessel (iREV) is a pontoon with a specific purpose.  10 people can sit around the central low smoke charcoal grill or a number of other modules that can replace it.  This is quite the floating bar but at 24g’s you can buy one hell of a pontoon boat.  Still it is a pretty cool product for floating around with friends.  It is also environmentally friendly with 45% reclaimed material,  80% recyclable and it is made in America.

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Mobile Media Device

Category : Fetishing, Product Design, Production Car

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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.”

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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?

Cocoon Organizer

Category : Design, Product Design

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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.

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Touch Me Please…

Category : Design, Fetishing, Product Design

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I am sure you have all seen the Microsoft Surface.  An amazing product and can’t wait for it to be mainstream.  So what is after the coffee table Surface?

Oh Hello is a digital media company that developed this video for Microsoft.  I cannot speak to the validity of the video or why it was made, but it is easy to believe this happening in another 10 years.  Check it out for an insane dose of hope / inspiration for the future.

Microsoft Sustainability from Kray Cédric on Vimeo