Car Design Fetish

I’m a sucker for cool automotive vehicle surfacing and renders.  Bruno Delusso has added to that addiction, bringing forth his incredibly hot Bugatti Stratos concept done in Alias.  Did I mention it’s hot?  Yes.

Utilizing influence from many classic Italian veehicks, Bruno incorporates some flame styling into the tension of the lines on the bodyside, incorporating graphic breaks via outlines and shapes strewn throughout the surface.  The shapes and break-ups capture a bit of old iron: Art Deco locomotives would feel right at home with this as a sibling.  The Bugatti cues are there, as well as the love of streamlining and speed forms.

It’s waaay out there as a design, but sexy nonetheless!  Check out the sweet images after the break, and then go on ahead to Bruno’s website to see the rest of his great work, including his gaming, non-automotive, and graphic design projects.

[Images courtesy Bruno Delusso via Autoblog]

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Yesterday, Audi released a few teaser photos of the upcoming A5 Sportback, based on the Sportback concept at this year’s NAIAS.  While the images weren’t super-informative about what the final 5-door sport coupe will be like, Audi also released videos depicting Design Chief Wolfgang Egger sketching the concept.

Here’s what we can tell about his sketches: A) Wolfy is old-school, preferring pen-to-paper for his promotional sketches, and B) the car looks kinda like the concept.  Kinda.

Other than that the videos are a nice look into the Audi design school of thought.  Main video up top, and shortened speed-sketch after the break.

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Sure Ford has been busy organizing lay offs, plant closures and the like, but what about bringing out new product?  It is safe to say that all of Ford’s offerings have been redone in the past decade except the poor ‘ol Ranger.  I believe this is still the basic design from when the Ford Ranger Splash debuted back in ‘93.  Yes the front clip has worn a few different hats, but the has kept the same pants and underwear.

Now was this a sign of neglect or did someone at the big blue oval see this coming.  The Ranger has not grown in size compared to it competitors the Dakota, Colorado and Tacoma.  So this truck is still actually compact and now has the possibility of getting great fuel economy and be right sized for future buyers.

So I think it is time to bring out the new Ranger.  To show that this doesn’t have to be a big time redesign, CDf has already done the new theme.  It is very simple, bring the new Kuga over and replace the Escape.  Then cut the back off the Kuga, extend the frame and throw a box on it.  Wala, done.  See how easy.  Check it out and let us know if you think it could work.

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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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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A few months ago my buddy Logar showed me his new Hot Rod Sketch book he received as a gift.  After  a few minutes of flipping through the pages I new I had to get a copy.  Here at the Fetish we are huge fans of automotive art and sketching, hence last years Rendered Hope Charity Calendar we put together.

Since I first viewed the book Twitter has really taken off for CDf and Dwayne Vance began following us.  Little did I realize this was the author of The Hot Rod Art Book I grew a fetish for.  Now CDf  has a copy of this awesome sketch book of Hot Rod Art.

The book consist of artwork from Dwayne Vance as well as tutorials included on a cd.  Dwayne has had a great career in design working for Troy Lee Designs, Hot Wheels and his own company Future Elements.  There are also 12 other top notch Hot Rod Artist and Designers including Larry Wood, Thom Taylor and Max Grundy to name a few.  There is a great variety of work and styles combined into one hell of a coffee table book.

Hit the jump to view a teaser video and more information….and come back next week for an exclusive interview with Dwayne Vance!

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Thumbnails are great way to crank out several sketches when exploring options to create a larger rendering or piece of art.  I started sketching on post-it notes for a little while and really had a lot of fun doing it.  I used a 3X3 post-it note and try to squeeze in 3 sketches per post-it.  It helps you to work out your perspectives ,views, and rough composition without getting into the details.

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While we often go through a dry spell this time of year in regards to automotive design news, the void is filled with random student-based work, kit cars, and pet projects.  We also begin to see lists.

Graphic design blog “You The Designer” recently created a list of its favorite vehicle images & designs, titled “32 Killer Car Designs”.  While we won’t find anything we really haven’t seen before on the list, you WILL find designs that are both good and bad (and some downright horrible).  However, the site views the vehicles from a perspective that we (auto designers and enthusiasts) normally do not.  While we tend to scrutinize form, function, aesthetic, the site looks at the cars for their immediate “WOW” factor and creativity.

Have a gander at the list here, and see if any of them are on your personal lists: 32 Killer Car Designs

It has been a little while but that just makes it sooo much sweeter.  A new round of Sketch P*rn is here to satisfy your sketching needs.  So ease into your Monday and enjoy this dose of inspiration!

Here are some great examples of the quick and dirty marker sketch.  Simple gray tones with a shot of sky.  These are gerat descriptive sketches.  Click next for some more…. Read the rest of this entry »