All Designers articles – Page 36
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Article
Trends: Lighting on a different plane
The corners of a car represent a difficult area for designers: a number of complex surfaces have to be resolved and the tendency over the last 20 years has been for cars to have more rounded plan shapes, with the headlamps occupying the entire front corner of the car. One ...
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Article
Design Review: Toyota FT-CH concept
The interior of the FT-CH was initially more difficult to evaluate as only one official photo of the cabin was available and the Detroit show car's doors were locked while the concept itself was perched up on a hard-to-access pedestal, limiting views inside. Interior designer Urwin did concede that this ...
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Article
Design Review: Toyota FT-CH concept
Having succeeded in establishing the Prius as the undoubted ‘poster boy' of the righteous eco driver movement, Toyota is now embarking on reinforcing its green credentials by expanding its petrol/electric hybrid range to cater to other types of driver. Crucially, many of these new vehicles are set to define a ...
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ArticleDesign Essay: Instrument Panel Architecture
This Design Essay investigates how architectural principles—from the grandeur of Rolls‑Royce to the sleekness of Jaguar—have shaped the evolving form and function of automotive instrument panels
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Webinar
Designing the car of the future
Design is still far from having lost its ability to surprise us. In mature markets, far more than owning a vehicle suited for everyday uses in line with how society is changing, the search for differentiation is pushed to the extreme: personalization is getting a little stronger every year based ...
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Article
Design Review: Seat Altea
Other neat touches on the Altea include the hidden clap-hands wipers and a second, hollow parcel tray in the trunk. The interior also keeps the spirit of the original, with a high but sporty seating position and centre console shape that apes the grille outline in a similar fashion to ...
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Article
Design Review: Seat Altea
The new SEAT Altea acts as a classic case study in how a new production model can be successfully developed from a concept series, to give it an extra 'edge' in the public's perception. The final production car, premiered at Geneva, looks unchanged from the Altea Prototipo concept shown at ...
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Article
Design Review: GMC Granite concept
Entrance to the interior is through a set of barn-style pillarless doors that provide a conceptual twist on the new Opel Meriva's innovative set-up. (That car sits on a similar wheelbase, but retains conventional B-pillars for reasons of structural rigidity).
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Article
Design Review: GMC Granite concept
Even iconic brands have difficulty expand beyond the design parameters that brought them their success. You need only witness Mini's growing pains as it attempts to enter the SUV crossover segment with the Countryman for proof of that. For a brand like GMC, whose model line is based on mildly ...
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ArticleDesign Review: Lexus IS
The old IS200/300 was a simple concept, clearly targeted at the BMW 3 Series: a sporty, compact executive car with a straight-six engine and RWD, available in sedan or sporty wagon format. This new model is a much more complex product, in some ways more mainstream, in others more sophisticated and focused. The new design direction is meant to express three fundamental elements of the Lexus ‘L-Fin
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ArticleDesign Essay: Digital Design
Charting the changing nature of design processess in the studio
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ArticleChris Bangle: The future of auto design; the purpose of life
As part of the recent graduation exhibition at Umea Institute of Design, Chris Bangle was invited to give the keynote address. Given that the theme for the event was change, it’s difficult to think of a speaker better qualified to pass on their insights to a new generation of designers.
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Article
Design Essay: Designing For Mash-ups
MASH-UP: 1. A musical genre which consists of the combination of the music from one song with the acapella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres and strive for musical epiphanies that add up to more than the sum of their parts. 2. A website ...
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Article
Design Essay: Interior Texture Trends - Europe vs USA
The use of texture can go beyond mere coverage and move into a way of creating inexpensive accents like the production Dodge Magnum to highlight the vent surround or the Jeep Liberty on the center stack. Even more innovative is the Mazda Sassou Concept car from this year's Frankfurt show ...
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Article
Design Essay: Interior Texture Trends - Europe vs USA
The texture on car interior components is something few of us consider much - as practising designers or car users. On injection molded parts grain was originally added to the surface of a tool to hide any molding issues. Now, with greater interest on interior design, the awareness of the ...
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Article
Design Review: Mitsubishi i
At the rear, the 2003 'i' concept featured a bubble-like rear profile with a split rear window, not unlike an Audi A2. On the final car this has become simpler and more vertical. The doors on the production car have also been given a couple of subtle horizontal feature lines ...
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Article
Design Review: Mitsubishi i
Mitsubishi Motor Corporation is one of those companies that is difficult to pigeonhole design-wise: it's a company with a very wide model range but little unity in design. There are several disparate centres of gravity in the Mitsubishi range, from totally orthodox sedans such as the Lancer, Carisma and Galant ...