Industrial Design, Uncategorized

Automobiles of the future and the Designers who develop them are at a decisive moment in history.  The Automotive design field as a whole which has notoriously been a heavily veiled and secretive field is now in state of accelerated change.  Previously, only a select lucky few have ever had the chance to experience Design Studios first hand, but now there is a second wave of Design occurring with everything from crowd sourced competitions to emerging markets (another misleading term, since China has already out-paced North America sales in terms of volume) .   So, as my first Blog here at Idea Couture; I would like to shed some light on at least part of the design process that I think most would be curious about: Inspiration for Design.  If you were to speak with any car designer about what they desire in terms of Styling and Product Design they would likely describe in detail to you, all things about proportion, stance and the overall message of a car.  Its all in the attitude and emotion which gets reflected in a design that is supposed to grab you. Designer are immensely concerned with conveying a sense of identity and purpose to vehicles and they draw from a variety of design disciplines and use many different forms of inspiration to create new products.

As designers, we constantly crave inspiration from new things to be inspired by.  For the most part however, there is a tendency to seek out images, themes or concepts that clearly demonstrate, a sense of beauty, perfect proportions, dramatic themes and interesting compositions.   A sensual curve here… some techno-babble there, we make a habit of drawing inspiration from a variety of places to avoid getting stuck designing with the same themes over and over again.   We try to avoid the boring cliches’.   We try to see life through a new lens each time, to gain a new perspective on the world.

So what are some of the common themes that stimulate our creativity?   Sometimes designers find inspiration from nature, sculpture, fine art and even architecture.  For the last 50 years in Automotive Design however, the influence has mostly come from a pervasive attachment to sensual forms and seductive images.  Designers have typically tried to capture the energy of these ideas and translate them into physical gestural surfaces, feature lines and graphics. Now, with the advent of the modern constraints combined with a change in cultural reference, there have recently been new identities formed.  Under a wave of newer technologies, and emerging markets there seems to be more influence coming into Car Design from things like Japanese stylized robots (Mech), motorcycles and even electric appliances (cell phones).  Other than the visceral influence of Formula 1 racecars or Syd Mead’s futurist visions,  I cannot think of a more sampled subject for inspiration (typical of the designers of today) than the phenomenon of stylized mech-suit robots such as Gundam, Evangelion or even Ironman.

The influence of all these robo-heros are beginning to influence the faces of cars.  Take Audi for example.  They have gone to great lengths to create a signature theme for the brand with their LED headlamps that better differentiate themselves from other European brands.  There is a tremendous amount of effort that goes into faces of cars to make them more recognizable and distinctive.

So what will automotive design look-like in the future if these tendencies continue?  The answer likely depends on the region you are referring to and also depends on your physical relation to an urban environment.  As the size, safety and engineering constraints take hold, the visible evolution for cars will probably have more to do with materials and aesthetic finishes that each brand chooses to portray.  However, there are many experiments taking place right now in automotive design and it really comes down to how well corporations can cohesively integrate their Design talents with their Engineering talents to address weight, functionality, and versatility for customization.

I think that the next level in aesthetic design will occur when we start to see production cars utilizing more anthropomorphic forms and physical features.  I think Chris Bangles’ contributions is very relevant in this regard as a pure concept that clearly demonstrates the transformable skin of the GINA Light showcar.  This departure from a static sculpture will rapidly open up many new possibilities. Consider the acceptance of the Sci-fi films; Transformers Movies and the Bay film franchise on the younger generations, what will they grow up to design?

Perhaps it is the sub-conscious affect on my generation (Gen X) of seeing the 007 Aston Martins in the James Bond films; the way they always featured special tools.  Or perhaps it was just the way cool ‘more-than-meets-eye’ multi-mode capability of the Autobots that pushed our desire to seek out multiple features in our design proposals.   Don’t be too surprised when in the not-to distant future, you see an automobile that looks more like a sexy robot than a car.  Perhaps we will finally see those ever-elusive Fembots.