The red 4 door at 9:25 is simply incredible; sleek and clean with that short overhang at the front and upswept tail and rear it looks like a mid-engine design. The ultimate compliment for a 4 door sedan! As always, very informative! Glass rear window over the engine and it reminds of the C8 concept but nicer with that coke bottle pinched waist to.
I remember six door and eight door Airport Limos, as we called them, back in the seventies. One of my classmates actually bought one. Years later, one of his GF's told the story of the first time he showed up for a date in this epically long car. Pretty funny.
Well then, that explains it. New Audi badge signals push for minimalism By Freddie Holmes16 November 2022 The German marque has revealed its new badge, a subtle change that represents more of a significant shift toward reductionist branding Audi has refreshed the look of its iconic ‘Four Rings’ logo. At first glance there is not a huge amount to see, you may not even tell the difference from afar. However, a closer inspection reveals the logo is now black and white – “the new chrome” according to Audi – with more of a three-dimensional silhouette. There is a recognition that the refresh is subtle. “When you look at it, I’m pretty sure you [still] see four rings,” says Marc Lichte, head of Audi design, who describes the new badge as “discrete yet high quality.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Audi says the new logo is subtle yet modern This is not the first time the badge has been rebranded, of course, and the team started by looking back at the brand’s history and how the badge has developed over time. The four rings first came about through a four-way joint-venture called Auto Union, which was formed in 1932 between DKW, Horch, Wanderer and Audi. Made of raw metal, the original logo had an industrial feel. In 1965, Auto Union was rebranded as Audi, removing the Auto Union logo that sat within those rings. This would prove to be the first of several steps to gradually refine and clean up the badge, which became a polished chrome. Previous Next Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login The new badge sports white rings that ‘float’ within a black border and is almost identical in geometry to earlier iterations. There is also the option to have the rings in black, which replaces the white with a shiny dark grey. Audi says it represents “state of the art automotive design” and is more modern than before. Lichte elaborates that it is part of a broader push to become “more clear, consistent and reduced” when it comes to branding. “No line, no shape, no badge should be redundant. This means every form has a clear function. Less design is good design.” For what is a premium brand, this represents a wider trend around reduction. New luxury is not defined by the number of shiny things inside or outside the vehicle. It is about doing the simple things well. That’s a lot to take away from a simple badge refresh, but Frederik Kalisch, a brand strategist at Audi, notes that keeping things minimal has multiple benefits. “Besides distracting from the design of our cars,” he says, “overly conspicuous identifiers probably wouldn’t go down well with our contemporary, progressive customers.” Previous Next Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login 1/3 A spokesperson for Audi told CDN that following a refinement of the brand identity around 2020, ”the next step was to consistently develop the four rings on the vehicle into a two-dimensional appearance, standardising vehicle identification across all models.” They add that the new badge should ”look the same everywhere, whether in a magazine, on your smartphone, or a billboard – and on or inside the car.” While the carmaker does not make explicit reference to electrification, the timing does coincide with a push to go EV. In some respects, the new design is a reflection of this as there is generally less chrome at the front of modern EVs anyway. The new badge will be used on all models moving forward and can already be seen on the Audi Q8 e-tron. “The new two-dimensional logo is not directly linked to e-mobility, as future models with combustion engines will also carry the new two-dimensional rings,” the spokesperson notes. ”But of course, it is logical to introduce such a major change on our fully electric Audi Q8 e-tron.” Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hmmm, doubling the colours on a 3D badge from a single colour 3D badge is minimalism? Maybe a single decal in white OR black might be minimalism, or stamping it directly into the body coloured panel might be minimalism...or not This is a bit like Cadillac replacing the 6 ducks with 2 geese...
You mean Merlettes! merlette (plural merlettes). (heraldry) In French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.
Yet another "Vision"; this time from Mazda. Hmmm; just kidding... John, merlettes, eh? No beak, no feet, but it has fins? Sounds a bit fishy to me Image Unavailable, Please Login
Are those popup headlights?!?!? I really like that render, it's very clean and athletic-looking. All the best, Andrew.
According to this article... https://www.creativebloq.com/news/kia-logo ...the new KIA logo... Image Unavailable, Please Login ...is so unreadable that 30,000 people every month do Google searches for "KN car". Admittedly, I was one of those people when they first introduced the new logo. Was it deliberately illegible to make people Google the car to find out more about it? Or did they just miss the mark? All the best, Andrew.
That’s too funny. Myself and all my design pals love the new logo. But yes, it’s not the most legible logo out there.
I like the new logo as well; certainly better than previous; but I digress - John, I've been wondering of late, are you still teaching at CCS; and if so, have you seen any interesting design solutions to the 'corporate face/fake grille' conundrum?
No I stopped teaching several yrs ago. One of my designer friends recently wrote a column for Autoweek about the faceless/grilleless electric car front ends. It hasn’t been solved yet as far as I’m concerned. My spin on many of the grilleless solutions is they resemble a bank robber wearing a nylon over his face & head. All featureless and amorphous.
Lyriq a pretty cool solution - otherwise, plenty of room for a front plate! Image Unavailable, Please Login
Cool mechanical design journey across variety of food groups - seems if they could build a smaller bus stop, he'd give an alert tour of our pastime to Olympic visitors ...? Could've had a hot dog stand ...! (Evan Klein pic) Image Unavailable, Please Login
