While i don't disagree, the packaging of vehicles has been similar across segments for years. I do believe it's a desire to 'stand out' and be different. Like they told me at the start of my career, 'Walking through the Ritz Carlton Hotel with your unit hanging out of your pants is different, but that doesn't necessarily make it good.' Or something to that effect.
Today's Automotive News How EV designers are reimagining classic grilles June 01, 2021 10:59 AM UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO IRA BOUDWAY KYLE STOCK Bloomberg When BMW unveiled its next generation of electric vehicles — the i4 and the iX SUV — in March, their faces generated at least as much chatter as their electric guts. There on the front of both was BMW’s design hallmark: two kidney-shaped grilles. But these were far bigger than the kidneys on the automaker’s gas-burning models and seemingly turned upright, with a glossy black lattice in place of the trademark vertical bars. They seemed like an anachronism. With no engine sitting behind them, and no radiator pulling in air, why bother? “The kidney is not just an air-cooling system,” explains BMW design lead Domagoj Dukec. “It’s the strongest differentiator between us and our competitors.” BMW is not alone. As legacy automakers move to electric powertrains, they’re re-inventing the grille in ways both familiar and strange. GMC’s new Hummer EV, set to begin production in the fall, features a reinterpretation of the SUV’s famous seven-slot grille. Two decades ago, GM successfully fought off a challenge from Chrysler over the right to use the seven slots, which are also a hallmark of Jeep. This time around GM has abandoned the slots in favor of six blocks that spell out the word “Hummer.” If you squint, however, you can still make out seven slots lining the letter blocks. “We're having fun with that,” says Rich Scheer, design director for the Hummer EV, “It’s kind of an illusion.” Image Unavailable, Please Login BLOOMBERG Look closely at any Tesla and you will see a grille tucked beneath the bumper. The new Hummer, like the new BMW EVs, doesn’t use the space above the bumper for cooling. “Behind what you would think is the grille, that’s a huge storage compartment,” says Scheer. “You could take air in there, but you’re going to cool an empty space.” While the BMW i4 and iX use their new-fangled kidneys to hide cameras and other sensors, the letter boxes on the front of the Hummer are pure showmanship. “We treated that whole upper lighting element as just great design theater,” says Scheer. The word “Hummer” lights up as the driver approaches with the key. The idea, says Scheer, was to make the front the vehicle act like an iPhone: blank and cold when you are not using it; welcoming and bright when you are. For BMW and Hummer, the primary function of the grilles on their new EVs is to uphold the brand, which was built, in both cases, around combustion engine cars. As the first to sell hundreds of thousands of EVs in the U.S., Tesla has had the privilege of setting consumer expectations for how an electric car is supposed to look. Its designers did not have to fret over legacy grilles. In 2016, when Tesla gave the Model S its first major design overhaul, or facelift, as it’s known among owners, it replaced the shiny black oval at the front of the car with a fascia that matched the rest of the body. The new front of the Model S resembled those of the recently launched Model X and soon-to-be launched Model 3, creating a consistent—and conspicuous—aesthetic for the brand. On all three models, as with the Model Y that came after, it looks as if somebody has painted over the place where the grille used to be. “It wasn’t just grille-less, it was an anti-grille,” says Eric Noble, president of the Car Lab automotive consultancy. Image Unavailable, Please Login BLOOMBERG The Kia Niro features panels over the erstwhile grille space. The design fit well with Tesla’s identity as a disruptor: the anti-carmaker made cars with anti-grilles. It also helped create the notion that EVs don’t need grilles. While it’s true that electric powertrains do not generate as much heat as internal combustion engines do, EVs still need to take in air for cooling motors and batteries, especially in high performance models. “It actually amazed me how much cooling we did need,” says Gordon Platto, lead designer for Ford’s new electric Mustang Mach-E. But with the batteries and motors typically placed along the bottom of the car, it usually makes sense to take that air from lower down. (Look closely at any Tesla and you will see a grille tucked beneath the bumper.) Smoothing over the front also helps with aerodynamics, which translates directly into greater range. While Tesla merely made it look like the grilles had been papered over on their cars, some legacy automakers have literally covered grille openings on the electric versions of gas-powered models. The EV versions of Hyundai’s Kona, Kia’s Niro, and Volvo’s XC40 SUVs, for instance, all feature panels over the erstwhile grille space. The fronts practically shout, No gas-guzzling engine here! For early adopters, this kind of signaling is especially important. If you bought an EV for its novelty or out of a civic-minded desire to do less damage to the planet, you probably want your neighbors to know about it. But as the technology becomes more established, according to consumer research by the Car Lab, the reasons for buying an EV are becoming more mundane. People are buying them to save on fuel costs, to access carpooling lanes, or because they are fun to drive. For these customers, it doesn’t especially matter whether other people know that they have an electric car. “Ten years ago, the consumers who bought an EV really wanted to sort of visually shout about them,” says Noble. “Now we find that need is rapidly diminishing.” Image Unavailable, Please Login BLOOMBERG The electric Ford Mustang Mach-E features a stripe of black trim to outline the place where a grille might have gone. Dukec at BMW, Scheer at GM, and Platto at Ford all say they were not necessarily trying to signal the electric powertrain with their grille designs. Instead, the goal was to make something that both evoked a familiar brand and promised cutting edge technology. “If you have a different powertrain, it doesn’t have to look different,” says Dukec, “We don’t have to hide and say ‘Oh, because Tesla has no grille—because they have no past and no heritage—that this is the only way. For them it was one way to show clearly ‘I’m different.’ For us, our customers don’t expect us to be different; they just expect us to offer the best mobility product no matter what kind of powertrain.” While Ford’s Mustang Mach-E features a Tesla-esque fascia panel on its base model, there’s also a stripe of black trim to outline the place where a grille might have gone and the Pony logo in the center to remind everybody that it’s still a Mustang. “We've tried to create this signature appearance with what we call this horse collar that kind of implies where a grille location would be,” says Platto, “Our customers don't want to drive a science project, they want a beautiful looking vehicle that represents the brand properly.”
I agree with Anthony as well. I only use the computer when a design is locked in and I need to prepare plans. I really don't understand why "the kids" don't draw more. Maybe it's just practice, but it seems to me the benefits of drawing are that it's both faster and freer, and as mentioned, also more expressive. The differences between car design and architecture are vast, which is why I find transportation design (and photography) so useful; imposing the parameters of one on the other may suggest a refinement in ones approach. A house may/needs to work in only one location for one client; a car must work in many places for many "clients". Multidisciplinary experience brings so much to the "drawing board" - BTW, one final thought " The current generation of designers grew up with a different set of icons and influences. It's not their fault." Well, yes it is, it's called HISTORY. I respectfully suggest that a study of the history of BMW does not result in a 3'x4' fake "grille" on an electric coupe...
I wish to expand on the idea of client. For automotive there is no real client in the development process. Unlike your architecture or may aircraft interiors where we have a named person that can be the sole one to matter the automotive arena has a some mythical composite person. The "client" is the management approval process who may may not actually have the real evaluation talents ascribed to them. And, even if they actually competent that are only guessing if that mythical retail buyer actually exists. Add to that how the design process is working years in advance of the metal being on the road; markets can change and/or the competition can introduce something that makes your project obsolete before it hits the road.
BTW, one final thought " The current generation of designers grew up with a different set of icons and influences. It's not their fault." Well, yes it is, it's called HISTORY. I respectfully suggest that a study of the history of BMW does not result in a 3'x4' fake "grille" on an electric coupe...[/QUOTE] Well then, I stand corrected. You'd be shocked and surprised at how little many current design students know about automotive design 'history' The school where I used to teach had a class on Design History taught by a very knowledgeable former car designer. But the lack of historical design awareness is a 'thing'. But that's probably a conversation for another day.
Not sure how this got disconnected from my quote of Jeff's post but I will ascribe it to my lack of computer chops... It's nice to read someone at least as/more cynical than I am for a change! "Add to that how the design process is working years in advance of the metal being on the road" Ideally, my understanding of the process is that it takes 4 years to production for something like the Bronco; the turn-around on a home here in Vancouver is about 2 years from application to build. Of course it only took Ford #? of years to realize that the Jeep craze was sustainable... The narrative for the Bronco of the story board implies that Ford had a handle on their "client". The idea of projecting your "client" into the future is of course a (semi)science all in its own; from "colour of the year" to fashion design, every industry tries to devine future trends.
One of the problems with computer design is the designer is enamored with the cool tricks they can do , same as a 12 year old who just discovered how to masturbate, they over do it. My friend was the head designer on a huge recent superhero movie with horribly overwrought designs (especially on the main baddie). But those designs were so geometrically complicated they probably couldnt have been done without a computer. So like a kid who masturbates until it hurts, once this designer discovered this new technique he and the rest of the team used it until it hurt. The thing that really irks me are all the articles that were written about it as if it was a good thing.
https://electrek.co/2021/06/01/rimac-nevera-2-million-next-evolution-concept_two-electric-hypercar/ Image Unavailable, Please Login At a very quick glance, does this not look a lot like a gen 6 Vette?
Good designs, like the Kode pictured, already exist. The problem is with the upper echelons that decide what goes into mass production. With all the corporate welfare that Ford gets, it should provide the people with a beautiful, reliable and cheap car but instead I think the auto industry is run like the mafia. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Interesting article on Nissan Design America from Car Design News With an eclectic spirit fostered by the late Jerry Hirshberg, the California satellite studio in La Jolla is a designer’s sanctuary with a storied history A tiny toy helicopter hangs from the ceiling of David Woodhouse’s office. “Do you know what this is?” he asks, reaching up and gently taking hold of the bright yellow gyrocopter with black-and-white striped tail. “That’s Little Nellie, from the James Bond movie. When I’m here, I feel like I’m on the set of You Only Live Twice.” Woodhouse lets go and we watch for a moment as the little model, complete with machine guns and flamethrowers, swings back and forth from its long wire. Nissan Design America (NDA), nestled in the San Diego enclave of La Jolla, indeed looks like a secret lair from a spy movie. Its concrete walls, high ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling glass were designed by Ken Ronchetti, a tradesman-cum-industrial designer who worked for Caterpillar and later designed residential and commercial structures around Southern California, included Nissan’s 60,000 square-foot campus completed in 1983 (although the studio was founded four years earlier). Woodhouse has helmed the studio since 2019 after leaving his former position as design director of Lincoln Motor Company. Image Unavailable, Please Login Californian brutalism: Nissan Design America On these grounds, designers help to create vehicles with an emphasis on the Americas region in close collaboration with the global design centre in Atsugi and Nissan Technical Centres in Japan and North America. These include, among others, the 300ZX, Pathfinder, Hardbody pickup, and several generations of Z cars. The studio also did early development work on the GT-R and, more recently, were heavily involved in the latest-generation Pathfinder SUV. Numerous designers have found inspiration at NDA. Not only Woodhouse, but also Alfonso Albaisa, Nissan’s current senior vice president of global design. “When I joined NDI (Nissan Design International, Inc. – as called at the beginning), to be honest not fully aware of the importance of decisions that created this wonderful place,” Albaisa remembers. “For Nissan, seeing our portfolio and seeing the U.S. market, the decision to open design and engineering centres thousands of miles away in the United States to reflect the dreams of real American people and their real American lives was huge. In reality this cultural curiosity has had such an impact on automobile design with now upwards of 20 studios in California.” For our culture, hiring Jerry Hirshberg was huge…[Hirshberg’s] wider view of design influenced our automotive design and culture immensely by diffusing the ‘auto-specific’ tendency in our business The SoCal studio is a bubble within a bubble, flanked by the University of California San Diego’s academic and medical buildings, and a short drive from the shoreline, where shaggy haired surfers clamber down rocky slopes to catch a wave while the rest of the world is at work. The multi-building complex is the West Coast base for both Nissan and Infiniti design activities, with thoughtful touches that help spur inspiration and productivity. The exterior design studio is separated from the clay modeling studio by glass walls so designers can see their creations being milled and refined. Much of the furniture and interior décor were designed in-house, and some even handmade by NDA designers. Other areas include interior design space, colour and trim studio, and digital design and realisation rooms. The facility has undergone major renovations in 2005 and again in 2015. Image Unavailable, Please Login Concrete walls and parametric shelving: the Infiniti design studio As many in the industry know, there would be no NDA without the late Jerry Hirshberg. A man of many talents, which included music and painting, Hirshberg founded NDA in 1979 after being recruited by Nissan from General Motors, where he penned many designs including the 1971 “boat tail” Buick Riviera. “For our specific culture, Nissan hiring Jerry Hirshberg was huge,” Albaisa says. “Yes, an established and successful studio chief in GM’s Buick Studio, but he was a lover of the wider spectrum of design including product, graphic design, and architecture and equally his love of fine art. This wider view of design influenced our automotive design and culture immensely by diffusing the ‘auto-specific’ tendency in our business.” Albaisa says Hirshberg refused to create the studio in Los Angeles because he felt the team needed separation from automotive culture. “He pushed to select his own architect and insisted that the atmosphere was open, a bit Zen and very modern – and by the way, you can design a car there,” he explains. “At the end of the day, he was not interested in cars, he was obsessed with creating inspired objects, whatever it is. Really, really obsessed.” Image Unavailable, Please Login NDA’s complex features outdoor spaces to scrutinise design work in SoCal sunlight Albaisa remembers the California studio as a place where there was little separation between work and personal life – in a good way. “Basically, we lived in a design commune. We worked on cars, boats, buildings, planes, golf clubs, computers and children’s toys. Together we went to museums, movies, and events. Basically, we were a family of individuals. The rebel culture was tangible and wonderful.” Overhead, the boom of fighter jets from nearby Miramar Marine Corps Air Station can be heard from time to time, evoking images more akin to Top Gun than James Bond Today, much of that spirit lives on. A well-equipped workshop, when not being used for business purposes, offers employees the space and tools to fix their bicycles or work on other personal projects. The paint shop, with a 5-axis spraying machine that Woodhouse believes to be the largest in any design studio on the West Coast, allows designers to impeccably finish their models, or, in Woodhouse’s case, a personal race car at his own expense. A gym and separate yoga studio (in non-COVID times) offer a healthy respite between deadlines and design reviews. Outside, there’s plenty of space to see models in the golden sunlight, as well as a tennis court and a (currently abandoned) beach volleyball court. Overhead, the boom of fighter jets from nearby Miramar Marine Corps Air Station can be heard from time to time, evoking images more akin to Top Gun than James Bond. Image Unavailable, Please Login We’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond. Incidentally, the studio was also the site of a magnificent coral tree, planted when the building was constructed nearly 40 years ago. A centrepiece of the studio’s outdoor area, the tree could be seen from Hirshberg’s, – now Woodhouse’s – office. Not many months after Woodhouse took the reins at NDA, the tree mysteriously split and toppled over. “It was the strangest thing,” Woodhouse says, pointing to the spot where the tree once stood. “We saw it on the security cameras. All of a sudden, you see it just crack and go down. Nobody was around.” Soon after, Hirshberg, long since retired, died from a rare form of cancer. In honour of the tree and the man who watched it grow, Woodhouse planted a new coral tree with a memorial plaque to follow. In this way, the memory of both will continue to inspire future generations of designers, the sort of spiritual equivalent of James Bond telling Ernst Stavro Blofeld: “This is my second life.” When Woodhouse is asked how he’d sum up nearly two years at NDA, he’s unequivocal. “I have known a lot of studios, and I believe NDA San Diego is the best in the world. I feel super lucky.” Image Unavailable, Please Login Nissan Design America Frontier and Pathfinder team
Parametric shelves? Learned something! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mr. Sketchmonkey looks at the Rimac Hypercar design My opinion on the Croatian 1900hp EV RIMAC NEVERA
The new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross Not my description: Toyota may say it's still committed to building sedans because there's still a market for them, BUT that doesn't mean they're not holding back on SUVs and Crossovers! Toyota Brings 2022 Corolla Cross To U.S. To Slot Between The C-HR And RAV4, Hybrid To Follow Billed as the “crossover you didn’t know you needed,” the model follows in the footsteps of the RAV4 and features a prominent grille which is flanked by LED headlights. It also sports plastic body cladding, chiseled bodywork and a contrasting black accent at the base of the windscreen. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login So do they gain admittance to the OTT front end design club or not?
And to close the loop on the one off Roller story, it's for Jay- Z JUNE 2, 2021 Jay-Z and Beyoncé Are the Owners of That Bonkers 19-Foot Rolls-Royce Boat Tail: Report How's this for a clue? The champagne cooler was designed to fit bottles of Armand de Brignac, which the rapper co-owns. By BRYAN HOOD Image Unavailable, Please Login AP Images/Rolls-Royce Jay-Z may be the ultimate New Yorker, but that hasn’t stopped him from embracing the California lifestyle. Just look at the latest (reported) addition to the car collection he and Beyoncé are building. That vehicle, if a report from the UK’s Daily Telegraph is to be believed, is none other than the completely bespoke Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. This isn’t just any custom ride, either, as the picnic-friendly convertible is believed to be the most expensive new car of all time. Image Unavailable, Please Login Rolls-Royce Boat Tail Photo: Courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited. Inspired by the $13 million Rolls-Royce Sweptail, the dazzling blue Boat Tail may be the most decked-out Rolls you ever see. Measuring 19 feet from bumper to bumper, the nautical-themed cabriolet is powered by a 6.75-liter V-12, seats four and comes with a detachable carbon-fiber roof that allows it to transform into a sleek coupé. Most impressive of all, though, are the twin side-opening compartments in the rear that house a champagne cooler, a Christofle picnic set, cocktail tables, matching chairs and a full-sized parasol. There have been signs since last week’s reveal that the car may belong to Jay-Z. First, there were reports that the mystery owner hailed from America and that he and his wife were involved in the music business. Then there’s the Azure blue finish, which many view as a nod to the couple’s first child, 9-year-old Blue Ivy. And then there’s the champagne cooler: In the press images of the vehicle, it’s packed with bottles of Armand de Brignac, the same brand that Jay-Z partially owns. Image Unavailable, Please Login Photo: Courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited. For its part, Rolls-Royce won’t divulge who commissioned the car, but did say that the drop-top’s owner is a person of at least some renown. “In broad terms, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild clients are significant individuals,” a spokesperson for the brand told Robb Report. “They are collectors, patrons of the arts and men and women who have commissioned some highly celebrated architecture. Their ambition is to create a permanent statement: something profound that moves beyond the normal constraints.” Image Unavailable, Please Login The Boat Tail’s champagne cooler was specifically designed to fit bottles of Armand de Brignac. Photo: Courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited. If Jay-Z is in fact the owner of the Boat Tail, it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. He’s long shown an appreciation for the finer things in life. He’s also one of a select few who can afford to own the world’s most expensive car. After all, he did become rap’s first billionaire almost exactly two years ago.
Andrew 'like a bird' ie beak! The peak is constantly being challenged with styling sinking to new depths or as birds fly heights with the one upmanship of bigger is better... (insert BMW M4 front grill picture here) It doesn't help that there are endless lines that the only purpose of is to make the design look more 'busy' as if real design work is actually being done. Horrid comes to mind...
I wasn't actually offended, a bit of a pun that I didn't quite get right. My apologies, I didn't mean to concern you. All the best, Andrew.
Birds of a feather, Andrew. It's all about Peak Beak! This fellow frequently comes around to help on projects. Now, that's an impressive beak!
