car design thread | Page 661 | FerrariChat

car design thread

Discussion in 'Creative Arts' started by jm2, Oct 19, 2012.

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  1. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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  2. Tenney

    Tenney F1 Rookie
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    Dinsdale!

    The anti-Cybertruck ...?
     
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  3. energy88

    energy88 Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Next step: Then there's always this illustrative tutorial to meat cuts...

     
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  4. anunakki

    anunakki Seven Time F1 World Champ
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  5. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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  6. Jack-the-lad

    Jack-the-lad Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    Apparently this is from the Pininfarina display at Pebble Beach week (“Cargasm”©️me:)). Did they do themselves a favor by reminding us of how beautiful their cars once were? Delicate and elegant vs. imposing and dramatic. Compare and contrast?

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  7. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    So I don't know what the consensus is regarding Bugatti Design, but I'm not a fan. This announcement was made today.
    "BUGATTI recently named a new design director, promoting from within after former director of design Achim Anscheidt retired last month after 19 years at the company. Frank Heyl steps up to the top job, himself a 15-year servant to Bugatti and deputy to Anschedit since 2019.

    Speaking to Car Design News from Pebble Beach, he explained the importance of maintaining a long-term vision for the brand, how Bugattis are “shaped by speed” and spoke of the “joyful” relationship between design and engineering. Interestingly, he also sees great potential for AI to reshape design, if done right."

    Bugatti’s new design director tells CDN about his approach to design and why a close relationship with the engineering team has taken its cars to the next level

    Bugatti recently named a new design director, promoting from within after a long-standing figure stepped down. Former director of design Achim Anscheidt retired last month after 19 years at the company, with Frank Heyl stepping up to the top job, himself a 15-year servant to Bugatti and deputy to Anschedit since 2019.

    Heyl began his career as an exterior designer in the late noughties and more recently played a leading role in shaping models including the Chiron, Divo, Bolide and W16 Mistral. Speaking to Car Design News from Pebble Beach, he explained the importance of maintaining a long-term vision for the brand, how Bugattis are “shaped by speed” and spoke of the “joyful” relationship with engineering.

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    Former director of design Achim Anscheidt (left) retired in July

    Car Design News: You’ve been at Bugatti since 2008. How has the approach to design evolved during your time with the company?

    Frank Heyl: The process has come a long way. I started using Alias version 9.0 on a silicon graphics workstation. So I consider myself a digital native when it comes to 3D – modeling my own designs when I was still a senior designer. I also very much enjoyed the clay process, especially the art of taping. While I still remember having a lot of fun sculpting the Veyron Super Sport and other projects from clay in symbiosis with some of the most incredible clay modelers, the game has moved on. The software and hardware have become considerably more sophisticated. And so have the users. By now, through the art of the digital sculptors’ expertise, the transition from initial idea to 3D is so quick, it enables us to explore many more themes in much less time. This is why we do the entire process in digital.

    We are not in the pretty pictures drawing business

    Looking ahead I see huge potential in AI. In the near future I think this will be like the step from manual marker sketches to Photoshop. Imagine a design studio without Photoshop today. So far however I have only observed AI-based design work being a recycling of shapes that already exist, somehow rendered into pretty pictures. We are not in the pretty pictures drawing business. A sketch is merely a tool to solve a complex problem.

    The designer’s actual job to come up with original ideas will remain untouched by this tool. But the topic is highly interesting. It feels a bit like Alias version 9.0 when what you want is version 2024. But I am sure also the rate of progress will be exponential and AI will become an essential tool if not even a creativity multiplier for designers. I find it particulary interesting to see combinations of language models and diffusion models like super-prompting Midjourney with ChatGPT.

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    The Bugatti Divo

    CDN: There will clearly be a wider range of responsibilities moving up to design director. But how would you describe the ‘heart’ of the role – what will be your primary focus?

    FH: The most interesting part is to maintain the overall vision. The string of thought that leads the brand into the future. This is a multi dimensional, interdisciplinary undertaking that on one hand goes far beyond the design of the next product, branching out into the most pioneering technologies and material sciences, as well as respecting the herritage of the brand and a deep understanding of its main contributors that have shaped history to create the nimbus that we perceive as Bugatti or Rimac today.

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    The succession plan keeps a Bugatti veteran at the head of design

    At the same time it is very much about the core essence of the next product in terms of the integration of purpose. Beauty comes from the aesthetic of purpose. And the purpose can be many things. Let’s take speed as an example. Speed is a byproduct of power and efficiency. Yet just a powerful drivetrain thrown into the most aerodynamically efficient body doesn’t necessarily lead to a breathtakingly beautiful product that will stand the test of time and go down in the history books as the most outstanding Bugatti. After all it is about creating products that have a soul, that have a certain carisma – an attitude, a personality, a character – that speaks to us.

    Mashing ingredients together doesn’t necessarily result in a product you fall in love with

    We like to say ‘shaped by speed’ when we describe the Chiron Super Sport. Yes there is something about the shier brutality with which that machine hammers on beyond 300 mph but there is more to this. If you just simply mash all the ingredients together, it doesn’t necessarily result in a product you fall in love with. As much as buying a Bugatti is more an investment into an asset than a car purchase, ultimately it is also a very emotional thing. Your heart needs to tell your mind that it is worth spending millions for it. It is the art of not only fulfilling the purpose but to tie it in to a story. If the car tells a story it is authentic. And our cars need to be authentic because only like this they can be timeless. And they need to be timeless because they will be enjoyed by automobile connoisseurs for decades and get passed on from generation to generation.

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    The Bugatti Bolide

    The art of integration plays a vital part in this aswell. What sounds like a mundane word actually has a rather complex meaning. It is about understanding the inner workings of all the key aspects – concept, drivetrain, electric, chassis, body or aero – and to understand the experts in each of those fields to create the next level. To pioneer, to redicule what was believed possible until today and to come up with a compelling design that weaves all these aspects together, staying true to the brand DNA through every fibre.

    Focus is important too. It is not worth trying to create the car that is best at everything at once. So it is vital to have a strong vision and a firm understanding of what you want to achieve with the next product. For this it is also important to have a strong bond with the other departments and to agree a clear focus for each project beforehand.

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    Chief exterior designer Jan Schmid (far left), Frank Heyl, Achim Anscheidt, and chief interior designer Ignacio Martinez (far right)

    At Bugatti Rimac the design department reports directly to or visionary CEO Mate Rimac. I can not emphasise enough how much the next-gen Bugatti and Rimac products benefit from this simple organsational circumstance. Like this, the design department can influence the concept and package from the very beginning to come up with the purest design, incarnated to the highest degree. That’s why it is no over exaggeration to say that for a company to be truely successful with their products, design needs to be at the centre of the development process.

    CDN: Your first project as design director will be the successor to the Chiron. Can you tell us anything about how that design process is going?

    FH: It is the accumulated knowledge of the Veyron and Chiron programmes that is our foundation. This is a sky high platform to start from. It is the pioneering spirit that made the Veyron the first production car to exceed 250 mph. It is the blood, sweat and tears that we went through to get the Chiron to exceed 300 mph. But it is the style in which these accomplishments where achieved. The exceptional quality. The individualisation options. Nothing is too expensive, nothing is too beautiful. A Bugatti is primarily a luxury car that also happens to be the fastest. Ettore Bugatti once said: “If comparable, it is no longer Bugatti.”

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    The Bugatti Chiron – a 300mph investment asset

    The upcoming Chiron successor is an off-the-white-page, no compromises automobile that will demonstrate the highest level of integration of any Bugatti product ever made. It will be the most extraordinary driver experience, a peice of art and automobile couture. And it will still be some time before I can really talk about it, but I am very much looking forward to the unveiling.

    CDN: Bugatti is about “speed, luxury and elegance” and a lot of that comes down to the relationship between design and engineering – how would you describe that relationship at Bugatti, I assume you work very closely?

    We managed to take team culture to a level I hadn’t dared to dream of

    FH: It is with the greatest joy that I can whole heartedly say that never before have we had such an innovative, pioneering and uncompromising group of engineers like the one Emilio Scervo has put together at Bugatti Rimac. It is an honour to work in this environment. We at Bugatti Rimac also take great pride in the fact that we regard the development crew as one team. I like to keep low hierachies and to put free thinking, creativity and skill before rank. It is a matter of the problems that we are solving every day not to divide the team up into to a classic “them against us.”

    Our designers need to understand all the technical aspects of the development process, just like I expect our engineers to understand aesthetic aspects, may they be proportion, surfacing or graphic related. Since the formation of the joint company between Bugatti and Rimac, we have managed to take this team culture to a level that I hadn’t dared to dream of before.
     
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  8. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Goes without saying, the Dino is one of the top 10 car designs of all time as far as I'm concerned. One of my close designer peeps has had his for @50 yrs. Every time he brings it over we just sit and stare at it. He and I believe the 296 captures some of that romance without being too retro. It also pays homage to the 250 LM. That car in the photo is cool but no where near as great as the Dino is IMHO. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
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  9. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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  10. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    "With its stunning aluminum coachwork and unique, six carb engine, the Kurtis Sorrell won the American Dream Cars class at Pebble Beach" Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
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  11. Edward 96GTS

    Edward 96GTS F1 World Champ
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    old bugatti’s look light whereas the new ones look like tanks. add a turet and send them to do battle.
     
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  12. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Last couple of weeks a group of former designers have been discussing Bugatti and its design vocabulary, or lack thereof. It hasn't been very positive.
     
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  13. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Something we haven't talked much about is AI and how it will affect car design. Every day on my Social Media feeds, AI generated designs pop up. Some are good, some are OK and some.......
    It will change the course of automotive design, good & not so good. Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  14. Edward 96GTS

    Edward 96GTS F1 World Champ
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    ^ i love that! where can i get her, er i mean, it?
     
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  15. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    This is always relevant.
    Clay Modeling: Why Clay Modeling Remains Relevant in a Technology-Driven Industry
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    Automotive Design
    Automobiles have developed to a point of extreme sophistication. They can drive, park, and find locations on their own in some cases. Heck, humans have even shot a vehicle into space.

    Despite the rampant advances in technology, automobiles still have a pretty simple element in their make up. On the design end of things, automobiles are still fleshed out using modeling clay.

    Yep, people use clay to design their vehicles while thousands of dollars in computer technology sits looking on. But why?

    We’re going to discuss the practice of using clay modeling in auto design, giving you a better appreciation for how things get done in the car world.

    Why Use Clay Modeling?
    Cars didn’t always have the same style, aesthetic value, and design as they do now. Sure, there was the wealthy elite who bought the most fashionable cars from day one, but most people who bought a car did so because they needed one.

    It was a utilitarian device used for transportation. As things moved forward, starting in the late 1920s, vehicles hit the market with a little more variety. When the industry was strong, consumers had the option to focus on more aesthetic qualities rather than utilitarian ones.

    A man named Harley Earl was a vehicle stylist at this time. He pushed the conception of a car from being a useful object toward the idea that it could be a work of art.

    A useful, beautiful accessory rather than something to drive your way into town with. Earl noticed that blueprints and drawings of cars were not quite conveying the idea of what a car would be.

    At the same time, you had to show ideas without devoting thousands of dollars to building real models of possible cars. His solution was modeling clay.

    It allowed him to design a vehicle with extreme specificity. Additionally, people looking to purchase or distribute the vehicle could see and feel it before it was put into production.

    But why have we kept this seemingly primitive process instead of working with, say, computer animation?

    Artistic Value
    There’s something special about a sculpture. The fact that auto design is pulling from practices that are ancient and historically associated with high art is something important.

    Seeing a clay model of a new design is similar to seeing an artist’s studio. You walk in and see the works of art that haven’t been hung at a gallery, and maybe they’re not entirely finished.

    There’s something to be said about feeling like you’re involved in the process in this way. Potential customers can see the product and feel as though they’re seeing a little glimpse into the future. Packaged in an artistic rendition of a physical car.

    Malleability
    It’s practical to create things with clay as well. Instead of fussing with computer design and machinery to design vehicles out of metal, working with clay allows craftsmen to fine-tune their products with a human touch.

    The element of the design should have an element of human intervention in it. While humans are at the helm of great technological machinery, they often don’t get their hands dirty.

    Making small grooves in a moment of inspiration, or creating a design out of your own mind and your own hands are all things that play into the final result.

    Let’s give an example. Think about walking into a kiosk in the mall and buying a cup of coffee. You press a few buttons, see the machinery find the right cup, pump the right coffee, and present it to you to take.

    Drinking that coffee is probably going to be fine, but it won’t be exceptional. Now, think about going to a really fine cafe. You order your usual drink and watch the barista take their time with it, using the equipment in a way that requires skill and craft.

    The second cup of coffee, somehow, will probably be more enjoyable. Everyone’s preferences are different, but a little authenticity goes a long way.

    Simplicity of Use
    Someone designing a vehicle with clay isn’t going to have any technological hiccups in the process. Sure, there might be some particular methods to use with certain forms of clay or styles of car, but the learning curve is going to be relatively non-existent.

    We play with clay from the time we’re babies. It’s intuitive to us and it’s one of the few mediums that allows people to really use their hands and create something of their own.

    Even sculpting requires extensive tools, chisels, stone, etc. Clay is so malleable, agreeable, and satisfying to use that it makes sense for individuals to want to use it in their creations.

    It clears the barriers between a person’s idea of a car and the actual design that comes out. Don’t get us wrong, there are certainly a lot of tools used in the creation of these designs, but the principle remains the same.

    The Process is Very Involved
    The art of clay modeling isn’t as simple as stepping into a studio and whipping up a fancy looking car. There are months of preparation, sketches, planning, and decision making involved before the final product is made.

    It’s a difficult thing, and that’s why talented individuals are the ones designing our cars. That human element is involved in each step of the way, though. Instead of designing parts and frames online, people have to make conscious decisions and use artistry as they make the machines.

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    In a world where almost everything is automated or influenced by sophisticated technology, it should be appreciated that vehicles are crafted. In the old way, by human hands, and with human intuition.

    Want to Learn More?
    The history of clay modeling is just one specialized area of car history that will open your eyes. There’s a lot involved in making cars, and a lot has happened to get us to where we are today.
     
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  16. 4CamGT

    4CamGT F1 Rookie

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    I love the simplicity and a clear theme. Expresses American design culture in the best way. Something that’s missing from many current “human” designs I’ve been seeing lately.
     
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  17. anunakki

    anunakki Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    Like humans, the majority of AI design is bad, a bit is decent and a small amount is really great.

    I will say, as far as creature design, what im seeing from Ai is generally better than what Ive seen from human designers in many many years.

    My $.02

    And I really dig that car
     
  18. Peter Tabmow

    Peter Tabmow Formula Junior

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    So we can judge AI a success if it follows Sturgeon's Law ("90% of everything is crap")?
     
  19. Tenney

    Tenney F1 Rookie
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    And could fit in the glovebox of the new one ...?
     
  20. Tenney

    Tenney F1 Rookie
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    Among even the better AI stuff, do you sometimes see an opportunity to wade back in for a tune-up here and there? Wonder if AI can be frightened yet ...
     
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  21. Tenney

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    Cool car and gal, yet still dig Spiny Norman ...

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  22. 330 4HL

    330 4HL Formula 3

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    What an elegant way to transport 4 people & their surfboards to the lido --
     
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  23. anunakki

    anunakki Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    Oh yeah, I see AI design as a starting point. Then the human hand can go in and refine it.
     
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  24. Peter Tabmow

    Peter Tabmow Formula Junior

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    Awesome Monty Python reference...
     
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  25. Peter Tabmow

    Peter Tabmow Formula Junior

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    Graphic designers are making quite a sport of trolling AI logo generators. I've yet to see a single AI design I would say is a clever, original, and/or memorable integration of word and image. So far, in my opinion, AI has a 100% failure rate on the graphic design section of the Turing Test....
     
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