if you get "HIFI" channel, check out "Mystery Cars" ...a close up of several important GM concept cars, from JP Sloan & GM Heritage collections
it's always fun 'after the fact' to see the other proposals design teams work up. here's some from Jag from the '90's from Car Design News: "Four scale model images of proposed designs for the Jaguar XJ used for customer focus groups circa 1997. 'K' was thought to be the most advanced, 'T' was seen as the most evolutionary, the silhouette of 'W' was thought to be too generic with a high tail, while the sloping front end of 'Y' was not Jaguar" Image Unavailable, Please Login
it's not specifically mentioned anywhere, but with the prospective build of a limited number Sergio concept by Pininfarina, I wonder if they will in fact be based on the Ferrari 458 mechanicals? The show car, though static, certainly appears to have a few 458 components. Given the resistance that JG's gotten from Ferrari for the P4/5C, and also the recent redesign Lancia Stratos project being headed off by Ferrari, it'll be interesting to see the result? SERGIO CONCEPT CAR - YouTube Pininfarina Sergio Concept: design story and gallery - Car Body Design
interesting page, I'd not seen this before!? CAR DESIGNS BY CCS STUDENTS & GRADS THE OLSEN YEARS 1987 - 2000
thanks for posting i know most of those guys & gals,great stuff,and was lucky enough to work with several as well Mr. Olsen ran the Design Dept.at CCS during those years,and had some outstanding students that have gone on to great career success,Ralph Gilles being one of them.
while I realize it's staged,had to laugh a bit,the studio is so pristine usually it's rather chaotic when the clay is flying with clay plied up around the model but it does give one a sense of the process,etc.
A lot of words from all these people but not sure how many are their own versus some PR flak's. Also afraid that some of these utterances may actually reflect their thinking. Aesthetics make a car desirable. Desirable = sales. As Lutz asserted in his first book if the aesthetics are good enough the customer will not cross shop as they want the one car and will pay to have it; no tossing cash on the hood to make a close. A lot of these folks used "simplicity". Some of them need to get struck by a bolt of lightning for using that term based upon some of their cars. I wish the exact wording of Bill Mitchell's quote would come to me but it went something like "simple but not like Simon". Mitchell certainly defied his comment lots of times but the underlying idea is sound - simplicity is not making something so simple as to be boring and everything that there is to know about discernible in a single glance. Simplicity is not continuing to add more that does not belong; just enough then stop. The opposite is design by committee where an assortment of elements from different designs get made into a camel. Some camels can be OK, some are abominations but none will stand up to design purity. Outstanding design starts with getting the proportions and relationships right. Design leadership requires looking forward and not being scared to move forward. For design that also means pushing engineering and manufacturing. GM at its greatest was able to push the system to make the solutions that allowed the designs to be realized.
Mitchell did say....don't make it"simple like Simon" but that may also be attributed to Harley Earl explaining the concept to a young designer: he held a cue/billiard ball in one hand & a baseball in the other hand.......then asked " which is more interesting?".....as the story goes,the designer made the "right" choice Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
one more week before the final presentations.........and everyone is scrambling as usual. Image Unavailable, Please Login
The book on Virgil Exner just came in. I wasn't around, but I miss the elegance, optimism and excitement of that era. The sketch of the 1968 Stutz Blackhawk boat-tail coupe on page 148 blew me away. (I couldn't find a link.)
it's a great book IMO. loved reading all the behind the scenes intrigue......some things never change
Ford is the sponsor the school combined my Senior class with the MFA class in the beginning,but the past several weeks each class has gone it alone the students were asked to design a vehicle that would appeal to the younger generation that no longer "likes" cars for one of 25 the "mega cities" (pop. over 15mil) around the globe. each student had to choose one of the cities,do the research.....then design the vehicle cities chosen: NYC,Shanghai,Sao Paolo,Seoul,Buenos Aires,Paris,Tokyo,Hong Kong,Istanbul next week is the presentation to Ford Management should be good
anyone that has an interest in car design,but never wanted to spring for the high cost of becoming a subscriber,the Italian magazine Auto & Design now has an electronic edition online: www.autodesignmagazine.com
Interesting that the Corvair, intermediate Chevelle and full size are all in the same studio but not the Chevy II. Jeff
