10 years since this concept dropped... in the 10 years they've kept the same mantra with a few standouts like the GP3. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Some in progress shots of the clay development of the Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login 12C.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Winner of the Design Class at Villa D'Este last week. "Biscione supercar has won the Design Concept Award, bringing Alfa Romeo's successes in this category to 5" Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's a wonderful looking car, but I still think they could have done something less finicky with the headlights. Just seems overly complicated and kind of messy relative to the rest of it. All the best, Andrew.
How about some more AI truck designs of imaginary trucks? These are from a click-bait site promoting the latest Chevy trucks. Sorry for the pixellation as I had to enlarge the offerings: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
AI pilot de-selected the Fitz & Van feature on the bottom sample for closer-to-production non-widetrack dose?
Is it time to post an R.I.P. Spindle Grill thread? This arrived this morning and mostly concerns the 2026 Lexus IS being refreshed for the third or fourth time. Although this material is mostly intended for Lexus IS fan bois, there is a lot in it implying that Lexus is getting ready to abandon the spindle grill. A few screen shots below: 2024 on top- 2026 on bottom Image Unavailable, Please Login Influence of LBX illustrating where new grill pattern is being integrated into the bumper now Image Unavailable, Please Login The new grill will be very similar to Toyota's new "hammerhead" design Image Unavailable, Please Login The video creator is a bit like our good friend The Sketch Monkey and he does make some interesting and constructive comments. 17 minutes long. In another development, Lexus may be eliminating the Lexus logo on the back of forthcoming vehicles and replacing it with Lexus spelled out. Does look better on some cars depending on how much or how little real estate is available on the respective rear end.
For me, this is a "swing & a miss" Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Design leadership. Autoweek col by Dave Rand. In Search Of Automotive Design Leadership Hard to achieve, harder to hold onto, design leadership is important in establishing directional trends and influence. BY DAVE RANDPUBLISHED: MAY 22, 2024 Image Unavailable, Please Login GENERAL MOTORS There was a time when I thought I knew which automotive manufacturer was the design leader. In fact, I had bet my design career on that assumption. But looking around today, I am less sure if I could make the same call, partially because there are so many more players, but also because there does not seem to be one clear, undeniable number one. I may be one of the few who even thinks about this, but have you ever heard of a designer or company that wouldn’t like to achieve it? To be clear, when I talk about design leadership, it’s about aesthetics, and the ability to establish directional trends that influence and are copied by others. Ideally, it’s the ability to do this over a sustained period of time, so as not to appear that it was just a matter of luck that lasted just one product cycle. Image Unavailable, Please Login Tesla Cybertruck Breaks All the Design Rules And while it could be argued that design leadership can be established by companies that introduce new types of vehicles—Ford creating the “pony car” trend with the Mustang, and Chrysler with the Minivan—this is really more about, well, styling. To start with a historical (and admittedly purely American) perspective, when General Motors established it’s Art and Color Section in 1927, Alfred Sloan’s far-sightedness in hiring Harley Earl was driven by the understanding that the public had an interest in the appearance of their cars, and were willing to pay a premium for it. Being the first corporate styling department of its kind, it’s easy to understand the influence GM had at the time; design was an integral element of the company. By comparison, Ford would finally establish its own nascent design department in 1935. And while GM’s dominance would continue through the 1930s and after the war, it didn’t mean that they always had the most progressive or significant designs. Image Unavailable, Please Login Is Styling Going out of Style? The 1934 Chrysler Airflow was certainly more advanced, but it was a failure with the public and set Chrysler on a conservative design path for the next twenty years. The 1949 Ford was one of the first post-war designs to introduce the smooth, slab sided “pontoon” theme. Yet the previous year GM released its first post-war designs including the 1948 Cadillac, with its embryonic tail fins that would set the trend for the whole industry for the next decade. But in the ‘50s design leadership was clearly established by another manufacturer when Chrysler, which had finally emerged from its design hibernation in 1955 with its “forward look,” developed a new line of vehicles for 1957 that literally shook up the competition. The cars were proportionally newer, being longer and lower. There’s the famous story that when GM designers got an early sneak peak of the new Chrysler lineup, they convinced management to redo the already released 1959 models. That’s how significant these cars were. Image Unavailable, Please Login THE ENTHUSIAST NETWORK//GETTY IMAGES 1966 Buick Riviera. But it would only last a few years when starting with the 1961 redesign of the Plymouth and Dodge, Chrysler would produce some truly odd-looking vehicles. It was the 1960s when GM regained its leadership under Bill Mitchell’s lead with some of the best work the company had ever done. With the ’63 Corvette Stingray and Buick Riviera, the ’65 Chevrolet Corvair, ’66 Toronado and redesigned Riviera, ’67 Cadillac Eldorado, the ’68 midsize A-body Pontiac Lemans, Oldsmobile Cutlass to the ’70 Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, GM Styling (renamed Design in 1972) produced one great design after another, and set design direction for American cars for the decade. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below There were exceptions of course, like the ’61 Lincoln Continental and the aforementioned ’64 Ford Mustang, both being highly influential designs in their own right. By the mid 80’s Ford had established an aerodynamic approach to its design with the ’84 Thunderbird, Cougar, and Continental Mark VII. With the introduction in 1986 of the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable, Ford had successfully established a clear identity, though it isn’t clear how much influence it had at the time as others were also taking automotive aerodynamics more seriously. Image Unavailable, Please Login KEN FAUGHT//GETTY IMAGES Chrysler Canada President Yves Landry and the Eagle Vision in 1992. But by the early 1990s it was Chrysler’s turn once again, with the LH platform-based Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid, and Eagle Vision introduced in 1993. These cars touted their “cab-forward” design that became the proportional signature of the new lineup, being very clean and modern and finally a clear advance from the previous uninspired K-car based portfolio. So, clearly achieving design leadership is a tentative situation. And once having achieved it is no guarantee of maintaining it. There are factors beyond the influence of the studios as well. The financial health of a company has in the past been a major constraint, as with Chrysler’s K-cars, or in the case of Ford’s Taurus—an opportunity to take a design risk that helped save the company from bankruptcy. And while design leadership may be compelled by circumstances, it’s never by simple chance. In all cases it’s driven by those who have the vision and will to achieve it—and are lucky enough to work for a company run by those who feel the same way. Image Unavailable, Please Login DAVE RAND COLUMNIST Dave started scribbling cars in his math books in elementary school and eventually parlayed his enthusiasm into a career in automotive design. He started at General Motors in 1978, working there for more than 32 years and eventually becoming the Executive Director of Global Design. He later worked as a consultant for both domestic and foreign companies. When he isn’t preoccupied with home renovations, Dave likes standing back and contemplating his award-winning 1966 Jaguar E-Type coupe. Read full bio
My grandfather Daugherty was a car guy. He loved Packards (And Model T pickups, and Ford tractors). When they stopped making them, he got a '61 Lincoln Continental convertible. I remember riding around in it with the top down when I was very young - four or five years old - and I thought it was from the future compared to our '59 Plymouth station wagon (Like Christine, but a wagon). It was also the classiest shade of yellow ever. You wouldn't think yellow could be subtle, but nobody told the guy who came up with this color that. This is exactly how I remember it. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That doesn't look like it's trying to be yellow. That is undeniably a very light green. Maybe there's an uncanny valley for color?
Happy that the photo you picked is the first year version with the bumper in the middle of the grill. The great irony of this Continental is that as much as it is admired as an absolute icon of design the Cadillac killed it in sales. The other is how this started as a Thunderbird proposal.
Agree, you're right. But I don't do 'cute'. And yes there's definitely a market for that design vocabulary. The Japanese are masters at it.