All articles by Guy Bird – Page 12

  • Article

    Interview: Chuck Pelly, founder of Designworks USA, The LA Design Challenge and The Design Academy

    2015-05-06T22:06:36Z

    What future trends do you see in car design? One to watch is the humanization of cars. Active aerodynamics can make grilles look very human. Also, I think the acceleration of luxury, personalization and more natural and mixed materials will feature.

  • Article

    Interview: Chuck Pelly, founder of Designworks USA, The LA Design Challenge and The Design Academy

    2015-05-06T22:06:28Z

    'Industry veteran' can be an overused term but Chuck Pelly's 40-plus years of professional design experience definitely makes him qualify. He's perhaps best known for founding DesignworksUSA but his design story started in 1954 after getting a $3000 scholarship from the Fisher Body Craftsman Guild - an annual competition set ...

  • Article

    First Sight: Twin’Z: Renault x Ross Lovegrove

    2015-05-06T19:55:43Z

    Among the many car brand-related unveils within Milan Design Week, Renault was the only marque to actually launch a fully-fledged concept car. Car Design News spoke exclusively to its technical project manager Minh Au Truong and design superstar collaborator Ross Lovegrove to find out more about this much-hyped vehicle.

  • Article

    Design Development: Nissan IDx Freeflow and Nismo concepts

    2015-05-06T19:05:00Z

    The basic exterior shape of what would become the Freeflow was created by Nissan’s in-house designers and was finalized through sketching alone followed by a quarter-scale and then a 1:1 model in 2012. At the start of 2013, Aoki says two half-scale models were made plus an interior 1:1 model (at first just the front part), but by this point the Gen Z helpers were being used more for feedback on th

  • Article

    Design Development: Nissan IDx Freeflow and Nismo concepts

    2015-05-06T19:04:58Z

    Vehicle type 2-door sedanLength 4,100mmWidth (exc. Mirrors) Freeflow 1,700mm/Nismo 1,800mmHeight 1,300mmWheelbase 2,570mmSVP & chief creative officer Shiro NakamuraExecutive design director Mamoru AokiExterior creative team leader Kazuki YamazakiInterior creative team leader Masato IshikawaColour design manager Hideshi SaikiProject started November 2011Project completed September 2013Launch Tokyo

  • Article

    Color & trim focus: Six of Poltrona Frau’s auto collaborations

    2015-05-06T18:52:07Z

    Collaborations between the car industry and the world of product design are fraught with difficulties, are usually fleeting and all too often end in (marketing department) tears.

  • Article

    Behind the scenes and behind the wheel of the Volkswagen XL1

    2015-05-06T18:45:24Z

    In terms of lightweight materials, the monocoque, body panels and bucket seats are all made using carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) with aluminum structures at the front and back and magnesium utilized for the wheels. Final kerbweight for the XL1 is 795kg - some 505kg more than the original 2002 ...

  • Article

    Behind the scenes and behind the wheel of the Volkswagen XL1

    2015-05-06T18:45:16Z

    That seating and proportional change - to a wider car with a staggered two-seat layout, with the driver slightly forward of the single passenger - was implemented on what was to become the XL1. "The XL1's shape is more comfortable", Wouda confirms. "We still needed to have the front surface ...

  • Article

    Design Development: Ford Edge concept

    2015-05-06T18:42:15Z

    Two concept models were built as they had to make appearances in different parts of the world at broadly similar times. According to George, the interior and exterior design phases were started at the same time, in early 2013:

  • Article

    Design Development: Ford Edge concept

    2015-05-06T18:41:59Z

    Vehicle type mid-size SUV ConceptLength 4,689mmWidth (exc. Mirrors) 2,119mm Height 1,699mmWheelbase 2,849mm

  • Article

    Show Review: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

    2015-05-06T18:40:16Z

    Call us creatures of habit or plain old-fashioned but we tend to kick-off our Goodwood Festival of Speed visits at the bottom of the hill in the Cathedral Paddock, where a normally unassuming bit of hardstanding on Lord March's estate becomes, temporarily, a classic motorsport pit lane and garage where ...

  • Article

    Show Review: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

    2015-05-06T18:40:06Z

    Just beyond the mid-engined wonders were another batch of US cars, but this time late-60s pony classics with a twist, like the 1968 Beverly Hills Mustang Mustero - turning the iconic Ford into a still strangely alluring pick-up...

  • Article

    Show Review: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

    2015-05-06T18:39:55Z

    Cartier's ‘Style et Luxe' display is always high on our agenda and although this year's categories seemed a little more disparate than in other - featuring everything from pre-War supercharged Mercedes cabriolets to late-60s US Pony cars - there was still much to admire.

  • Article

    Show Review: Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014

    2015-05-06T18:39:44Z

    The last weekend in June sees Britain going crazy for outdoor entertainment: Wimbledon tennis, Glastonbury festival and, of course, Goodwood Festival of Speed, now in its 21st year. This year's featured marques include 120 years of Mercedes-Benz in motor sport and the centenary of Maserati, under the Festival theme - ...

  • Article

    Design Development: Nissan BladeGlider concept

    2015-05-06T18:37:22Z

    The unusual exterior proportions heavily dictated the interior package. With such a triangular shape, a central driver with two passengers behind was the logical conclusion. Early sketches were made from mid-to-late 2012 by young designer Yosuke Takaki, while the exterior design was still being developed.

  • Article

    Design Development: Nissan BladeGlider concept

    2015-05-06T18:37:11Z

    Vehicle type Three-seater EV sports conceptLength 4,200mmWidth 1,000mm (front) 1,890mm (rear)Height 1,140mmWheelbase, 2,800mm

  • Article

    Book Review: Art of the Le Mans Race Car

    2015-05-06T18:37:04Z

    Art of the Le Mans Race Car is the perfect Christmas gift for racing car lovers and an essential car design studio reference book.

  • Article

    First Sight: Nissan Qashqai (2014)

    2015-05-06T18:28:09Z

    Having already sold more than two million units worldwide in seven years, a betting man wouldn't have put money on Nissan designers ‘going all radical' for the mk2 Qashqai.

  • Article

    Designer Interviews: Mark Fetherston, Mercedes-Benz exterior designer

    2015-05-06T18:24:15Z

    CDN The 2009 SLS was your breakthrough car but it was stylistically quite different from other Mercedes of the time. How did it happen?MF It started back in 2006 as an internal project within Sindelfingen but then other Mercedes studios heard what we were doing and did proposals. No-one was ...