Coventry University's famous Transport Design course celebrates its 40th year. Car Design News headed to the historic city in the British Midlands to check out the class of 2012.
Jamie Barrett
Qoros 2020
The first of two Qoros-sponsored projects, the brief of which was to design a D-segment sedan for the new Chinese-German brand for the year 2020. Barrett's proposal focuses on adding power and confidence to the design with strong fenders, a shallow DLO and a face that sees the front lamps run into the grille in order to maximize visual width and optimize brand cognition.
Claudio Gianluca Barbato
How heightened emotional attachment, interaction and pleasure of use contribites to the sustainability of a car
Barbato's single-seater mixes elements of both motorbikes and cars, with the project investigating how "heightened emotional attachment, interaction and pleasure of use contributes to the sustainability of the car." Using a single-plane surface, manipulated to clothe the car's mechanicals, its form language evokes hand-beaten British and Italian racers, inspired by a Jaguar E-Type sculpture Barbato created for that car's 50th anniversary.
Michael Bryden
Aston Martin Helicopter
"The project's core aim was to create a design that embodies the exclusivity and convenience of helicopter travel with the emotional appeal of the Aston Martin brand." The aircraft - which is optimized for use on a super yacht thanks to its twin-rotor setup - makes subtle use of key Aston Martin cues without resorting to simply applying the brand's grille to the front. Instead elements such as the front fender vent are reinterpreted in places more appropriate for the helicopter's very different proportions.
Kushan Chavda
Kujenga
While perhaps not the slickest project in terms of design execution, Chavda's Kujenga vehicle for rural Asia stood out for its rethink of how vehicles can be made, modified and used to enhance the lives of specific communities.
Georgia's Chronakis
Iconic Luxury Vehicle for Japan
*Winner Aston Martin Exterior Design Award*
Harnessing the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi Sabi - as fundamental as Greek aesthetics in the West - Chronakis' project is the creation of a new iconic luxury vehicle design for Japan. While we normally associate mass-produced Japanese products with clinical precision, this consciously non-car form introduces the bespoke qualities of imperfection (though asymmetry and surface treatment) and impermanence in order to create a spiritual bond between owner and vehicle.
Continues →
