Car Design Trends

There is a corner of the Korean auto industry which, if not forever German, is taking on an increasingly strong Teutonic influence. just-auto catches up with Hyundai-Kia design chief Peter Schreyer and his colleagues.

At this year’s Paris Motor Show, we noticed the rise of the importance of the Color and Trim Designer, sometimes also known as the Color, Material and Finish (CMF) Designer. Here at Allegorithmic we share this passion for materials, so here is an ode to the materials at the 2016 Paris Motor Show.

“I believe good design is about finding beauty — an emotional connection with the consumer.” Those words might sound reminiscent of Apple’s celebrated design guru. Their source is actually Henrik Fisker, a legendary car designer who brings the same predilection for expensive sophistication to automobiles that Jony Ive does to premium consumer electronics.

Simon Cox is in thoughtful mood, as you’d expect from one of the more cerebral car designers. Take his breakthrough concept, the Isuzu Vehi-Cross: in 1993 Cox helped conceive a vehicle which fused a 4×4’s toughness with a sports car’s performance. Such ‘crossovers’ are utterly routine now, but it took another decade for the Infiniti […]

There aren’t that many great British car designers, but Ian Callum is definitely one of them. Born in Scotland in 1954, he’s created some of the best-looking cars to come from the empire of overcooked vegetables since the E-Type. […] We caught up with Callum as the second generation of Jaguar XF made its world debut. […]

An interview with the Apple collaborator and prolific designer of jets, jackets and smartwatches about why he finds time to daydream and the reason most automobile design leaves him cold.

Shiro Nakamura, the man behind the current GT-R, 370Z, Juke, Cube and most other current Nissans, sits down with CNET trackside at the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans to talk about how design is changing.

As the auto industry moves towards considering vehicles that require less driver input, profound questions are being raised concerning the space inside the vehicle and how the driver spends his time. Chris Wright talked to Ford of Europe’s design director Chris Bird and former design director Martin Smith about the potential implications of autonomous drive […]

We chat with Gerry McGovern before the New York Auto Show on self-driving cars, the limits of technology, and the enduring power of beauty. It’s a fascinating time to be a car designer. With the impending rise of self-driving vehicles, new technology for better visibility on the road, and more, there’s never been a better […]

The BMW i8 may be the most futuristic looking car on the road. But elements of its sliced-and-angled appearance, which might be called the layered look, are starting to show up on other vehicles and hint at an emerging trend in auto design. Layering is key to the “stream flow” design language of BMW’s “i” […]

Fabric covered vehicles have been around for more than 100 years but BMW, having started a long term internal research project back in 2001, finally showed the public their interpretation of this material as a body skin, seven years later, in 2008. The BMW ‘Gina’ was a great interpretation of a traditional construction method and […]

Motor City Masters pits ten designers aiming to win $100k, a new car, and the possibility to work on a concept vehicle for GM. Each week the designers will take up challenges, and one will be asked to leave. Pretty standard for reality shows. And each week we’ll do our recap & chat after the […]

We’re only a few days away from “Decoding Design,” Ford Motor Company’s second panel discussion in a series called “Designing Innovation.” […] We caught some time with Moray to tell us a bit more about his history with automotive design and his work with Ford.

Gannet Design founder Ulfert Janssen is one of the few automotive and transportation designers in the world who works in both the two- and four-wheeled domains. Ulfert these days works primarily in transportation and product design and development, but spent a decade at Renault’s Barcelona design studio involved in advanced concept design, with stints at […]

In today’s auto industry, where famed Japanese quality and durability are increasingly a given, design is king and, among designers, South Koreans are hot property. From General Motors’ bold Chevrolet Camaro to the quintessential British gentlemen’s Bentley, more top models carry the flair and signature of a group of designers from South Korea, which some […]

Picture The MG Icon, the car which Stephen Harper oversaw the design of while working for SAIC. What is the most challenging aspect of designing new cars suitable for the production line? For me, the most challenging thing and the most important thing today is creating enough difference between cars that people buy because the […]

We talk about Infiniti’s design direction, his influences, and what it means to have good design We recently sat down with Shiro Nakamura, who oversees the design departments of Infiniti, Nissan, and Datsun as creative director of Nissan Motor Corp. Much of Nakamura’s recent efforts have been refining and redefining Infiniti’s direction as it rolled […]

The bi-annual Frankfurt motor show is always an exhibition of Germanic industrial might – for better or worse – and 2013 was no exception.