Design Stories

Designer Andre Hudson talks about the Hyundai Vision G Coupe Concept We assign a lot of meaning to cars. Hummers, Camrys, and Jaguars all mean vastly different things that, for the most part, we can generally agree on. But what makes a car sensual? Or aggressive? Or sensible? Designers have to make many small decisions, small and […]

Growing up in Liverpool, Ian and Neill’s earliest memories involve traversing the UK in the family van to attend car racing events, and nodding off each night under a poster of a Ferrari 308. “I always get goosebumps when I hear that acceleration, when I see the flames from the exhaust, when I hear the […]

[…] We spoke with Sang Yup Lee, Bentley’s head of exterior and advanced design. Lee, 42, was previously at VW’s California studio and before that designed the Camaro at GM. He says the EXP 10 is a continuation of a long-cherished dream at Bentley’s design department. “It was a skunkworks project at first, and then […]

After graduating in transport design, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Michelle Christensen has gone on to work for the likes of Honda, General Motors and currently Acura, a luxury division of Honda. Most recently, she led the exterior styling for the second-generation Acura ‘NSX’ which made its debut at the […]

The 44-year-old Lebanese-Canadian is the one responsible for creating the handsome 2-Series convertible the automaker debuted there last week. He held various posts in interior and exterior design at BMW before winning his current title, and it’s easy to see why. Habib is thoughtful, articulate, smart, and eager to jump right into deep discussions over […]

We’ve finally driven the production 2015 BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car, and we came away highly impressed. But one thing stuck out: The car’s size. As it turns out, the i8’s footprint is no accident. The BMW i8 is literally engineered around its battery pack, which is about the size and shape of a […]

Design of the Opel Bitter CD at Opel Design in Russelsheim, Germany Opel Design in November of 1971. To understand the importance of Opel Design in the early seventies, it should be known that Opel produced more cars per year than Chrysler did in the United States. All of the design came out of one […]

Following the concept car’s unveiling at the 2011 Geneva motor show, focus shifted to the development of the production interior design, led by Ramon Ginah. This is where the biggest visual change took place. The concept car’s driver orientated theme, separate passenger and driver’s side colorways and motorcycle referencing elements were reduced for production. Defined […]

[…] At a recent event in Munich, we spoke with Hussein Al-Attar, the BMW designer in charge of the BMW 4 Series Coupe concept’s headlights and taillights, about what inspires him and the challenges he faced during the design process, which went from idea to reality in just a few months.

Matthew Easton is a Visual designer at Volvo and has been responsible for the design behind the all new digital instrument cluster seen in the new V40. He tells us about his inspiration and the greatest challenges in creating a world class instrument cluster that adjusts to the driver’s needs – rather than the other way […]

The Jaguar F-Type is the latest model to be created under the design genius of Ian Callum, the Scotsman who was recruited in 1999 to pull the British brand out of the past and smack bang into the 21st century. At a special limited-media reveal of the new sports car in England a few weeks […]

Six decades after Touring’s influential Alfa Romeo C52 Disco Volante, the Italian Carrozzeria has been spinning the flying saucer again. Classic Driver talked with Louis de Fabribeckers (Head of Design, Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera) at this year’s Geneva Show.

As the first in a wave of truly global vehicles to come out of the brand-defining One Ford philosophy of Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally, the next-generation Focus contains universal characteristics – from the curve of the roof down to the tension in the accelerator – known as the Ford Global DNA. This is […]

“With the March (also known as Micra), the project was a huge challenge for the design team, we had to travel a long way to reach the goal” said Makoto Yamane, Nissan’s Associate Product Chief Designer. “Spending almost twice as much time on it compared to regular projects, but after achieving various breakthroughs the design […]

“I wanted to design a perfect robust sedan,” says Yamane, Associate Product Chief Designer in charge of designing the new Global Sedan. Sports cars, minivans, and SUVs… Automobiles come in various forms. However, looking back into the history of motorization, regardless of the country, the very first step is always a sedan. Over a long […]

Constantly questioning what already exists and searching for new, even more innovative solutions: this is the principle behind “Vorsprung durch Technik” – in the design area, too. In an interview, Gary Telaak from Audi Exterior Design and Ulrich Beierlein from Audi Interior Design explain the motives that inspired them when working on the new Audi […]

How forward-thinking design and functionality came together to make a remarkable car. Probably the greatest challenge facing automotive designers these days are matching the many safety and other demands within a given vehicle with something that is both aesthetically pleasing and fun to drive – not an easy task. Can one design a car that […]

With the jot of a stylus across an electronic drawing pad, Tavis Highlander can take a new Camaro from stock to state-of-the-art in a matter of minutes. Highlander (his first name is pronounced TAY-vis) uses his artistic skills in Highlander Concept Rendering, a business he started in 2006 on the Internet. He designs concept cars […]