Jeffrey Lee's car design : May 2013

Friday 31 May 2013

A glimse to my summer Mercedes CLS project

Friday 10 May 2013

Temporary final post before my year 1 life end

It has been a great year to study in Coventry( although this place is boring), but still i learnt what i love and i spent a happy time here. Over the last 8 months, i really learn a lot from both the lecturer and course mates which greatly improve my skill.

During the summer holiday, i plan to start a little project for the next generation Mercedes ( haven't confirm the direction yet), gonna put even more effort and i hope to use this project as a training and further improves my skill and push my limit.

Cars with men and women DNA

A long time ago, i heard some say a good car design should have both mens and women characteristic on it. Especial have a man's face and woman bottom on the car, which would make the car look sexy. Do this statement really true?

In terms of human visual, it is true since having a man's face on the front will give the car an agressive looking and having a woman bottom in the back will gives the car a sexy looking. If a car has these 2 DNA on the body, it will look strong and scary while being sexy at the same time.

But somehow i found a contradiction that a car with a man's face is usually a more edgy car, however, with a woman's bottom in the back will have to be more round, it would be inconsistant if a car both look edgy and round, how do we get a balance of it ? A difficult quest to do in the following summer. :(

Concept car pickup: Cadillac Ciel Concept

The Cadillac Ciel Concept was introduced in 2011. It is one of my favourite concept car at all time. The reason i love it so much is i love the body styling which was simular to 40's-50's long body style which makes the car look slim and gorgeous. And i love everything is in a good scale that makes the car look very fit. Also, under the midnight purple paint job makes the car look sexy in every angle. This concept had once remind me Cadillac is good at building luxury car that everyone want.If i am a passenger i will be very pleased to have a ride on this lovely car.

Fast and furious: Tokyo drift inspiration

The fast and furious: Tokyo drift is my favourite racing movie, I love the story who dug into the underground racing of Japan, and shown how well Japanese drift with their JDM car.

Some of the car in the movie was pretty impressive where i don't really love import car until i saw this movie.

In the movie, these cars had really shown their best side to the audience and I was then attracted by custom car.Not for long, I dug more into the custom car industry and find out that there are actually quite a lot of potential for China to become the next custom car paradise.

At first, china has the enormous productivity which can produce a big amount of after market body kit which satisfy the need. Also, the Chinese rich people are quite willing to spend a lot on their cars since they have a decent economy environment. At the same time, while Chinese people will need more cars in the future, it's gonna bring huge profit even just selling in the country. Moreover, some of the Chinese car owner like their car being special than others which will helps to boost the sales for the business. In conclusion, i think China may have a great influenced in custom car in the future since it has a very good potential and the national car industry will help to push it even further .

Car design trend: pop up headlight

Powered hidden headlight were pioneered in GM's Buick Y-Job concept car of 1938 and were used briefly on Chrysler Corporation's 1942 production DeSoto. The feature's popularity has waxed and waned over time. Hidden headlamps regained popularity in the late 1960s, particularly in the US market where aerodynamic headlamps were not permitted. A relatively large variety of cars incorporated hidden headlamps in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Currently, hidden headlamps are out of favour.

It's not quite possible for pop up headlight to popular again in the coming future since car's will no long have to limit by the law regulation and those car engineer won't be willing to get more drag by the headlight. At the same time, car LED headlight is seen as an important styling feature in the car design trend now and it strongly influenced a car feeling given to people.

In the coming future, headlight is going to remain an increasingly important part for car styling which will eventually go will more complex material in the future.

Car design trend: Fins car

It all started out rather innocently when GM styling chief Harley Earl became entranced by the twin tail booms on Lockheed's WWII P-38 Lightning fighter plane and sent his designers off to inspect one. It was first introduced the fins trend back in 1948 Cadillac.

This plane had later heavily influenced the world car design trend and brought fins to car as part of the design feature.

The 1959 Cadillac Eldorado were the largest and most outrageous ever fitted on a production car.

In my opinion, it was a very trendy trend back then, it mixed air plane style into the automobile and made it look more futuristic than how it should be, which was good. Also, as some of the manufacturer claimed, it helps by acting as a stabiliser to improve handling. And at the same time, it made the car looks more longer and more dynamic.

However, it is not likely to re-popular again since it demand a relatively large body, it create blind spot to the driver which may lower the safety of a car, it is far too exaggerate in today standard. All in all, it is still a good car design trend in car history that deserved a memory in our mind.

Finally finish the pin up section

Finally finish with my 100AT coursework, feel really good to see my work pin up on the wall and show my work to other. Although it wasn't the best, but i still proud of the hard work i spend on my "baby" project.