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[What's Burning?]

I went to get something to eat the other day and I ran across a new type of soda dispensing machine. It was, well it was beautiful and immediately I noticed that it was designed/built by Pininfarina.



I've been a a student of design all of my life, I'm into mid century furniture and have a book at home that I reference just about every week, called 1000 chairs. Because just about every designer I follow has at some point created an iconic chair.

The thing with good design, classic design is that it doesn't really add any more cost to an item than bad design. Yet it can make or break the success of a product so I'm puzzled at to why we don't always make things beautiful? This Coke machine for example is beautiful to look at, it impacts the way you use it, the way you perceive it. I always loved the look of Olivetti typewriters, they were gorgeous, shitty but gorgeous, an example once again of design being so important in the success of a product or brand. So back to this idea of a soda dispensing machine... if a Coke machine can feel visually visceral, what does that say about the power of good design in an automobile?

Giorgetto Giugiaro is by far my favorite automotive designer. If you've never heard of him you'll be amazed as to how many cars you've looked at and liked, that have come out from tip of this guy's pen.

Do you know who's responsible for designing the look of your favorite car? Chances are it was one of this design studios. Notice that a good chunk of them are Italian. umpalumpa, sells.

Alfa Romeo Design Italy
Arup Vehicle Design UK
Bertone Italy
Chrysler Design USA
Cliff Design Sweden
Design Q England
Design Storz Austria
Designworks California USA
Drive England
DSN Italy
Fioravanti Italy
Foresee California USA
Hareide Design Oslo & Gothenburg
IDEA Italy
Inovo Italy
Ital Design Italy
Ken Okuyama Design Japan, USA
Kiska Austria
Miñarro García Spain
Motorcity Europe Germany
Nissan Design Global
Omni Design International England
Opel Design Germany
Pininfarina Italy
Prisma Design International California USA
SHADO UK
Sivax Japan
Sure Design Spain
Target-Design Germany
Torino Design Italy
Toyota Design Global
Trondesign Germany
Zagato Italy

[scotty]

Giorgetto Giugiaro is by far my favorite automotive designer. If you've never heard of him you'll be amazed as to how many cars you've looked at and liked, that have come out from tip of this guy's pen.

Yep, that's pretty nuts.

What is perhaps more amazing is how that guy could design such god damn ugly cars as the Renault 19, Fiat Uno/Panda and the Delorean, then create the Alfa 159 and Brera, and something as iconic as the original Golf...

[bud]

It is quite ironic you started this thread, as I just went to a UNISA industrial design exhibition which my friend is currently doing a degree in. There was a quest speaker from Bombardier, He spoke about their tram design project they are doing for a few cities in Australia. The face of each tram was designed with something unique to each city such as a wave influenced face for Gold Coast and Luna Park for Melbourne. Pretty cool seeing how they go about things and how similar it is to graphic design.
Design is design and if its form is designed to fit its function then inevitable i think it will look good.

[darwin dali]

I want this:

[Jabberwocky]

No he is an iconic designer. DD are you a goth?

[What's Burning?]

No he is an iconic designer. DD are you a goth?

Is he goth? The other name DD was considering when joining the forum was Ming Merciless.

Then again he briefly also considered, Monkey Molester.

[What's Burning?]

I want this:

Fantastic example of industrial design. Is lumbar support an added option on that chai... erm throne?

[Jabberwocky]

No he is an iconic designer. DD are you a goth?

Is he goth? The other name DD was considering when joining the forum was Ming Merciless.

Then again he briefly also considered, Monkey Molester.

Monkey Molester is that like being a Monkey Hanger

[andrew]

No he is an iconic designer. DD are you a goth?

Is he goth? The other name DD was considering when joining the forum was Ming Merciless.

Then again he briefly also considered, Monkey Molester.

Monkey Molester is that like being a Monkey Hanger

I thought this happened in Boddam? It wasn't good to be a seafairing monkey back in the olden days.

[scotty]

Seeing as WB mentioned chairs in the opening post, i finally found this photo that i wanted to share.

DSC00024.JPG

I designed this for a project when i was... 15/16? It's a garden type chair that folds up. I put a lot of effort into the ergonomics of it and it was a very comfortable seat i thought. Still have it stored up at my Mum's house! I am quite proud of this really, it's nice when you design and construct something yourself, and the results are good.

[What's Burning?]

I think part of successful design is not just simply looking at the aesthetics of something, but also how it will be built, what the design will cost not just in materials but in labor to put together and in the case of a car, how it will be maintained.

I take a lot of lot ribbing for me bee... I mean Porsche passion, but how man high performance cars were designed and mass produced that you could drop the engine and transmission for servicing effectively with just one man, in under two hours? Half that if you've done it a half dozen times before.

Designers used to be completely involved in so many aspects of creating a car, and they were just as much engineer as designer and sadly I believe that era or one man's vision and skill alone could produce an iconic car is long gone.

Nice chair BTW Scotty, you should take it out of the attic, not a bad job for 16.

[darwin dali]

Seeing as WB mentioned chairs in the opening post, i finally found this photo that i wanted to share.

DSC00024.JPG

I designed this for a project when i was... 15/16? It's a garden type chair that folds up. I put a lot of effort into the ergonomics of it and it was a very comfortable seat i thought. Still have it stored up at my Mum's house! I am quite proud of this really, it's nice when you design and construct something yourself, and the results are good.

Very nice and excellent for fat arses with that big gap there