CDR Trend Insight – Blade Lamps

Previously we've reported on the headlamps of cars aping the human eye as a graphic device. With full LED clusters now feasible and appearing more commonly on production designs, we're seeing a new type of lamp appear – the blade of light. Horizontally orientated and slim, these present a much wider, meaner DRG.

Pininfarina Air Flow helmet unveiled

This is Pinifarina's Air Flow, a special helmet created by the famed Italian design house for luxury lid manufacturer Newmax, and the star attraction on its stand at the Milan International Motorcycle Exhibition. Pininfarina is the same company that has penned the Ferrari 458 Italia and Maserati Granturismo. But while Pininfarina itself remains an automotive design company, its Extra Pininfarina arm has branched out into other projects, recently designing Coca-Cola drinks machines and the interior of Juventus's new stadium.

Gorden Wagener on how Mercedes is "moving from a traditional luxury brand to a modern luxury brand"

Mercedes' 'home' design studio in Sindelfingen, Germany is housed in an expansive 30,000-square meter building designed by Renzo Piano. The lobby is unassuming, but we're soon through into what Mercedes' grandly calls 'the Vision Room.' It's here that strategic meetings are held with the firm's board, and where we meet Gorden Wagener, Mercedes' head of design since 2008. It's in the Vision Room that Wagener convinced the Mercedes board of the merits of his overarching design philosophy: 'sensual purity'.