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First Sight: Mercedes-Benz A-Class

The first generation A-Class was the first front wheel drive passenger car from Mercedes-Benz and its first compact hatchback. Its revolutionary packaging and infamous encounter with an elk made a big impact in 1997, and since then over a million have been sold. Specification The new A-Class maintains its predecessor's innovative sandwich floor concept, where the powertrain moves under the passenger cell in the event of a big frontal impact and thus enables a longer cabin for the length of footprint.

IAAD exhibition - 'The car that does not exist'

The work of Transportation Design students at the Institute of Applied Arts and Design - Turin, will be shown in an exhibition covering the study and planning of a concept car for Fiat, and a new sedan for Honda. Titled 'The car that does not exist', the exhibition will open on Monday 28th June at the Automobile Museum of Turin (press 2pm, public 6pm) and runs until 2nd September. In addition to the students projects, the exhibition includes historic vehicles and prototypes from both brands.

College Exhibition: Royal College of Art Vehicle Design students prepare for the The Show 2004

June 16, 2004 - Final year students at London's Royal College of Art postgraduate Vehicle Design course are preparing for their annual degree show. The design concepts exhibited by the 17 graduating students explore themes for future mobility, including: A public bike using new plastic forming technologies, a three-wheeled motorcycle for Aprilia, and a mobile living space that solves the probems of commuting by moving the home close to the workplace. Heung Soo Kim's coupe concept explores 'light as communication', with intuitive gestural driver controls, simplified instrumentation using color-coded indicators and exterior lamp elements embedded within the vehicle's glass surfaces.

Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Reunion at Eyes on Design 2004

The first Reunion of the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Coach & Model Car Competition will be held in conjunction with the 17th Annual Eyes on Design Exhibition, June 25-27, 2004. The reunion will bring together the organizers and the participants of one of the largest and most important youth-oriented, design activities ever developed. Participants from around the U.S.

Louis Vuitton Classic Concours d'Elegance 2004

June 11, 2004 - While the British Motor Show seems to have degenerated into a low-brow car carnival, shunned by some manufacturers and most designers, Britain still hosts some of the best classic car events in Europe that can attract top entries and enthusiasts alike. Last week, the 14th Louis Vuitton Classic was held at Waddesdon Manor, near Oxford, UK, a fabulous Renaissance-style chateau built by the Rothschilds in 1874 and set in 2500 acres of landscaped grounds. This year the event was open to the public for the first time and appeared to challenge the celebrated Goodwood Festival of Speed for the sheer quality of exhibits, number of celebrities and a suitably glamorous setting.

Who's Where: Verena Kloos named President of DesignworksUSA

DesignworksUSA, the California-based international strategic design consultancy owned by BMW Group, has announced that Verena C. Kloos has been named President of DesignworksUSA. In this position, she will oversee the company's day-to-day operations and strategic direction.

Second annual ENG Automotive Design Summit held in Rome

European Networking Group (ENG) held their second annual Automotive Design Summit May 12-13. To follow on from the success of last years event in Barcelona, the event was held in the stylish Es Hotel in Rome, Italy. The event featured workshops sessions and business case studies from some of the most renowned designers in the industry, seeking to bring both knowledge and inspiration to the participants over the two day event.

What's New: June 2004

The frontal design is streamlined: the radiator grille is absent to focus attention on the Renault lozenge logo and to evoke other prestigious Renault cars. "Fluence's interior is simple and easily remembered, with natural harmony," explains Patrick le Quement. The printed leather seats are mounted on runners.

Design Contest: ANFIA announces Italian Styling - Young Designers Competition 2004

The deadline for entries in the fourth edition of the 'Stile Italiano Giovani' design competition (Italian Styling - Young Designers) is coming up. The competition is a biennial event run by the designers of the ANFIA Coachbuilders Group, who have set out to help discover new talent in the field of car design. The target of the initiative is to find and select new talents from all over the world, capable of interpreting and fostering the tradition of Italian automotive design.

College Exhibition: Coventry University students prepare for the Transport Design Degree Show

Final-year students on Britain's largest and oldest transport design course are preparing to exhibit their work at this year's Coventry University Degree Show. The work of hundreds of the most talented young artists, engineers, product and transport designers will be unveiled at the private view on 11 June 2004. The show is open to the public from 12-17 June 2004 and admission is free.

Intermot-IVM Design Award Competition 2004

A perception that young people are less and less attracted to motorbikes provides the theme for the first Intermot-IVM Design Award competition. The Motorcycle Industry Association of Germany (IVM e.V.) and the Trade Fair Munich/Intermot have decided to intensively take care of their young clients with several activities this year. As young people are no longer inspired by superb technology alone, but are impressed more and more visually, it is only logical to place a greater emphasis on the design of the bike in winning over young customers.

Milano Design Week 2004

In its 43rd year the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (international furniture fair) finally takes on a new, more encompassing name: Milano Design Week 04. The reason for this change in quite simply a question of numbers; the week long fair is no longer only a platform for furniture manufacturers to show their latest collections, it is an enormous manifestation of all that is designed from everywhere in the world. Therefore, and understandably, an event that hosts the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (home ware and furniture), Eurocucina (bathrooms), EIMU (office furniture), Tessile (fabrics), Salone Satellite (young designers), Dining Design, Designing Designers, Material ConneXion, and Street Dining Design deserved a more noble title.

College for Creative Studies - GM Autonomy 2020 project

Final year Transportation Design students at Detroit's College for Creative Studies have presented the results of a GM-sponsored project, to design a GM vehicle for the year 2020. The proposals were to be based on the skateboard-shaped chassis of the Autonomy fuel cell concept shown at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show. This was one of several manufacturer-sponsored projects that were presented in the lead-up to the annual CCS Student Exhibition, which opens this Friday May 14.

Michael Mauer appointed head of design at Porsche

Porsche AG has anounced the appointment of Michael Mauer to take over as chief designer from Harm Lagaay, who will retire on July 1 after 15 years in the post. Michael Mauer, 41, studied automobile design at Pforzheim University, and started his career at Mercedes-Benz. In 1989, he was appointed design project leader for the Mercedes V Class models, and was in charge of design work for the first SLK model generation.

Pforzheim University International Design Forum 2004

The jury included design chiefs Chris Bangle (BMW), Peter Pfeiffer (Mercedes), Murat G�nak (VW), Martin Smith (Opel), Chris Bird (Ford) und Francois de Gaillard (Webasto). First prize went to Pforzheim student Philipp R�mers for his 'PFaeno' concept. The prize for Best Marketing Strategy went to Shi Jia from Tsinghua University.

What's New: May 2004

Porsche 911 Porsche has announced its new 997, the latest evolution of the iconic 911 sports coupe, now in its 41st year. While this may seem a minor facelift at first glance, there are changes to every exterior panel except the roof. There's a wider track and more emphasis on the wheelarch forms.

Gerry McGovern to head Land Rover Advanced Design

Gerry McGovern has been named Director, Advanced Design for Land Rover, and will be working alongside Geoff Upex, who continues as Design Director for Land Rover. "Gerry is uniquely suited to this role," said J Mays, Ford Motor Company's group vice president of design. "He's already shown the world that he fully understands Land Rover's DNA, having led the team that designed Freelander.

ICEM Style creative design software launched

ICEM Ltd, known for its ICEM Surf Class A surface development software, has launched ICEM Style, a new software product developed specifically for use by creative designers in the transportation design and industrial design industry. The launch presentation highlighted the integrated workflow from concept development in ICEM Style, through to refinement in ICEM Surf, enabling designers and engineers to share the same model data throughout the design process. According to ICEM, it is now possible, for the first time in a concept design tool, to design in a photo-realistic modelling environment, without using third-party visualisation products, or to wait for a static rendering to be generated.

Art Center College of Design Fall Graduation Show 2003

Apr 23, 2004 - Students at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena presented their work in the Fall graduation show in December. The show featured work from eight graduating students in the Bachelor of Science - Transportation Design program. The transportation senior project is organized as an independent project, each student researches a company, and targeted buyer, to see if a new vehicle is needed or if a vehicle on the market needs to be improved.

Interior Motives Design Awards 2004 announces judging panel

Interior Motives magazine has announced its judging panel for the 2004 Interior Motives Design Awards. This year's judges include some of the world's most respected senior automotive designers and design managers from carmakers and interior suppliers. The judges are: - Olivier Boulay, Senior Executive Officer & Corporate General Manager, Product Design Office, Mitsubishi Motors Corp - Guy Burgoyne, Studio Chief Designer, Product Design, Volvo Cars - Simon Cox, Design Director, GM Advanced Design - UK - Bill Fluharty, Vice-President Industrial Design - North America, Johnson Controls Inc - Steve Lewis, Design Manager, Seat Cars - Justyn Norek, Design Manager, I.D.E.A Institute - Sarah Maynard, Interior Designer, Aston Martin - Roberto Piatti, Managing Director, Stile Bertone - Marek Reichman, Director Interior Strategy Product and Design Process, Ford Motor Company - Rus Shafer, Director, Industrial Design, Intier Automotive - Andreas Wlasak, Director of Industrial Design - Interior Systems, Faurecia This year's awards - which will take place during the Paris Motor Show on 24 September 2004 - have attracted almost 200 registrations from students of transportation and industrial design from 20 countries.

Umea Institute of Design prepares for annual Degree Exhibition

Another end of term approaches and the Masters students from the Umea Institute of Design in the north of Sweden have just presented a preview of their final thesis projects. There are 22 graduating students in total, eight of whom are from the Masters course in Transportation Design. Transportation Design is one of three MA courses offered at the Umea Institute of Design - the others are Advanced Product Design and Interaction Design.

First Sight: BMW 1 Series

This is the first BMW to compete in the premium lower medium European car class defined by cars such as the Audi A3 and Alfa Romeo 147, although spiritually it follows the significantly smaller BMW 2002 Touring produced from 1968 to 1976. A little more compact that the 3 Series (which will grow in size with next year's new model) the 1 Series effectively replaces the 3 Series-based Compact and extends the brand downward to just above the Mini. The 1 Series was previewed by the CS1 two door convertible concept shown two years ago at Geneva, with which it shares much of its exterior proportions and form, and some interior design themes.

Scuola Polytecnica Milan - Personal Car Project

In summer last year ten students from the Master's course in Transportation Design at the Scuola Polytecnica Milan took part in a project for FIAT. The work developed from a briefing by the FIAT Advanced Design Centre, taking into consideration the dimensional and content restrictions. One of the concepts which stood out was that of Alessandro Battaglia working on the exterior design, and Alberto Burger, who developed the interior design.

Third annual World Automotive Design Competition

The third annual World Automotive Design Competition, sponsored by Alias, was hosted by the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, Ontario, on February 12. Britain's Coventry School of Art and Design, and Tsinghua University in Beijing, China were the big winners, together garnering seven of the eight prizes. Ninety-four students from twenty design schools from China, Brazil, Japan, France, Korea, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, India, Sweden, the USA and Canada competed to win over US$140,000 in prizes.

Who's Where: Martin Smith joins Ford Europe design team

Martin Smith has been appointed as Executive Director of Design at Ford Europe. Smith, a native of Sheffield, England, brings a wealth of design experience to Ford, having held positions at Porsche, Audi, and most recently as Director of Design for Opel/Vauxhall. In his new position, he will report to product development chief, Derrick Kuzak and to Ford's global group vice president for Design, J Mays.

Royal College of Art interim exhibition - 'Automotivation'

Second year Vehicle Design students at London's Royal College of Art displayed their work last November in an interim exhibition entitled 'Automotivation'. The long-established RCA Vehicle Design course has produced some of the world's most respected and successful automotive designers. In the exhibition, a range of design projects considered the needs of the world's changing landscape for private and public mobility.

New Audi A6 to be shown at the Geneva Motor Show

The new Audi A6 made it's first public appearance this week in Berlin. The fundamental proportions of the A6 with its low-slung windows and coupe-like roofline now comes with greater tension and dynamism. A prominent bodyside line above the side sills sweeps upward to meet the rear bumper edge, giving the entire body of the car a forward-pushing, dynamic thrust.

World premier for the Fiat Trepiuno concept at the Geneva Motor Show

Fiat has announced that its "move into the past for a fresh look to the future" is to be seen at the Geneva Show, where it shall unveil the Trepiuno. The name is very unusual (and one can't help wondering how they will spell and pronounce it outside the borders of Italy), but the car concept is not. The new small car is actually intended to be a modern remake of the Fiat 500 (not Cinquecento) success.

Whos Where: Ken Okuyama appointed Creative Director at Pininfarina

The talented Japanese designer Ken Okuyama, who penned the Pininfarina Enzo and 'Rossa' during his days at Pininfarina Studi e Ricerche, is going back to the famous Italian coachbuilder, after completing his experience as Chair of the Transportation Design Department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He is expected back as Creative Director of the Pininfarina Spa group as of May 10th. There he will be reporting, as before his departure, to Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Executive Vice President Design .

Coventry University MA Design Degree Show 2003

The projects on show cover the full spectrum of vehicle concepts. Particular topics this year were environmentally friendly hybrid supercars, urban microcars and future cars for China. The course has a strong international presence, with students from Brazil, Belgium, China, Taiwan, Finland and Australia among this year's graduates and this contributed to the wide variety of work on display.