College Exhibition: Coventry Degree Show 2006

Transportation and product design students at Coventry University in England recently displayed their work in the school's summer degree show, one of the two graduation shows per year. A total of 74 students graduated in various fields including Automotive Design, Transport and Product Design, Vehicle Design, Boat Design and Consumer Product Design.

With such a large body of graduating students, Coventry have wisely chosen to introduce a separate 'Selected Works' show this year for industry guests, which also opened to the public for one week at the end of June. This consisted of 39 of the best projects, as selected by tutors and a jury of professional designers, to demonstrate the breadth of work coming from the different routeways within the undergraduate course and was hosted in the new Coventry Transport Museum in the city center. The exhibition included work from graduating BA and MDes students, who have completed either a three year or four year course of study, with the possibility of an industry internship during the third year.

Although the final projects are individually chosen by the students in collaboration with staff, a number of underlying themes were evident at this year's show. These include a focus on environmentally-aware vehicles to cope with global warming and rising sea levels, a less macho and less aggressive character of form language, long tapering rear overhangs, a preference for white and silver body colours and more models milled directly from Alias data.

Several projects focused on new approaches to luxury travel, where the journey itself is the focus and slower, more relaxed modes of travel are explored.

Ceri Yorath's Volare concept is a specialised Grand Tourer hire vehicle that integrates with European intercontinental trains, aircraft and ferries. "The idea is that there's no final destination in future, just a series of way points" he says. The rear end features a detachable luggage box for permanent luggage to leave at one's hotel or ship, leaving you with a shorter 'exploring car' with radically different proportions and aesthetic. "It certainly makes the packing and unpacking into a real event" says Yorath. The low two-seat proportions allow it to be stacked three-high on special trains while the upright front end and long, flowing rear section refer back to 1930s grand tourers and poster advertisements by graphic artist A.M. Cassandre.

Craig Callum's Duesenberg J series 2 concept takes the sharp styling of modern American cars and adds the original values of Duesenberg to create a car that's imposing in form and nature. The overall profile, with its vast hood, cab rearwards proportions and two-box vertical rear end reminds a little of the recent Renault Altica concept, with a gently falling shoulder line linking the two prominent wheelarches. It also proposes a side loading trunk behind the front wheel - a bit like the spare tyre location on a Bristol.

Darren Garrett used abstract graphic sketches as a starting point for his Audi project, which has unusual proportions and huge 30" wheels. This large coupe focuses on older empty-nesters as the target customer and explores ways that electroluminescent glass might be extensively used in future, masking the borders between body color and glass. The high beltline is balanced with a raised ground clearance for easy access but utilises a coupe profile and a long, tapering tail. The front end uses a large LED panel in place of a conventional grille, with the idea that the signals could be shown within the display, like a screensaver. Another new feature is the idea that the Audi rings continually morph and disappear to demonstrate the dynamism of the brand.

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