Ford 4 Le Mans Winner 1966-69 Lapel Pin Badge (cl1) on 2040-parts.com

MG Design Centre opens in UK

The opening of MG's new design center this week at the historic production site of Longbridge, Birmingham, England was both an incredible and credible occasion. Incredible, because the brand looked dead in the water after the debacle of MG Rover's collapse in 2005 and even after various Chinese takeovers, its UK operation seemed destined to play no more than a tokenistic bit part. And thankfully credible too, because now all of MG's global design will genuinely be led from this new facility in the epicentre of England's traditional motoring heartland.

Ford and IDSA to host 'Designing Innovation' live design panel discussion tomorrow

Freeman Thomas, strategic design director at Ford, will take part in a live design panel discussion on Wednesday 7 May. The panel, hosted by Ford and the Industrial Designers Society of America, will also include CEO of industrial design firm Fuseproject Yves Béhar, and Christopher Williams, business development director at product design and company Lime Lab. Topics will how technology plays a role in design; how designers shape consumer behaviors and responses to innovative products; and how products both stand out from and fit in with the world around them.

Autodesk European Automotive Days 2008

The 2008 Autodesk European Automotive Days conference was held last week in Munich, bringing together 200 automotive design and visualization experts. Autodesk presented their strategy and vision for industrial design, with an emphasis on 'digital prototyping', where even at the concept stage the digital model is treated not just as a set of surfaces, but is integrated within the engineering process as as a functional digital prototype, with the aim to eventually replace physical models entirely. There was also a recognition that traditional techniques continue to have an important place alongside digital workflows, as the workflows and technologies continue to evolve.