BMW announces DesignWorksUSA studio and ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai

BMW has opened both a DesignWorks studio and a ConnectedDrive lab in Shanghai, China, as a means of gathering information and insight into the Chinese market as the company looks to increase its presence in Asia. Adrian van Hooydonk, Director BMW Group Design, said, "Creating this foothold for both BMW Group Design and DesignworksUSA in Shanghai is of great importance from both strategic and creative standpoints." President of BMW Group DesignWorksUSA Laurenz Schaffer said, "Our new studio in Shanghai places DesignworksUSA at the epicenter of the most rapidly growing and influential consumer market in the world and provides an indispensable resource for shaping our global perspectives for clients." The new studio will perform functions including product, transportation, automotive, environmental and interaction design; color, material and finish design; design communication, research and strategy as well as sustainability consulting. Designers from DesignworksUSA studio in Los Angeles, Munich and Singapore will supplement a local design team.

RCA/Kia - Venus 2049

Automark Andrea Mocellin Dealing with illusion and metaphor to discover ‘the beauty behind the mask and live it', Mocellin's creation is a personal introspection about an immortal city like Venice, where tradition and mystery generates a unique mix between emotions and perceptions. The nucleus that lives inside the vertical sculpture is a dynamic fade in of glass that generates infinitive ways to investigate the object and discover it. Jinsung Kim This project is about experience of beauty through material, namely clay, one of nature's elements.

Video: Vaughn Gittin Jr. drifts in Saudi Arabia

Ford recently said it was pouring more marketing money into sponsorship of "action" sports. Now comes video of drift racer Vaughn Gittin Jr., a Ford driver, sliding his Mustang around the Al Reem race circuit in Saudi Arabia. "Thanks to the kindness of the entire Al Reem circuit team, they let me get crazy throughout the entire motorsports complex," Gittin wrote on the YouTube post of the video.