Car Design of the Year 2008

This is your last chance to vote for your favorite car designs of 2008. Your votes will decide which design teams will be presented an award by the CDN team at the Geneva auto show in March, with prizes being given to the best vehicle in the concept and production car categories. We'll announce the results of the online survey next week, so cast your vote now!

New Lotus Elite revealed

Lotus Elite Concept Paris We knew Lotus were intending repositioning themselves as an East Anglian Aston Martin. Thanks to a clumsy PR stunt by Lotus we were pretty sure we’d see the direction at the Paris Motor Show. Tick all the boxes.

Design Services: Car Menu launched

Within almost every automotive design department throughout the world, their comes a time when a junior designer is dispatched to find a picture of some new model's tail lamp, the side view of a particular class leading competitor or examples of several new cars' colour and trim packages. Whilst looking at the competition is not necessarily a healthy way of finding ideas, it is often essential to demonstrate what is feasible, check in-house proposals are not too derivative, or show how advanced a design theme is relative to the same type of cars on the market. But even if the particular aspect of a car can be found, press packs and magazines typically show cars in the flattering light of an exotic location or being drifted around a corner on opposite lock; rarely are these images particularly useful.