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Design Services: Motorcity Europe

A recent Business Week article stated that "never before has design been so vital to an auto maker's success, maybe even to its survival". Much of the reason for this is the close parity in quality between different brands and the general high quality of new cars; according to J.D. Power, vehicle quality has improved 24% in the past five years.

Next Jaguar XJ takes styling cues from the XF

Jaguar is putting the finishing touches on its heavily revised 2011 XJ sedan, remaking its flagship sedan in the mold of the XF sedan. Based on a re-engineered version of today's all-aluminum XJ chassis introduced with the sedately styled 2004 model, the next XJ will be significantly different in appearance, drawing its coupelike-sedan inspiration from the Ian Callum-penned XF. "People know that something is coming, but they're going to be very surprised," says one source involved in the project code-named X351.

Video: Chris Bangle delivers “Empowerment: Design without Designers” talk at Creative Mornings/London

Chris Bangle – the undisputed front man of car design – needs little introduction, so the prospect of the former BMW Design Director and now founder of Chris Bangle Associates giving a talk in our home town of London was too good to pass up. His presentation (which you can watch in full in the video to the left) touched on his time at BMW, but was more focused on the idea of empowering others to create: "design without you in the middle", as Bangle says. From the story of the co-creation of the staircase in his Italian studio to the idea of encouraging people to think about their culture when designing, his philosophies transcend disciplines.