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College Exhibition: Institut Superieur de Design 2009

Valenciennes in northern France might not be the most glamorous of French towns but it's been quietly turning out transportation design graduates for over 20 years. The Institute Superieur de Design (ISD) isn't as well-known as Strate or Creapole in Paris, nevertheless it has a growing reputation as one of the most focused design schools in Europe with an enviable record of internships and employment of its graduates. Last month CDN was invited to join the final assessments of this year's graduate cohort.

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.

Caterham news at 2009 Tokyo motor show

Caterham surprised Tokyo with the announcement that it will build its first electric sports car. The battery bullet will be either a full electric car or a hybrid and it'll be campaigned in a one-make series in 2011. 'It'll either be a bought-in full electric power pack or we'll buy in an electric hybrid pack and attach it to an existing Caterham engine,' Caterham CEO Ansar Ali told CAR.