Geneva Motor Show Report: 'Embracing Change'

Read my first article on car design, published by carbodydesign.com

http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2010/04/geneva-2010-embracing-changes/

Hope you enjoy reading...

Benedetto Bordone

www.theloftcreativestudios.com

Life Drawing, helping the designer to see clearly!

Everything we do and experience as individuals directly and indirectly influences our decisions, our beliefs and our ideas. Every action, experience and decision helps form a part of what drives us, what motivates us, what excites us and inevitably forms our characters as human beings. However as designers, what is all important. Is our ability to see. Not look, but see! A designer's vision is their most important asset. Not their ability to draw, or communicate ( however these are very important attributes) It is the ability to see what the rest cannot. To anticipate what is coming. And to be able to understand why something looks right or not and why a product is successful. The winning designer is generally the one who can see the clearest and can act on their enhanced foresight. Now there is no correct way for a designer to form or inform their vision. They can throw themselves into one thing and spend their whole lives in tribute to one form of aesthetic, or a particular subject matter etc. Alternatively, they can constantly experiment and take pleasure and education in more obscure sources. Da Vinci felt he could not communicate the human form until he could properly understand every part of how it worked and functioned, it was his atomical studies that informed his sketches. Endowing him with the ability to communicate the human form in the most truthful way to him. It is this approach which is required by designers who don't simply want to recreate what has gone before. His study and enhanced knowledge of the human body allowed him to portray the human form in a unique and enduring manner. The character and wisdom of Da Vinci can be seen in his atomical studies and have lasted centuries.

However, when a designer stops looking or studying their field, they are in trouble. It happens in every field. In music, the pop star that begins to live in a bubble tend to lose the initial appreciation of the beauty or angst of life that compelled them to make music of honesty and sincerity that helped them to grow in the first place. The kind of music that people want to hear. It is for this reason that the most genuine artistic expression occur early on in people's career, afterwards it is quite hard to escape the bubble. Bringing me to life drawing, I have been doing this for a number of years, however, I cannot think of any type of exercise that can help a designer more. In terms of understanding proportion, composition, tone, light and shade. It is among the most challenging subjects to communicate. Furthermore, the skills learned in life drawing are amongst the most difficult for a designer to obtain through normal means. It is like running on the treadmill and somebody turning the speed to 20 kmh. It is hard at first, but you adapt and improve at a much quicker rate than your average weekly jog! Life drawing is turning the treadmill to 20. The results, however, include an increasing ability to see the world in a more interesting/informed manner. To take pleasure in more obscure sources and communicate them in the design process. Basically to see what everybody else is missing. Creating more interesting design work in the process by opening up limitless avenues of creativity. Furthermore, once comfortable with the basics of proportion, composition, shade and so on. You can experiment, find ways to communicate it differently or see it differently. Amazingly important when you are in a creative field.

The designer should be the person, in a project standing, at the top of the mountain being able to see further than everybody while being fully aware what is at their feet. They must provide some form of vision if a product is to succeed. It is reassuring for a designer to know that they can have their heads in the clouds with some mind blowing piece of design work at their disposal, or be able to toe the commercial line and tone it down if needs be. But they must have that inspiration in the first place. The designer with their eyes closed is doomed to stagnation of design quality and will suffer. However, those that avoid the bubble, constantly embrace life, its subject matter and its evolution are likely to continue to create design of great creativity and quality. Life Drawing is a good place to start seeing again...

Benedetto Bordone

Journalist for Car Body Design

It gives me great pleasure to announce that I will be writing on a freelance basis, for carbodydesign.com. This website along with the car design news, is undoubtedly the world's leading car design website. The website based in Italy has a truly global audience, and I look forward to putting forth some of my views to a wider range of people. I am also delighted to work with Ing Marco Traverso. I shall keep you all posted as my first articles are published. Car Body Design can be found at http://www.carbodydesign.com/


www.theloftcreativestudios.com

Elegant Weddings

The Loft Creative Studios are delighted to present the result of our latest collaboration. Elegant Weddings offer a suberb service in providing upmarket wedding props which can transform your venue. Check out their website, designed by the Loft Creative Studios...

www.weddingdecorspecialists.co.uk

The Loft Creative Studios will be presenting the MforMovies website, coming very soon...

www.theloftcreativestudios.com

RedbagUK

Finally, it gives me great pleasure to present the Loft Creative Studio's first e-commerce website.

www.redbaguk.com

RedbagUK are a provider of some excellent clothing for men. It has been an absolute pleasure to give this business their visual identity and I am certain that RedbagUK will be a name that you will all be hearing more of soon!!

RedBagUk already have some fine items in stock, however, it wont be until Christmas that they truly fill the website with all of their products.

I think the quality of the site speaks mainly for itself so check it out!!











www.theloftcreativestudios.com

RedBagUK Photo Shoot!!

Hello everybody, it gives me great pleasure to announce our latest collaboration with RedbagUK. RedbagUK is an online clothing store which retails some of the coolest men's clothes available. They offer a fantastic range of clothes and accessories from a range of brands including Diesel, Puma, Jack Jones, Fly 53 etc. Before the website was complete, we realised that we would require some fashion shots for the website to help publicise the company and create the appropriate feel for Redbag's website. So, the Loft Creative Studios arranged a fashion shoot at Glasgow's prestigious One Up in Royal Exchange Square and the resulting imagery, which will be on the website, can be seen below. The images are supportive of the website's underlying theme of being a 'guys website.' The store itself is quite rare in focusing only on men's clothing. Most of the clothes worn are from RedBagUK's product line.

The Loft Creative Studios must thank its partners for their assistance with this event. OneUp for providing the venue to do the shoot, RedBagUK for providing the clothing, Grant Thistle and Malcolm Cochrane for the photography, Aimee Beattie for styling and the models Allan and Robyn. A special thank you to PSYBT as well for all their assistance, in arranging the shoot and last minute help!

The RedBagUk website will be up very shortly...


www.theloftcreativestudios.com

Its all about MeeMee!!

Hi everybody, it gives me great pleasure to present The Loft Creative Studios most recent web-design project.

http://www.meemeecouture.com/

MeeMee Couture is the label created by Aimee Beattie, a supremely talented up and coming fashion designer. Aimee, will be presenting her latest fashion collections at Glasgow Fashion Week in November. Watch this space!!

Furthermore, after much delay, we will be presenting http://www.redbaguk.com/ in the forthcoming weeks as well as the images from our recent fashion shoot involving The Loft Creative Studios, RedBagUK and MeeMee Couture, shot at Glasgow's prestigous One Up.

This is a very busy and exciting time for the Loft Creative Studios. We look forward to sharing more of our work as soon as possible.

Benedetto Bordone

www.theloftcreativestudios.com

HostOnDemand & MeeMeeCouture Dancewear

Hi everybody, holiday in Barcelona was really fantastic. What an amazing city!! It is also really exciting that we have been overloaded with work on our return. We are very pleased to announce our collaboration with HostOnDemand for the design of their website. HostOnDemand provide an exceptional web hosting service that is both affordable and supremely reliable. Please visit them at http://www.hostod.co.uk/ to find out more.

Furthermore, we have recently signed deals with a number of new businesses to design their graphic identity and websites. One such business is MeeMeeCouture by Aimee Beattie. Aimee is a very talented fashion designer setting up her own fashion label. She also offers a range of fashion services including personalised bridal wear and more recently, dance wear. We recently designed the poster to promote her dance wear. So if anybody requires very high quality dancewear, visit Aimee at 40, Hamilton Street, Saltcoats.

There are many more interesting things coming very soon, watch this space...

http://www.theloftcreativestudios.com/

Modded Rover 200 Coupe

I am just about to go on holiday to Barcelona for a couple of weeks, but I thought I would leave you with some illustrations I have just finished for one of my clients. The business is MR SprayPaint based in Troon. They will have a website up and running soon. They specialise in modifying and tuning up cars like this Rover 200 Coupe that they will use as a showcase for their talents. This work was a bit of a new challenge as I have never really had a go at this type of design before but it turned out to be really good fun in the end!!























www.theloftcreativestudios.com

The Loft Creative Studios Animation

Most of you have already seen the Loft's promo animation on youtube, but here it is again for those of you who haven't seen it yet.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdJA35XiHEQ

New Websites

Hi, Just would like to draw attention to two new websites recently completed by the Loft Creative Studios.


http://www.coastcuisine.co.uk/ are creators of outstanding food and providors of exceptional catering, it is a pleasure to colaborate with them in creating their website.

We have also recently completed the site for one of Scotland's most talented Print Artists. Olivia Bliss. It has been a great pleasure to create a website for Olivia to showcase her exceptional artwork at http://www.oliviabliss.co.uk/

There are several new websites currently in construction as well as some new car stuff that I am itching to finish. Particularly my BMW 3 Concept which will demonstrate a much more expressive display of human inspired surfacing. New Sketches are coming...

BMW CS & Jaguar CXF, 2 of a Kind!!

Forgive me, but recently my mind has been on overload thinking about design and the different approaches. I was recently told to consider my very own personal style and where exactly to fit in, supposedly having a signature style and authorship of your work helps to gain clients. Anyway as my mind wanders and as I consider many things, it became apparent to me that we as human beings are all walking contradictions, I more so than most… You see in the last couple of years I have been left a little flat with various offerings by the mainstream major car studios with their concept cars. Most of them are very worthy and very nicely styled. However, they are more often than not, blinged up production cars that are lowered with bigger wheels and some generally very beautiful details that never see the light of day due to production costs. But in terms of theme, there is an awful lot of me-2 styling. It occurs in most industries and has been around for ever, so it isn’t really a surprise. It is just that there appears to be a lot of Pigeon Detective cars or Scouting For Girls Cars at the moment, they make a pleasant enough noise but they don’t really say anything to anybody. This can be acceptable for production cars but concept cars should be about something or say something. Now, there have been some very notable exceptions.

The Ford Iosis was visually exciting and previewed a quite interesting theme( kinetic design), Mazda’s Nagare was incredibly exciting with its new bio design language and BMW’s Mille Miglia, although not beautiful was incredibly progressive in its use of 3-dimensional form. Furthermore, every year, the Los Angeles Design challenge show throws up some very exciting concepts. The problem I have is that concept cars should be used as an expression of style, a very dramatic expression of style- They should not be derivative of other people’s design language and they should be as close to automotive art as possible. What bothers me is that, in most cases they aren’t, most examples are derived from other brands or design languages creating statements that are incoherent and in some cases banal. However, there are 2 examples that are incredibly noteworthy of praise for the respective statements they make. Both of which I admire greatly, both of which are incredibly different. They were released in 2007, and are both sports saloons from premium brands and both oversaw from two of the most high profile design chiefs in the business. The BMW Concept CS and The Jaguar CXF.

Now the BMW CS, is a car that is characterised by its wild surface language, the energetic mix of positive & negative surfaces that create its body. I love Bangle’s philosophy that we are now in an age where technology allows us to make whichever shape we want, we should no longer be limited by the tools that create the shapes but only by our imagination. His is a philosophy that harks back to an age before objects were produced in massive volumes, before they could be standardised and honed to suit the materials. If you happen to visit any design museum and trace, the evolution of any object like a spoon or cup, you will see that they began as incredibly ornate objects, time and production processes have seen them evolve into much simpler objects with less unnecessary decoration. With the increasing standardisation of the motor car’s proportions, giving the designer less scope to use proportions as a tool to influence the cars shape, Bangle thought it was time that the power returned to the designer to create shapes that inspired him/her to recreate life in the motorcar, rendering it a more artistic and hopefully warmer object. A creative stance now being reproduced by many architects - most notably Zaha Hadid. It is an antique yet revolutionary stance and perfectly in fitting with BMW’s modernist values. You can see that their designers are clearly influence by nature, the human form, scultpure etc… They are seeking to take car design into new territories, to the next generation, it is a bloudy brave thing to do and obviously they don’t get it right every time, but I genuinely think that in 20 -30 years, Bangle’s shapes ( particularily the first Z4) will be remembered as icons and ahead of their time. Anybody that understands beauty and sculpture can appreciate the dynamism of those shapes. And with the CS, it has mostly been taken to the next level, the shapes and sculpture are still bold but they are more refined and with the car’s outrageously wide and low proportions, you have something that is outrageously modern and incredibly dramatic. Something that is unambiguously progressive and a perfect statement of BMW‘s values.

Now the Jaguar CXF, in terms of spirit could not be more different. Whereas the BMW is terribly complex, the Jaguar is simple. And in simplicity, I could not pay a bigger compliment as simplicity tends to require fewer elements, yet fewer elements means that each of those individual elements have to be perfect. To create dynamism through simplicity requires a great deal of skill and discipline, yet the bi product of simplicity is in this case is subtlety and elegance which in itself is rare at this moment. In an age when everybody is shouting louder and louder for attention, the Jaguar becomes one of the few things worth listening too as it isn’t trying too hard. Whereas the BMW has a feast of lines, curves, surface changes, each individually turning up the volume level to 11. The Jaguar has only the minimal amount of swage lines, details and body creases. Yet each one is so perfectly controlled and expertly executed that it endows the car with a similar level of dynamism yet with an economy and warmth that is captivating and oh so so British, but Britishness at its best. I do have to liken it a little bit to the Aston Martins that Ian Callum created in the 90‘s. They weren’t overly bold in concept yet impeccable in execution. Beautiful proportions + beautiful surfaces + beautiful details and all complimentary of the overall design balance tends to equal eye wateringly beautiful cars. The CXF is rather similar, beautiful surfaces, beautiful details and on and on. Again, what I love most about the CXF is, like the Aston Martins, they have taken a century of our craft and rather than resorting to retro design, which is oh so easy and tempting, they have taken it and perfected it. The CXF looks perfectly modern yet it doesn’t leave you cold like other modern products can do. And this is where the designers should be congratulated. It is an incredibly difficult thing to do, to make a statement that is modern yet ultimately doesn’t alienate the public. This is exactly what Jaguar has done.

Now what puzzled me initially about how can I be in love with two cars that are so different at the same time - either you like positive surfaces that are perfected and crafted in a way that is honest to the materials or you want to take metal and shape and bend it in the most outrageous way possible. Well you see, if you love design in any form, you can appreciate both of these cars as they are true to themselves and are both very pure forms of expressions. I have no doubt that the BMW designers weren’t thinking about Jaguars or Aston Martins for that matter when creating the CS, and likewise the Jaguar designers weren’t thinking of flame-surfacing when doing the CXF. And you have two designers, Ian Callum and Chris Bangle - who are worlds apart in their respective design philosophies yet- are to be equally respected. One of them is responsible for taking his experience and know how to perfect his craft and the other is more concerned about the bigger picture to redefine his craft. And I believe, time and place is so important. I personally love Zaha Hadid’s architecture, the performing centre in Abu Dhabi is incredible, what an achievement, what a statement. But after a while, after you have seen so many buildings that are of a similar vein, they can actually begin to leave you a little cold. You then really crave a return to planet earth and architecture that is a little more simple, warm, honest. You begin to re-appreciate the simplicity of one curve, like that on Wembley Stadium. That is my feelings on both of these cars. There is a time and place for both of them and for me, personally, they are both perfect as their statements are honest. I think both cars are representative of design at its highest levels, what bothers me more is the number of followers, those that don’t quite know what they are doing and end up jumping on whatever is hot at that particular moment, the me2 cars, of which there are many!

http://www.theloftcreativestudios.com/

Car Design v Product Design

Coming soon...

Hope & Optimism

Hello everybody, welcome to my blog!

I have got tonnes of different ideas and theories about many things so I thought it would be good to start jotting them down. The majority of my posts will be about car design as this is my profession as well as my passion but from time to time, I will comment on other things that grab my attention from music to politics and society in general.


I know we are in very very hard times but we must be brave and consider the future. I was watching Richard Seymour, coincidentally, give a speech at my old uni in Coventry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO4r3CZx6G0












What struck me most about his lecture was that it dealt with optimism. And I found myself continuously nodding my head in agreement. I couldn't agree more!! Now is the time when new ideas will flourish because old ones have had their day!! now is the time that entrepreneurs and creatives will be given a voice as the bureaucrats and law makers before just weren't listening!! Now is the time that people can appreciate the things in life that they hadn't noticed due to the desire to endlessly chase material gains!! Now is the time to look for a better future and be optimistic! Change can be painful sometimes but it is always necessary and I feel as individuals we must always look to the future with optimism and approach life in this way!


It is terribly sad to see a company like GM suffer and my heart genuinely goes out to all those people in Detroit who will lose their jobs because of decisions made by men with much greater salaries, who have failed!! And they have definitely failed. Of that, let their be no doubt! For example, every year, at every degree show around the world, new and interesting solutions to modernise our cars and transport gets presented, some are better than others, some more feasible than others but time and time again, this type of blue sky thinking was overlooked not just by the big three but by most of the major OE M's as a whole. They thought that heavy trucks, powerful saloons and massive SUV's would sell in huge volumes forever! As a designer, incremental changes in brand perception was the most adventurous things we got to see! Dinosaur thinking by dinosaur companies has seen them face their extinction.However, what gives me hope is that these companies now must change and change fast and the ideas that were previously overlooked before are now being desperately sought after to repair the damage. This is where we might see exciting products and ideas. Companies like Local Motors who are trying to do something brave, wonderful and new, might prosper in this new age and I think we should all be excited about Local Motors vision and companies of a like minded status.

http://www.local-motors.com/

With every down side their is a positive one and my hope is that the American government like others around the globe will support companies like Local Motors in the tax system to allow them to prosper with their new products and methodologies. This way, maybe the poor guy with ten years experience spraying Chevy trucks who has lost his job through no fault of his own will soon be able to find employment for another successful and new American company!!


Benedetto Bordone


PS, for further reason to believe in hope and optimism. Weren't Brawn GP (then Honda) nearly dead in the water only three months ago, look at them now!!

http://www.theloftcreativestudios.com/