Chris Bangle wins Lifetime Award by EyesOn Design

The Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology has announced that Chris Bangle has bees selected for the 2012 Lifetime Design Achievement Award for his career in vehicle design.

The Lifetime Design Achievement Award is part of the renowned EyesOn Design Awards, organized by the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology.

Previous winners include Walter de’Silva, Tom Gale, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Chuck Jordan, Robert Lutz, Shiro Nakamura, Sergio Pininfarina and Jack Telnack.

The award, given annually by EyesOn Design, is unique in that only vehicle designers who have previously won the award are allowed to vote.

The 2012 Lifetime Design Achievement Award will be presented to Bangle on next 17 June 2012 at a black tie event during the DIO’s EyesOn Design week of activities.

The event will culminate in the annual automobile design show, held every Father’s Day on the grounds of the lakefront Eleanor & Edsel Ford House, in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan.

Bangle, who currently directs his own design studio in Turin, Italy, has had a distinguished career at Opel, Fiat and at BMW from 1992 to 2009.

Born in Ohio and raised in Wisconsin, Bangle earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. His first notable work was the modular interior of the Opel Junior show car and the 1993 Fiat Coupe.

He became the first American Chief of Design for BMW Group in October, 1992. There, he designed the Z9 Gran Turismo concept car, the redesigns of the BMW 3 Series and 7 Series as well as both generations of Z4s and X5s, the X6, the Mille Migna concept car and the striking, fabric-bodied GINA concept car among others.

As BMW’s design leader, his team was also responsible for the designs of the MINI, the MINI Clubman and Countryman as well as the Rolls Royce Phantom, the Rolls Royce Ghost and others.

In his time at BMW, his styling themes, in particular the “bustle-back” look of the 7 Series, generated much controversy.

Nonetheless, the car became the best-selling 7 Series of all time and during Bangle’s tenure, BMW overtook Mercedes as the global leader in premium car sales. The visual cues of his designs have also influenced the look of several automobiles later developed by other manufacturers.

(via: Autoblog.com)

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Volvo Shows Four Possible Design Directions for Next-Gen XC90

November 16, 2011 at 2:35pm by Steve Siler

While Volvo’s stand at the 2011 Los Angeles auto show didn’t house anything we haven’t seen before (save a sassy version of the doomed C70 convertible), we did see some interesting stuff at the company’s slick Camarillo, California, design studio just prior to the show. There we got a peek at these four sketches, which show possible design directions for next-generation XC90 crossover. On first glance, they all look roughly the same, but closer inspection reveals variations in everything from the size and shape of the signature taillamps to the C-pillar treatment to the varying degrees of angularity in the overall shapes. All, however, look far more modern than today’s XC90, which has been on the market since 2002.

Volvo didn’t so much as hint about which of the four is most likely to get the green light, but it did say that the XC90 will be the first vehicle built on Volvo’s upcoming Scalable Platform Architecture. Also, in accordance with its previously announced future powertrain strategy, the next XC90 will feature only four-cylinder engines. Given the XC90’s size, you can expect direct injection and copious amounts of turbocharging, and possibly even some version of the kinetic energy recovery system that the firm is currently testing. Volvo wouldn’t comment on a hybrid version, but since the SPA platform is designed to handle all extents of electrification, you can bet your last Swedish fish there will be one. We were told that the next-gen XC90 will bow sometime in 2014.

Tags: 2011 L.A. auto show, Volvo, Volvo XC90 |

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India-based SJ Design teases new concept car

Indian design firm SJ Design has announced the development of its first concept vehicle, a 2+2 coupe with flowing lines and a TDI powertrain.

Founded in 2010, SJ Design Pvt. Ltd. is a new design studio based in Pune, India, which aims at becoming one of the first specialized design studios in the local automotive industry.

Their first proposal is called SJ1, a 2+2 coupé GT powered by a 1.9TDI engine coupled with a 5 speed manual gearbox and front wheel drive transmission.

The first details revealed by the teasers show a stretched silhouette with a forward moving stance and simple, flowing lines, contrasted by a front end with a more elaborated design.

For more information visit SJ Design’s website and Facebook page.

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Hyundai USA: design videos

Two official videos that give some insights on the activities of the Hyundai Design Center for North America and on the design of the 2011 Sonata.

The first video is a short behind of the scenes on the design process at the company’s Design Center for North America, with comments by Design Managers Andre Hudson and Osamu Shikado and other designers and modelers.

The second video includes commentaries by Hudson and Shikado on the design of the 2011 Sonata, and how it makes use of the “Fluidic Sculpture” surface language.

The last clip, released in 2009, includes an interview with former Hyundai Chief Designer Joel Piaskowski  - who moved to Ford in 2010 – and a presentation of the Irvine-based design studio.

(Source: Hyundai USA)

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Audi A7 Sportback: design video

An official video where Audi head of exterior design Achim-D. Badstübner gives some insights into the design and development of the A7 Sportback.

Presented in 2010 and strongly based on the concept car introduced at the 2009 Detroit Motor Show, the Audi A7 Sportback has been recently selected by Automobile Magazine as 2012 Automobile of the Year.

We take this occasion to report an interesting official video featuring Achim-D. Badstübner, head of exterior design, illustrating the design of the car with words and sketches.

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