There’s been plenty of news lately about car design; especially with the new emphasis on small cars. BusinessWeek is carrying stories on small cars in the pipeline, and on the new retro-Lutz-inspired GTO (I agree that it’s lacking the original spirit). Car Design News is running the same press as almost everyone else covering the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show which looks like a boring show to me. So instead of playing the same worn out record, I thought I’d just take a quick peek at CDN’s portfolio pages. Heck, the second one I look at has something more interesting than the stuff I see getting all the press.

The above image is a concept by transportation design student Julien Debomy. Way more fun than the stuff I’ve seen reported lately. I need to pay more attention to what’s going on in the trenches.

{Image Copyright © Julien Debomy}

I’m one of those who winces at the word “Futurist”. It was cool to see a title like “Visual Futurist” up on the screen next to an industrial designer’s name (e.g. Syd Mead), but in general the term – for me – puts pictures of tinfoil-hat-wearing alarmists in my mind’s eye. Not exactly my kind of crowd. And even my association with the SL Future Salon – and by extension the Accelerating Change folks – sometimes gives me pause. Well, the question of legitimacy is raised in this Wired article, and for anyone who visits this blog it might be worth a read. Truth is, I wouldn’t even bother posting this entry except for one sentence in the whole piece:

The APF, for example, had a recent annual meeting in Las Vegas, a venue Hines saw as appropriate for discussing the blurring boundaries between the real and virtual worlds.

Now they’re talking. Maybe I’ll actually pull for them getting some kind of system in place to legitimize the title. Until then though, I’ll probably continue to wince.

I may at times rag on BusinessWeek for spinning design a little too much (and of course I understand there is a business reason behind the spin), but I do enjoy the interviews they post; having given up on ID magazine a few years ago this sort of thing is much appreciated. And today they’ve posted a nice excerpt from an interview with none other than Richard Sapper. Go check it out > link.