Table of contents for No. 232 in AUTO & DESIGN

Fulvio Cinti left us as this issue was about to go to press. The founder of Auto&Design passed away on 15 August, just before his 96th birthday. Ahead of his times, Fulvio Cinti created Auto&Design, an international bilingual magazine, in 1979 at a time when the concept of global product had yet to be invented. He edited it for over 35 years, constructing its authority and forming a network of sincere friendships in the world of car design that today pays tribute to him. Fulvio will always be with those of us who carry on his work and, we are sure, with those who knew him. In our next issue we will dedicate abundant space to the man and to the testimonies of his friends and their memories of him.…

The life of the Nu-Age, the concept presented in Beijing by OuShang, one of the Changan group’s four brands, began with a little drawing that seems to have been done by a child: under a glittering sun we see a beach umbrella under which there is a chair for an elderly person, while the chair for adults is without shelter; in the middle is a space where children can play. The idea was to create a car that would reflect the needs of the new extended Chinese family which Changan's designers have studied in depth. The Nu-Age, which can be read as in French (nuage, cloud: "The shape of the exterior”, says Chen Zheng, “looks just like a cloud") or English (new age: "A new form, a new language for…

From the upholstery of the most representative saloons of the Eighties to the steering-wheel of performance monsters that today compete around the world, its use multiplying into a thousand further applications at the crossroads between fashion, interior, automotive, yachting, aviation and consumer electronics: the Alcantara universe spreads out like a velvety drape in different directions and always of the highest quality. The latest variant of the celebrated material, the result of a Japanese patent but as always produced in Italy, was the result of collaboration with beyerdynamic for the Amiron wireless headphones. "This is an operation that brings to the surface one of the most significant aspects of the current economic climate”, explains Andrea Boragno, Chairman and CEO of the company, “namely the trend towards industrial customisation: every customer asks…

High quality product development, competence and fast shipment times. These are the key principles of Honpe Technology, a company founded in 1999 in Shenzhen, China, and specialists in various sectors of prototyping, from automotive – where it is a direct or sometimes indirect supplier to most important world brands on global level and most advanced Italian automotive design, research and development firms such as Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, Danisi Engineering, Blutec, Olsa and a lot of other big names – to marine through IT and Telecom, where it works with Microsoft, Huawei, Sony, Alcatel to the Medical, Home Appliances sectors and famous design houses like Design Group Italia. In the biomedical science sector Honpe has worked with the Sant'Anna di Pisa school in the development of the DeTOP project. It also…

Sustaining the end of course thesis and graduating is not a point of arrival, but a point of departure, educators and lecturers like to say. What could be better then than starting with a Lamborghini? This is what the 38 students, now newly graduated designers of the Transportation Design course at the IED Turin who presented their theses last July, had the good fortune - and the perseverance - to experience. The theme was exciting for the brand involved as well as for all the history attached to it, given also the title of the project: "Gandini's Revolution", chosen by Lamborghini design director Mitja Borket, who has always seen in the works of Marcello Gandini - the Miura and Countach in particular - the deep roots of the bull brand…

Casting an eye over today’s automotive landscape, it is not difficult to run into skilfully pre-packaged formal identities, shrewdly organised around solid theoretical principles and effective visual assumptions, but sometimes devoid of historical depth. Not many brands escape this insidious practice and manage to shine with deep aesthetic value that sinks its roots in formal structures that have matured over the years. Among these, the Jeep certainly occupies a position of particular interest, especially by virtue of the unparalleled recognition that some models have secured for themselves in the course of time. An impact with unquestionable content, all focused around signature traits such as "round headlights, the vertical windshield, the trapezoidal wheel arches or the famous seven-slot grille" the Style Centre lists proudly: elements that today seem to be components…

The goal was clear: to create a design that was at the same time authentic, modern and distinctive so as not to betray the expectations duly demanded by a brand like Jeep. Mission accomplished, given that from the very start the Compass can be recognised as belonging to the historic American brand, thanks to styling elements, such as the seven vertical slots on the grille, which here seem to want to join up with the headlights, and the trapezoidal wheel arches, that are part of the tradition. The look of the iconic front grille has been revamped by the designers, setting each of the seven chrome slots in a black frame. The large trapezoidal fog lights have been housed at the ends of the bumpers and, unlike the more extreme…

Nine consecutive days of pure off-roading. The Easter Jeep Safari, the off-road event that in 2018 has reached its 51st edition, was back this year with all the usual trail rides departing from Mohab (Utah). Thousands of enthusiasts take part in this event every year, testing their Jeeps on some of the most challenging and famous routes in the United States. Since 1967, when it was first organised, the Easter Jeep Safari has evolved and grown year after year. Today it offers 50 different trails with 8 different levels of difficulty, with experienced staff to act as guides for all the excursions involved in the event. Tradition has it that, for this occasion, the American brand presents new vehicles with top off-road capabilities. In addition to the latest additions to…

It’s easy to say luxury. But in a world where, in the presence of substantial technological assimilation, brands are becoming more and more decisive, we need to go further. Through connotation and interpretation. Especially when, as at Mercedes, brands have started families, the Star having spawned AMG, Maybach and, soon, EQ: the so-called product technology brand earmarked as the standard-bearer of electric intelligence. Going further, in the case in point, means articulating the Gordon Wagener-signed sensual purity, as a result of which the latest generation of Stuttgart cars has progressively cleansed itself of (many) decorative elements, in favour of an image created by forms. And at the same time it means pushing forward a design narrative that does not end with the body of the car, but aims to express…

It is not only through the exoticism of a concept like Le Fil Rouge, presented in spring in Geneva, that Hyundai insists on the theme of new sensuality. And if in that exercise of a new design language the element of sportiness were also underlined, market needs and the typical characteristics of the Suv have induced the Korean manufacturer to present the fourth generation of the Santa Fe flagship, which focuses on sensuality and premium qualities, but - as Thomas Bürkle explains - "putting qualities of robustness before the sportiness of the previous model". Bürkle, Chief Designer Europe, led the team (Roberto Kühn, Creative Design Manager/Exterior, and Nicolas Dengel, designer) that from the German studio in Rüsselsheim shaped the exterior before the final touches were applied in Korea. The interiors,…

Magna, well known as the most diversified automotive supplier in the world, is also very successful in the field of commercial vehicles. With design teams in Austria and the USA, Magna has a growing reputation for advanced design, show cars, production cars and now commercial vehicles for numerous OEMs around the world. Their most recent prestige design and development projects were carried out for best-selling Asian OEMs, covering complete new truck line-ups. Headed by Andreas Wolfsgruber, the Magna Steyr design team develops new designs through the complete process from first sketches and brand development to production-ready final data. They approach a truck project with the aim of bringing up-to-the-minute automotive styling quality to commercial vehicle line-ups. Magna is taking part in the 2018 IAA Commercial Vehicle show in Hanover from…

"An open-air container". It was 1980 and Giorgetto Giugiaro described his Panda 4X4 Strip in this way, an open-air prototype version of the Fiat Panda and one of his most entertaining and famous creations. Thirty-eight years later, Fabrizio Giugiaro launched the Panda 4X4 TopLess, an open-top version of the original car of the 1980s, extravagantly redesigned in an innovative way as an electric "Spiaggina" (beach buggy). "I looked for a way to use my personal Fiat Panda 4X4 in the centre of Turin and discovered that it could easily be converted into an electric car. So the idea was born immediately, an ecological "Spiaggina" that had as its inspiration the historic city car designed by my father”, says Fabrizio Giugiaro. Few simple ingredients define its style, which continues to be…

The spirit of profound, forthright renewal that pervades the latest generation of one of the most significant American icons of all time can, perhaps, be traced back to a single element, the grille: "Now it's taller and straighter, and it ensures a much stronger visual presence for the whole front”, explains Mark Allen, head of Jeep's global design. "It also conceals a detail that many might not have noticed, but which is an important citation for us: the two headlights, larger than in the past, make slight inroads into the perimeter of the two outermost slots, as was the case with the original CJ". Here, the reference to the famous off-roader of the Seventies sums up much of the operational approach that characterised the project. Even the new three-dimensional treatment…

All new. The 2018 edition of the Jeep Cherokee has given itself a makeover with new styling details that have altered it profoundly. Cosmetic changes have mainly involved the front of the vehicle, drawing on the style and premium content of its big sister the Grand Cherokee. The American brand’s new medium Suv now has a more sophisticated look, but at the same time is more faithful to the brand’s stylistic tradition. The most standout update has been to the front, in particular the headlamps which have been given a design refresh and which house the main and dipped beam headlights and the daytime running lights within the same lighting unit. In the previous version the designers had opted for a development on two separate levels. The bonnet has remained…

Before interviewing Alejandro Mesonero, head of Seat design, I couldn’t help but feel a surprisingly effervescent climate among the pavilions set up at the historic Terramar circuit, not far from Barcelona, to present the new Spanish brand. Built around concrete and granite structures, with copper profiles and entire walls shimmering in octane blue, they themselves communicate the innovative intention deeply rooted in the contemporaneity that animates the latest adventure of the Volkswagen group. "When we thought about who would buy a Cupra, we reflected on the idea that more and more individuals today are looking for another dimension to sportiness”, says Mesonero. "In addition to pure performance, people want an aesthetic that is not overly striking but, above all, less "basic" than in the past. Just think of colours: once…

A "crossoverisation" of the entire range that has affected Ford citycars, saloons and station wagons, from the small Ka Plus, through the Fiesta, to the Focus. Everything started from the styling concept of "Human Centric Design" which, in recent years, has inspired the pencils of blue oval designers. "Each of our creative processes begins with the demands of our customers in mind. It's primarily we ourselves who have to make their desires real", Nico Tonello, Chief Designer of the exteriors of the new Focus, told Auto&Design. Ford designers are able to pursue this goal because they are very well aware of who buys their cars. "The comparison is simple, if you have to give a gift to a friend you know what he or she would like to receive because…

Among the issues that are debated when it comes to electric cars, that related to range is probably one of the most contentious. The briefing "4 Distances: new e-form languages for future distances", proposed by the Audi brand to students of the ninth edition of the Master in Transportation & Automobile Design (TAD) at Milan Polytechnic, examines this issue by linking the electric car and its styling language to the theme of the distance to be travelled and the different usage needs. A design challenge that allowed young designers not only to underscore the role of electric and self-drive vehicles in the near future, but to explore innovative and cutting-edge formal developments that examine the needs of some typical users when facing different distances: short, medium and long range, then…

There is a European aspect to the Jeep brand: "The Jeep remains American, but like the original Willys, it's designed for the streets of the world”, says Klaus Busse: "Jeep is a global brand, you don't need to be American to have a passion for it. The Renegade was also born with the international market in mind, but not with an international design. The Jeep is and remains what it is, with an American design that is also liked in other countries simply because it is a Jeep. Its heart is and remains American. But like the Willys of the past, it's not designed exclusively for the domestic market”. That said, Busse - who has been responsible for the design of European FCA brands for almost three years - admits…

In an inspired play of aesthetic compensation and identity research, the brand’s most compact, urban proposal has, intelligently, taken immediate advantage of the formal universe of the "roughest" and most offroad vehicle in the range, thus tapping into a very reliable source of inspiration. It is no coincidence that in 2015 Mark Allen, then as now head of Jeep design, explained to Auto&Design: "At the beginning of the Renegade project we didn't know exactly how to move. Then gradually a concept that had its roots in the Wrangler emerged: straight front, vertical windshield, square shoulders". Four years later, the restyling and the increasingly aggressive competitiveness of the B-Suv segment provide the opportunity to strengthen this bond. For example, the front lighting units appear almost identical on the two vehicles and…

In Anglo-Saxon countries, it is traditional to organise a particular kind of treasure hunt on Easter Sunday: the children are set loose to rummage in every nook and cranny of the house to find the Easter Eggs (real hen’s eggs) that their parents have hidden after boiling them and decorating the shells. So the cosy, friendly home lights up with delightful little finds, which only the most attentive, however, are able to get their hands on and make their own. Similarly, the aesthetic universe of Jeeps of the last decade has become a progressive treasure trove of fine styling signals, sometimes imperceptible, but always authentic nods to the most passionate audience. From the tiny profile of the earliest Willys printed on the edge of the windshield, to the seven-slot grille…