e
What Happens When GM Lets Their Designers 'Cut Loose?'
Transportation Design is undoubtedly one of the more glamorous subsets of Industrial Design. But the sheer complexity of designing a performance vehicle that must be safe, attractive, durable, and affordably mass-produced must present terrific restrictions. So this recently-unveiled, blue-sky project undertaken by GM's Advanced Design Studio must have been exhilirating to work on.
"[The Chaparral 2X VGT is] an example of what our designers are capable of when they are cut loose, no holds barred," said Ed Welburn, Vice President of GM Global Design. "A fantasy car in every sense of the word." That's because VGT stands for Vision Gran Turismo, the 15th-anniversary edition of the PlayStation videogame.
The game is where the Chaparral concept will "live," but despite it being a virtual project, it's cool to see GM's design staff--and members of longtime collaborator Chaparral Cars--speaking with such passion about the project. And the footage of it is pretty nuts:
-
o1Favorite This
-
Q11Comment
Directory Company Profiles
Core77
Industrial Design
Resources
Industrial Design
Resources
-
Core77 Directory
Find the Best Industrial Design CompaniesGo -
Formation Design Group
Formation is a product design + development company focused on human centered design innovation. To ...
-
Fresco Design
Fresco supports world-class brands with world-class design. Based in the Boston area, a leading inno...
-
studioFAR
Established in 2009, studioFAR is a softgoods design firm based in the Mission district of San Franc...
-
Alternatives
We're a full-service branding and creative agency. We specialize in building brands, companies and o...
-
DesignStein Studios, LLC
We are a team of industrial designers focused on developing products that are intended for tooling a...
-
Unbox Product Design
Unbox is a full-service design, engineering, branding, and custom manufacturing firm. Unbox works wi...
-
Tandem Product Design
With a stellar record of design and engineering successful products with World Class brands since 20...
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
Comments
It's a concept car.
Why do I get this feeling that your job is in no way whatsoever related to design, manufacturing, engineering, or marketing?
I'm pretty sure Sony Entertainment paid GMC a hefty sum for this concept. Even if they didn't, it's good advertising for Chevy and Chaparral. Gran Turismo is a pretty big franchise as far as video games go.
Moreover, the only people tapped for this project were designers. They're there to make pretty sketches and models (ideally with innovative aesthetics), figure out how people are supposed to fit inside the cars, and work out the usability side of things. Coming up with a series of sketches, spending some time with 3D artists to build the game models, and making a scale model for a car show isn't going to break GMC's bank.
Letting your designers play around with fancy concepts might not have immediate value, but a little bit of fun can do a lot to boost creativity, and even the most outlandish concepts might have some valuable ideas hidden inside. Design, when you really boil it down, is ultimately all about dreaming. Dreaming tempered by real-world constraints, sure, but dreaming all the same. Its value is not clear and tangible, but is nevertheless often a vital component of a company's success.
If you've got a problem with the actual functionality of GMC's vehicles, yell at their engineering and manufacturing departments. A car designer with a Prismacolor marker in his hand isn't going to have a whole lot to say about ignition switches, nor why they might fail and catch fire.
Hell, even then, engineering is a human endeavor too. Humans are not omniscient. You'll never catch all the problems that might arise in a complex design, no matter how hard you try, nor how much money you throw at it. Recalls are a fact of life; just be grateful that they resolved the problem and issued a recall.
I think it's meant to be a road-runner...think Looney Tunes...MEEP, MEEP!
-D
There's a reason Ford is kicking ass these days.
It's for a video game. I doesn't have to make any sense. It just has to be dramatic and exciting, like the hidden blade in Assassin's Creed, or the ridiculously huge armor used in the Warcraft franchise.
Consider the propulsion system here. It's just straight-up technobabble, and would be completely impossible in real life. It's just there to enable a smaller, sleeker vehicle.