Some more random doodles. I am still not that comfortable drawing freehand with my bamboo, but practice makes perfect…
mrdouglaswood
the idiosyncratic musings of a designer
Tagged with automotive …
#174 Dissertation Progress
A few months into the summer and I have good news. The first draft of the dissertation is almost complete. The main body of text is pretty much there and the introduction and conclusion are in progress. I still have a bit more research to do in regards to some of the chapters and try and speak to a few more people about it, but it is taking shape quite nicely.
Without spoiling too much, some people I have spoken to/waiting for a reply from include designers at Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Coventry University’s Automotive design course. If I can keep this momentum up, it will hopefully turn out quite well.
If you cannot remember what the subject is from when I last mentioned it, it is looking at the future of human interactions in the car. The screenshot below proves that I have started it and how many words there are, though take 1000 off the total to get the number of words I have written, the extra 1000 are from sources I have been putting at the end of each chapter so I know where I got all information from when it comes to reference everything. I didn’t to that in the writing process as it would give a false indication of word count and it would take too long if I was in a writing groove.
#161 Miscellaneous Workings
A small update. This is something I have just started to do in my spare time from writing my dissertation over the summer. It’s a BTCC Honda Civic. I don’t know what I am going to do with it in the long run, but I’m hoping it will turn out quite well.
#57 Campbell Levy
Personally, I love things which are quite technical and engineering orientated. A while ago whilst on one of my numerous Internet scouring sessions, I came across something which I absolutely love. It combines my love of cars with my love of design. It was Campbell Levy Designs which makes lamps using car parts. They have been doing this for almost 40 years which is astonishing as the finished products haven’t aged a bit. This timeless designs have been in part due to the fact that car engines have hardly changed since it was created over 100 years ago.
It was started in 1974 by Edward Levy and the lamps instantly became a hit in local car dealers. Using mostly cam shafts, the parts used just seem to work in the design of the overall product. The following quote taken from the about page on their website says how Edward came up with the idea:
“The idea came when I saw a BMW engine taken apart, and the architectural qualities of the crankshaft were immediately appealing to me.”
The use of car parts in products is not a new idea, or it isn’t if you know where to look. You can get office seats which are essentially fully FIA compliant racing seats, coasters made from brake discs, and drinks cabinets made out of half an Austin Mini. Those ideas may seem a little obscure for most of you, so if I were to say TopGear have 2 pieces of what is essentially art made out of a car you may very well pick up interest. Their coffee table is made from a Jaguar V8 and is utterly gorgeous whilst their seats, in the last couple of series, are from an old Rolls Royce.
Yes I know is may be a bit of a specialist area of design to focus on, but if you are as interested in cars and general engineering as I am along with design, these products, whilst in many cases being a wee bit tacky, there are some which are truly fantastic, the Campbell Levy ones being at the forefront of this awesomeness.
Would I like one? Yes please, pretty please…?
#49 Safety First
Anything which makes users of the road safer is always a good thing. That is why one of the best ideas relating to road safety which I have come across recently is something I am going to briefly talk about. Whilst some of you will already know that I’m a car man, you’ll be quite surprised that I am not going to talk about cars for this one, but for the greater unknown in my internal combustion life, motorbikes.
Reevu are a helmet manufacturer, more specifically, a motorbike helmet manufacturer and they have just launched an updated version of one of their products, the MSX1. A helmet yes, but this one has a rear view mirror. Something which is quite an achievement in itself, managing to contain all the necessary parts into such a confined environment, whilst keeping the general form factor of a helmet and making it compliant with a number of stringent regulations which apply to helmets. A design success in my honest opinion.
The mirror is out of the line of sight for the user, a bit like the rear view mirror in a car, and its mechanism is fully mechanical, no electronic parts which would need charged up, ultimately making it safer as there is no chance of it dying in the middle of a journey.
The combination of the mirror and the helmet is one of pure genius. Unlike the mirrors in a car, or daresay on a motorbike, it should only have to be adjusted once in the lifetime of the helmet, as the helmet tends to be used by one person and one person only. So once you get the positioning right, you’re set. It also reduces the need for the rider to turn around to check behind them, or to see behind them at certain points of their journey, though for safety, it should be used in conjunction with all of the other safety techniques taught.
It’s great when you find something which has been designed to make peoples lives safer and easier rather than just to make money.
