Category — design

Wonder if they noticed when they signed it off

‘DVNO, Four capital letters, Printed in gold…’ Oh yes! Released next month, this is a fantastic video jam packed with 80s style logo parodies from a time when we used to be drip fed all those amazing American TV shows (A-Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider et al). This is exactly the kind of thing that gets us designers drooling… nostalgic-retro-chic or just plain genius, call it what you want, this rocks!

One of Italy’s great coachbuilders and design houses faces a bleak future. It seems that the big car manufacturers are using their own internal design studios for niche products which were previously subbed out. Remember all of those convertibles like the Vauxhall Astra, which used to sport a natty little Bertone badge on it’s flank. Bertone are not alone as Karmann and Pininfarina, etc will all be suffering from this. These products must have been the bread and butter jobs which supported these creative studios and allowed them to produce the concept cars and more experimental designs. I think it is sad that these creative, independent studios could be lost due to manufacturers taking things in-house.

Read more here

Design is always best subbed out in my opinion. Internal departments cannot think freely enough and are too ingrained in the company culture to produce great work. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fabulous designs to come out of internal design studios, but I bet they could have been better if released from the shackles of multiple layers of management and bean counters.

Bertone designed most of the cool Lamborghini’s including the Muira (probably one of the best looking cars ever) and the crazy Countach (80’s teenagers wet dream car). Amazing, impractical, bizarre designs which define the supercar. Will we see the like from Audi? - I think not!

Am I just being nostalgic or is this potentially a huge loss to the design world?

Not the greatest logo ever designed and the ideas developed on the journey to the logo we know so well are not the greatest to say the least!

People in some countries, regions, organizations and religions must contemplate high treason when they see the banner they’re forced to rally ’round: ugly, wrong-headed, plum baffling, symbolic of failure. In honor of President’s Day, an examination of some flags, past and present, that don’t make anyone angry when burned.