Jalopnik: Design

The Stops And Starts Of Designing The Traffic Light

Kristen Philipkoski — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:30:00 EST

You might not realize it when you've been trapped behind the same red light for five minutes, but traffic lights, when they're timed and tuned correctly, are actually pretty good at making traffic move. Really. More »

Prada's 2012 Spring Shoe Collection Inspired By Classic American Cars

Andrew Liszewski — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:30:00 EST

Thanks Prada for once again completely befuddling me when it comes to high fashion. Because while I certainly love the designs of classic American automobiles, I would never have thought to apply their iconic spoilers and taillights to high-heeled shoes. More »

Audi Has The Prettiest Booth At CES

Adrian Covert — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:45:00 EST

I'm sure whatever booth Robbie checked out at CES is great, but the best booth at CES didn't come from an ultrabook or smart TV manufactuer. Nope, it came from Audi. I am steadfast in my belief that it is BETTER. Like OMGDONTEVENTRYTOARGUEWITHME better. What makes it so great, exactly? Um, have you looked at the photos yet? More »

Can You Name A Car Just From Its Center Console?

Joel Johnson — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

It's easy enough to tell what car an interior belongs to if you see the whole thing; there are usually a ton of badges, especially on the wheel. More »

Where to find New York City's haiku crosswalk signs

Raphael Orlove — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST

The New York City Department of Transportation got a new street safety campaign yesterday, putting 12 signs with graphics and haikus up at crosswalks across the five boroughs. Here's how to find them. More »

Turn a crashed Ferrari into a coffee table

Casey Chan — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:15:00 EST

Cut a hole in a box. Put your crashed Ferrari in that box. Make her put that box... in the living room. And that's the way you do it. Unbelievably, that's really how you create a Crashed Ferrari Coffee Table. More »

JFK Airport's Terminal 6: The sad demise of a modern design marvel

Adrian Covert — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:01:00 EDT

By all accounts, Terminal 6 at NYC's JFK Airport is an architectural gem. Today, however, it sits unused. And soon it won't even exist. More »

How the iPad ate the auto show display

Peter Orosz — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EDT

Two years ago, video displays at auto shows were beginning to look like iPhone interfaces. This year at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the transformation is complete. Gone are the custom video panels and touchscreen PC’s: pretty much every manufacturer has ditched them for a line of iPads. More »

The future of Chinese car design

Keith Barry, Wired Autopia — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT

China may be the world's fastest-growing automotive market, but so far homegrown Chinese car design has proven unimaginative at best. The generic econoboxes and clones of aging Audis are the result of years of knock-down kits, alliances with Western automakers and an automotive market where few ordinary Chinese could participate until recently. More »

That's One Sexy-Looking Mobile Police Station

Jack Loftus — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:00:00 EDT

When you call the police they usually send a cruiser. In Germany, the day could soon come that sees the Polizei sending the whole damn station to your door instead. More »

Is "flame surfacing" BMW designer headed to Hyundai?

Mike Spinelli — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST

A report from Korea's RPM9 indicates former BMW styling head Chris Bangle, the Charlie Sheen of auto designers, could become lead designer at Hyundai, specifically to work on the company's next Equus. Trying to get a confirmation. (H/T Seung!) More »

How the hell do you control a car with no buttons?

Justin Hyde — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST

From microcars to high-end speedsters, future cars will share one common theme — controls through touch screens rather than buttons, if the concepts of last week's Geneva Motor Show are any indication. More »

Welcome to the new Jalopnik 5.0!

Ray Wert — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:30:00 EST

You'll notice Jalopnik's front page looks quite a bit different today. There's this one big story taking up most of the page, and an infinitely scrolling list of today's headlines in a column down the right side of the page. The page itself is a lot simpler and lighter, which means it will load quickly. And at last we have a way to display big, gorgeous images and videos on the front page of our site. That's the point. More »

Remembering The Man Who Modernized GM Design

Ed Welburn — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:30:00 EST

Charles M. "Chuck" Jordan died today at the age of 83. He was responsible for overseeing some of GM's most iconic designs. Here is a remembrance from the man who holds his job today. — Ed. More »

Future Spy Shots: An Electric Bentley From 2035

Justin Hyde — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EDT

The Royal College Of Art's Vehicle Design Degree show this year included this take by Bora Kim on a 2035 model year electric-powered Bentley, nicknamed "Jekyll and Hyde" Other ideas: snap-together coupes and driverless models. (H/T to Andrew!) [RCA/Wallpaper] More »

This Is A Math Geek's Lamborghini Countach

Sam Smith — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:30:00 EDT

Yep, that's a Lambo. This elegant pile of angles was produced using a 3-D modeling process that its makers have dubbed the Lo Res Project. How they made it is both simple and fascinating. More »

Adventures In Automotive Reading Comprehension

Murilee Martin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:00:00 EDT

The wonky lettering on this '87 Maxima's alarm indicator looked goofy, but at least drivers had no problems interpreting its meaning. Not so for this '81 Pontiac Bonneville's parking-brake pedal! More »

Uni-Signal: A Traffic Light For The Color Blind (And Everyone Else)

Peter Orosz — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:30:00 EDT

Our traffic lights use nothing but color to convey information. A trio of South Korean designers aim to fix that by augmenting the standard traffic light with shapes. More »

How To Fix The American License Plate

Ken Carbone, Fast Company — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:00:00 EDT

From a design standpoint, the American license plate is a mess — some states' efforts are simple and appealing, but others are visual disasters. Ken Carbone of Fast Company commissioned a few designs he thinks'll clean things up. —Ed. More »

The Bat Bike: Equal Parts Bat Pod And Terminator

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST

We've seen tons of home-brew Tumblers built by back-yard Batmen, but so far nobody's build the... ahem, batshit-crazy Batpod. Industrial designer Marouane Bembli's combined that machine with the Terminator motorcycle and penned a movie-inspired creation he's calling the Bat Bike. More »

Go Faster: The Coffee-Table Book Of Racing-Car Art

Sam Smith — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EST

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Go Faster is a book written by a German university professor on the glory of racing-car graphic design. It looks ferociously cool. Gulf Oil livery, spray-painted models, and cool design-geek video below. More »

Say привет To The GAZ Volga GL 5000 Design Study

Sam Smith — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:30:00 EST

Sure, it looks like a Chevrolet Volt that wandered into a pizza oven, but when you're talking about a brand that once inspired a quasi-satanic kidnapping legend, you could do a heck of a lot worse. More »

Hank The Deuce Almost Changed The Blue Oval To What?

Sam Smith — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:00:00 EST

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In 1966, Henry Ford II asked famed graphic designer Paul Rand to update the Ford corporate logo. This is what he came up with. Why didn't it take? More »

Back When Automotive Interior Designers Weren't So Slick: SECU- RITY Indicator Lamp

Murilee Martin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Ever notice how every interior component in cars these days, no matter how cheaply made, appears to have been vetted by a crew of marketing types and focus groups? That's why it's refreshing to see this Maxima's dash. More »

Honda Skydeck Concept: Scissor, Sliding Doors Reveal Ikea-Like Interior

Ray Wert — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:30:00 EDT

In addition to the production-intent CR-Z concept, Honda's bringing a minivan concept to the Tokyo Motor Show called the Honda Skydeck. With gimmicks galore like sliding and scissor doors, the coolest thing's the interior. Take a gander above or below. More »

Helpful Holiday Traffic Graphic: Why Highways Come To A Halt

John Krewson — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:15:00 EDT

Thanks to the folks at the Cleveland Plain Dealer for showing us why traffic sometimes inchworms along for no apparent reason. Surprise! It's slow drivers! Or maybe they don't want to go to Cleveland, which seems rather narrow-minded. [coolinfographics] More »

Virtual Traffic On Actual Roads Is Pretty, Not Helpful

John Krewson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:00:00 EDT

This is the work of RIT design student Philip Baudoin, who used an actual map and simulated vehicles to make this visualization of traffic patterns. It only needs the right data to be both useful as well as striking. [Philipbaudoin.com] More »

Carport Wins Maserati Design Contest, Proves Money Can’t Buy Class

Wes Siler — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Tired of your Maserati Gran Turismo getting covered in bird poo outside your double-wide? Apparently, a carport is the ideal solution to exotic car storage and one's just won a prize for its Maserati-sheltering abilities. More »

Audi Designs Exceptionally Precise Grand Piano

Wes Siler — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EDT

Audi's got a problem. The piano used at its jazz concerts clashes with the Bauhaus present in the rest of the room. The solution? The Audi Design Piano. Shame it's not aluminum und Schteel. More »

Deception in Sant’Agata: How the Lamborghini Miura Made Mid-Engined Layouts Look Good

Peter Orosz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EDT

Super cars need drop-dead gorgeous looks. Conventional wisdom insists putting a long monster-of-an-engine up front is how to accomplish this. Then how come the mid-engined Miura is the prettiest thing ever? More »

Person Parking: Single-Serving Parking Lot for Humans

Peter Orosz — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:00:00 EDT

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From the Department of the Comically European comes this project by Dutch branding agency Springtime, developed for the Public Design Festival in Milan. More »

Citroën Karin Concept Car Should Have Made The 80s The Trapezoidal Decade

Murilee Martin — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:00:00 EDT

Citroënet is one of the few marque-specific car websites that can measure up to the standard set by Allpar, and it doesn't take much digging there to unearth some jaw-dropping stuff. More »

How The Stile Bertone Mantide Got Angular Rear Wheelarches

Peter Orosz — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

When Jason Castriota left Pininfarina for Bertone, it was like switching to Coke after a lifetime of Pepsi. Let’s examine a design element he’s started using that’s alien to Pininfarina but essential to Bertone. More »

The $2 Million Showdown: Bertone Mantide vs. Corvette ZR1

Peter Orosz — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:30:00 EDT

Stile Bertone's Mantide now has a price and production run size: $2,000,000 and ten. Let's see if it's worth the 20× premium over its donor car: the Corvette ZR1. More »

Porsche Cayenne GTS Design Edition 3: Blacula's New Ride

The Auto Insider — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:20:00 EDT

Porsche has released the newest member of its Design Edition club: the limited edition, murdered-out Porsche Cayenne GTS Design Edition 3, complete with triple black racing stripes, black wheels and Lava Grey Metallic paint. More »

The Mystery of Peugeot’s Lion Fetish Solved

Peter Orosz — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:30:00 EDT

In a South African road test of the Peugeot 308 wagon, a 150-year enigma of the brand's lion fetish is cracked. More »

Camper Transforms Into Full-Fledged Hipster Abode

The Auto Insider — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:00:00 EST

If you're a skinny jeans-wearing, Mini Cooper-driving hipster you can now live in whatever place is "of the moment" thanks to this supermod, accordion-style Hipster Camper. More »

The Ferrari 599’s Archways of Aerodynamics

Peter Orosz — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST

Three years after its Geneva introduction, the 599 GTB Fiorano is in bloom with a track special and a performance upgrade. We are happy to report its most graceful piece of aerodynamics remains unchanged. More »

Classic & Sports Car Magazine Names Citroën DS "Most Beautiful Car Of All Time"

The Auto Insider — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:30:00 EST

Classic & Sports Car Magazine announced they've chosen the Flaminio Bertoni-designed 1955 Citroën DS as the 'Most Beautiful Car Of All Time.' It's certainly one of our favorites, but is it really the most beautiful? More »

Regime Change: Adrian Van Hooydonk Appointed BMW Group Design Director

The Auto Insider — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:00:00 EST

Adrian van Hooydonk has been appointed BMW Design Director, taking over the reigns from Mr. Bangle Butt himself, Chris Bangle. Current BMW's have just gotten weird, so we welcome the regime change. More »