Re: The Big Question: Evolution or Intelligent Design?

 If you have read the 95 page document Fiat released for the 500L you will see what goes through their minds. Everything is considered and designed. The peoples work around me I see is full of art. You only have to visit car design websites to see the pieces of art that are created during the design process. From the first sketches to the badass renders, most could hold their own in a gallery. I don't think people realise how much work and creativity goes into a cars design. I even mentioned it to a illustration student and she said they are just cars;  I doubted she realised the effort and the artworks that goes into to it all. (I feel she now knows...)

I'm not sure I answered your question, nut I'll leave you this:

You talk about gods, the truly special designs do create an emotion to even the most normal person when they see one. They too point and look. Surely that is god like, to make someone stand in awe?

Re: The Big Question: Evolution or Intelligent Design?

The boring answer is that it´s a bit of both. A lot of intelligence can be used to make daft ideas work. The only part of the car design cycle that corresponds to natural selection is the huge aggregated demand of buyers who act as a giant sorting programme, picking and rejecting. I don´t think even that is done intelligently. Most people don´t know really why they buy what they do and nearly nobody approximates to the rational "Economic Man" who is supposed to guide the market. Cars change rather than evolve. The process by which this happens is only partly amenable to rational control.

Re: The Big Question: Evolution or Intelligent Design?

 Since Joe chose to use FIAT as his example in his attempt to show Art in Automotive design i thought a look see at the current design team there was worth a moments time perusing over ; Names have been changed to protect the ( not so ) innocent .

1) First up we meet Valentino . The only thing Valentino cares about is clocking out at 5 sharp so he can catch a couple of hours with his mistress before the wife returns home from the kids soccer game . So Valentino will slam out what ever he thinks will pass muster , quality be damned so's he can get the ___ out of the place 

2) Then there's Giorgio . Giorgio in truth hasn't a modicum of design talent and only got the job becasue his father knows somebody who knows somebody thats in tight with Stronzetto ( Marchionne ) So  a good day with Giorgio is when he doesn't crash the computors , mess something up etc etc

3) And now for Mario . Mario has his degree in engineering and design and the only thing he cares about is whether it works or not . Style be damned 

4) Ahhhh Leonardo . Now Leonadro is the prententious sort who thinks he can live up to his namesakes reputation . Believeing he was hired to be an Artist to create Art instead of a craftsman to create commerce . So everything Leonardo produces comes out of his narcisisitc need for self expression : whether it works or not be damned 

5) Then we have our two ex pats . Jovic and Trevor . Now Trevor and Jovic are in fact very talented designers .... graduated top of their class ..... should both in fact be the lead designer somewhere .... EXCEPT ..... both are reserved / not aggresive enough and not nearly the self promoters they need to be in order to move ahead in the field and are stuck designing one door handle after another ( if the music business eats passive folks alive .... the automotive design business uses said peopl for bait t catch the reasonably aggresive people and eat them alive ) 

6) And last but not least ; Our head of Design . Marco . In truth Marco has never designed a successful automobile in his entire life . But he is aggresive / a self promoter to the max and ... has a modicum of management abilities . Hence he gets to take the messes handed to him at the end of day and try to make some sense of it all to satisfy the Bean Counters and the Marketing Mavens .... which I might add he seldom does ..... hence the plethora of pathetic design in most modern car compnaines 

Re: The Big Question: Evolution or Intelligent Design?

AReader said:

Rather than being evolution or intelligent design, cars - like dogs - are created by selective breeding "because we can". By combining DNA, all shapes and sizes are possible, as anyone who has ever watched a dog show like Crufts on the telly or gone to an International Autoshow will testify. Dog fanciers and anoraks get excited about all tihis dog and car variety and perfection. In the meantime, most people are happy with a gold lab or a mutt, and drive a Ford or a Camry - which run on regular rather than premium dog food or fuel.

------ End Quote ------

So ..... isn't that kind of  ...... ahhh ......... errr ...... putting an end to the discussion before its really even had a chance to get started ?   Oh well . Your page . Your rules . 

Re: The Big Question: Evolution or Intelligent Design?

 Ah you have me wrong on what I meant by art in autodesign. I was talking about the renders themselves as works of art. The ones I see people doing all the time. I'm talking just about the pretty pictures that was all. 

Ok maybe my last point was on the wrong side of the marketing ****, but what I was trying to get across  was the way that an old pretty car can turn heads, wasn't meant to be all the things you thought, just trying to use some of the vocab Areader used to anwser his question. As for my English, if it was any good I would be doing something like History and Politics...

As for me it's going ok, but then I wouldn't say anymore.