Automotive Design

One of the main design principles brought up by Dondis really stood out to me in this example, and that is lines.  Lines are such a powerful part of what we see here in this Ferrari 458 Italia xx.  The line and angle of the hood as it come up from the ground and into the window.  The basic shape of the car is very sweeping from front to back with almost a teardrop design.  The curves lead the styling to be very soft, but the harshness of the lines contrast the curves and give the car a very edgy feel.  The edgy feel and Ferrari deserves.  The lines that follow the intake on the sides of the car open up very wide then get smaller to give off a very powerful feel.  The rear fenders that extend outward are very flat but start lower and end higher, this gave the car a very controlled and powerful feeling as well because of the size of the rear tire and fender areas.

The next element that I would like to talk about is shape.  The circle is a very powerful shape in that it never ends and there are no weak corners to get in the way.  The Volkswagen beetle was designed by in command of Hitler during the WWI.  Hitler demanded that Dr. Ferdanand Porsche design him a strong practical car that his country and people could use.  This was the car that Porsche came up with.  The circle is used heavily in the design of the beetle and is still scene in the 2011 beetle.  The circle is a very strong design both structurally and aesthetically, you can see the roof curve down as if were just half of a circle.  With no edges or line to get in the way you create a very simple car.  The car doesn’t see to be superfluous at all and seems to blend in.  This design is meant to be simple, cheap and strong.

The factor of color places a huge roll in design and is especially strong in color.  This is a house that was designed by my father that uses color to make the appeal more powerful as well as using color to bring to gather the different clashing materials to produce an affect all in its own.  The brown rusting metal that is on the outside of the house gives off a very natural feel that tries to blend in with some of its back ground colors.  The brown is there not to clash with the environment but to simply contrast it.  But when we look at the very blue glass used as the roof over the front door or the glass used in the landscape we fell something sharp that hadn’t been felt with the other colors before.  The different color of blue gives of a very cool and cold feeling in contrast to the warm brown of the rest of the house.  The use of color in design is very powerful for it interprets many different parts of the brain and helps you understand more clearly what the architect was trying to show.