Syracuse University's Industrial Designers Society of America chapter hosted an event where students could submit designs for competition to be made as scale clay models.
Design Process
I considered various styles to submit to the contest, and eventually settled on two: A futuristic supercar, and a modern re-imagining of the legendary Studebaker Avanti.
For the modern supercar, I drew from common themes I have observed in cars that are typically dream cars. Features such as slim, long windows; swooping, stretched body lines; and downward tilted "angry" features are all common.
Though the modern supercar won the competition, I enjoyed designing the Av anti more. Bringing such an iconic car into the current era of transportation design was a fun challenge. I was determined to keep the main characteristic's of the Avanti, specifically focusing on the protruding sides of the car and the sleek "wasp-waisted" fenders that were so important to the original design. New cars are significantly more bulky in all dimensions (mostly for safety reasons), which made it tricky to modernize the design while maintaining the overall form of the Avanti. Additions such as a large hood bulge and pushed back cockpit are intended to reflect the incredible feats of speed the original was able to achieve. I also took inspiration from the new Dodge Daytona, Ford Bronco, and VW Scout for how designers in the industry are renewing old styles.
Final concepts
These were the two sketches I submitted to the competition, the first of which won the popular vote.
The winning design was made from clay as a scale model in a workshop hosted by IDSA with support from Greg Smiley, the head of industrial design at Toyota Material Handling North America!
Working with clay was a surprisingly fun process, and gave real insight into how transportation designers work in the industry.
