Hey everyone. I'm going to attend ACCD this Fall. However, as of right now, I can't help to feel like I'm a passenger on Titanic staying in the 'economy' cabin (also neither woman nor a child).
The facts today are these:
1. Financing the first year of school cost as much as a house down-payment. 2. Global economy (especially the US) is in crisis. 3. There are more people struck by lighting annually in the US than hired as a car designer in an American OEM companies. 4. Politics slows every progress of innovation in mostly anything for the betterment of humankind. 5. Fossil fuel ain't gonna stop being the foremost energy supplier, even if that fact brings no merit whatsoever in the improvement of our environment, economy, health and social well-being for the general public.
My question is this: Why are we not pissed off yet?
I know a lot of you old timers and veterans of the industry sometime feels like being taken for granted in some level of respect. And the newcomers, like me, has nobody else to aspire on except the very challenges ahead. I realized this is the time for renaissance or the "American ingenuity" of some sort to bring forth the majestic world of automotive design beyond simple brand-recognition, focus groups, sleazy marketing, and pointless repetition of more the same. Because aesthetics aside, honestly, I don't think we are helping to build the world any better. At least I don't really know when.
Cardesignnews.com can help bring us together, but I don't think we use this chance enough to make a difference. Even when observing the automotive world itself, I kept forcing to convince myself that the status-quo they have right now is the best fix for everyone. No it's not. Great new ideas are left stagnant and replaced by the monotony that is internal combustion wheeled aluminum box...in which that aluminum box is shaped "nicely" in different packages...by us...who is paying a hefty amount of gold if not arms and legs just to do so.
The news: GM just closed down four factories that made SUVs and SUTs, offing 10,000 workers. Big deal. Shoulda been done at least 8 years ago. Now they are making the chevy Volts. A whopping 10 years after Honda insight was made available for purchase and over 13 years after the first EV1 production from Lansing, Michigan hits dealers. And then the gas-gimmick... By Chrysler? buy dodge = pay less for gas? Okay, when oil prices hits $150 per barell later, who the hell cover the offset?!? Is this Chrysler's last speech before stepping down permanently? somebody slap this home depot guy silly, cause his departing settlement will be very very comfortable. All makes perfect sense! Really, unless somebody can give me a bigger picture about all this 'business' strategy (which offers some light at the end of the tunnel) then please. Somebody in macroeconomics?
Another news: get to cnn.com and check that video about the electric/battery powered box on wheels fabricated by the Nepalese. Very basic and deliciously primordial. Why can't we do sketch group like this? Just be creative to no end? whatever happened to the crazy ideas? Brand-recognizing/design identity process is easy and a lot of us here are either the expert or now learning to be one. I think its time to step ahead out of the box this time fellas. Gotta learn to quit jackin' off and work on the real hot sex now.
PS: this unprofessional design rant came off only after one bottle of hefeweizen. In better days, it may take 4-5 bottles. These days ain't it.
Not quite THAT bitter mach5. Agitated, you betcha. I'm just hoping to see if anybody shares the sentiment, thats all. Still aspiring for a way to get through the next ten years smelling like roses.
It is a fine book. It should be taught as part of design degrees and would prepare students for the commercial realities of the world they are about to enter.
If it's that bad you could always be a banker, a waiter, or join Green Peace.
Politics and nonsense like this are common in any profession. Learn to deal with it, fix it, or find a new line of work.
The whole hippy mentality that we are all going to hold hands and design cars that change the world is just BS. Corporations care about money, nothing else. If GM could grind up baby orphans and make money off of it they would.
Right now it pays to be "green" and preach about Hybrids but they knew what was going on ten years ago and wanted nothing but to churn out massive suv's and trucks. The only reason they act like they care now is they can make $$$ off the public and cash in on the nation's knee-jerk reaction to gas prices.
Well said HotShoe, but only that I find creative output and guts of an artist proved to be (or at least should be) the forefront of innovation. Pour example; long time ago, in a land far far away, certain Japanese OEM also found that being "green" is going to be profitable. I saw their ads in National Geographics mags years ago, promoting their "politically correct" direction etc, using simple marketing gimmick. Its its all just for $$$, but they got there first. American companies came late. I didn't mean at all to run away from the fact OF. Mind you, my silly novice whinings came off a bottle of good beverage and good will.
And Hot, you just offended some hippies...most of them turned neo-cons as they age...so in that department, I realize that any kind of popular mentality is merely a changing trend. I just wished that the ppl upstairs can anticipate these changes quicker instead of being too comfy sitting on their fat commissions.
