Luciano Bove

Highlights from Paris Motor Show 2008

2008-10-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

Here some of most interesting Design proposals by Mercedes, Renault, Audi, BMW...more to come

Design school application portfolio

2008-10-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Lets say it: it is not easy to get accepted to a Design College or University!

If we check some of the Forums on Design schools on the net we read about young students trying hard to get in their preferred Design institutions. Sometime you are not accepted and do not know what to do, you start thinking that maybe it is better to give up and try a different field, you get frustrated and mad. You just walk away from your passion.

Guess what? The first time I tried to get in Art Center it did not work out! So I found myself facing the same type of unconfortable feeling, to solve my problem i decide to talk to someone in college to share and understand if I could have done something about it. He (a professor) told me to go to Art Center and talk to the foreign student advisor about my file to know the reasons of my refusal.
That has been a great advice, I went and talked to a fanthastic lady who took all her time to explaine to me that my refusal was primarly due to a long "waiting list" (normal thing for some important schools) and that I should have retraied in a year. She also suggested me to use this time to go to follow some night courses in another Art college to improuve my entry portfolio, and the most important thing was that she made me understand the philosophy about Art Center to help me to better target my sketch samples.

Two years later, after attending PCC in Pasadena, I started Art Center graduating in 1989 and since then I work in the automotive design field.

With this little story I would like to tell you that you do not have to give up too soon, try to know the reasons behind a refusal, try to adapt your work to the school culture of which you want to be part. I know it is not an easy task, but to follow your passion and will it is worth trying. If you are young (I was 19 at that time) just try again being more prepared (time is on your side), naturally if you are older (24 or 26) think it over before taking your decision because today's designers market starts at about 24/25 years of age.

Good luck!

Art Center president controversy: game over!

2008-09-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

Richard Koshalek is not longer the Art Center College of Design President, he steps down after the long and stressing controversy he faced up with the school students and part of school stuff and faculty.

Press Release
September 2008

Richard Koshalek has stepped down as president of Art Center College of Design, where he became a lame duck in June after trustees of the elite Pasadena school refused his request for a four-year contract extension. They also suspended fundraising and development for an expansion program Koshalek had championed, including a $50-million Frank Gehry-designed high-tech design center and library.

Art Center's board announced that it had reached an agreement with Koshalek to let him depart now instead of ...please click the link below to continue reading full Press Release.

http://www.designtaxi.com/news.jsp?id=21196

Precedent articles on Art Center controversy by Luciano Bove:

http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/06/it-is-official-art-center-pasadena.html
http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/06/art-center-college-of-design-final-act.html
http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/06/art-center-controversy-some-interesting.html
http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/06/la-times-writes-about-art-center.html
http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/06/education-first-art-center-controversy.html
http://lucianobove.blogspot.com/2008/05/serious-trash.html

Photo Via: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2008/09/art-center-pres.html

Photoshop quick car sketch tutorial by Giacomo Barbero

2008-09-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

This tutorial shows a technique for creating a sketch in Photoshop very quickly (max 15 minutes) and includes some general tips about digital sketching in Photoshop. The author is Giangiacomo Barbero, an Italian designer graduated at...continue clicking at:
http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Quick-car-sketch-tutorial/16201 and discover all the tutorial steps.

Info and images via: www.carbodydesign.com and www.tutorialized.com

Design freelancing and client portfolio

2008-09-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

Some days ago I received an email from a freelance designer who contacted me for some advices concerning the hard economical period in Italy. His problem is loss of income due to poor client demand. This is a classic when the economy goes bad, all small business soffer because their clients start saving money cutting their budgets.

In Design it is the same thing, who has a freelance job has to be prepared to these periods of hard time and it comes with experience, but how?

The answear is : diversify your client portfolio, just like the funny drawing here at our left.

I tried to help the freelance designer, that wrote to me, trying to explaine the importance of diversification, the concept is: if I loose here I can still gain there", my income is more protected and I can be more flexible, too.

In conclusion I would like also to keep your attention on networking, it is very important for everybody to have a good professional network. For a freelance designer it is vital! It is the combination of diversified client portfolio and networking that can help a lot who is going through a difficult time.

Good luck!

Image Via: www.cartoonstock.com

Design Tunes Up Altec Lansing

2008-09-19T02:27:00.001-07:00

Darrin Caddes has his work cut out for him. In the dimly lit backroom of a ritzy Manhattan hotel, a dozen or so gadget bloggers and technology writers have gathered to meet with Caddes, vice-president for corporate design at headset maker Plantronics (PLT).

read more digg story

News and photo Via: www.Businessweek.com

MINI Crossover Concept sketches

2008-09-17T02:49:00.000-07:00

At the next Paris Auto-show you will see the MINI Crossover Concept model, in this post I do not want to talk about its Design simply because I am more interested in its color sketches techniques used with great talent by MINI designers.

So look carefully how the talented and professional MINI designer used his ability in preparing the work to obtain such high quality result.

I would like to signal to you 3 key elements that contribute to this quality, and they are:

1. the perfect control of perspective

2. the good balance of gray scale applied colors with the warm and cool sides

3. the dramatic effect given by the use of "chiaro/scuro" technique, the depth of the sketches is given by the balance between the clear and dark areas

Naturally I could add other stuff like: the good outline work, the depth of the outline, the detailing, the good use of composition on page at so on...but we will do this together next time.

Now for those that want to reach this quality just try to copy those sketches! Try untill you get tired, you'll see the difference later...

Good luck!

Images via: www.carbodydesign.com

Car rendering tutorial example in Photoshop

2008-09-12T02:47:00.001-07:00

This tutorial shows how to quickly render a car in Photoshop with a marker rendering style. The author is Pankaj Dhamane, Senior Designer at Maruti Suzuki India. Click and watch!

read more digg story

Tutorial Via: www.carbodydesign.com

Wired magazine photographic contest results.

2008-09-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

These great photos are two of eleven pictures that won a photographic contest on Wired magazine.

To see all other pictures go to: http://www.repubblica.it/2006/08/gallerie/spettacoliecultura/concorso-wired/1.html

"Pay phones Red wall" by Kevin B.

"Eye of a Tokay Gecko" by Alain M.

Photos Via www.repubblica .it

This blog in a special post!

2008-09-05T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

looking around on the net I discovered that Victor Uribe on his blog dedicated a very special post on this blog.

I thank Uribe a lot and invite you to check out his blog where you will find the post dedicated to my blog. http://victoruribedesign.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-friend-luciano.html

Ciao Uribe and keep up the good work!

Photo Via www.victoruribedesign.blogspot.com

To get a job start from a good CV

2008-09-05T05:41:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, today I would like to write a small note about C.V. and its organization. Recently I have received some CVs via mail at work and I could not resist to their poor quality. So I decided to write few things in order to explaine the importance of a CV.

First of all the CV is a part of you going outside of your room, home, office...so it is very important to do it well respecting few simple rules.

1. Use a simple editorial design , in other words make it look simple

2. Do not use your photo, if you are looking for a designer job position you do not need to send us a photo because we are not a model agency and those photos never look good anyway.

3. Organize well the type of infos and their order like: personal, education, work experience, awards, particular skills list, annexes (certificates, toeic test ...)

4. Look at the dates putting always "from - to"

5. Check out spelling and grammar mistakes (always!)Now if you follow these simple rules you should have done correctly already 80% of the job.

Remember that when we receive your CV we want to know: who you are, your age, your most recent school and type of diploma, how many laguages you speak, stage internships done, know if you use computer and digital materials other then just sketching and illustrations.

That is it! Alé go to work now...

Image Via www.recruteuretcandidat.log.rhonealpesjob.com

The exterior design - GM TV

2008-09-02T00:53:00.001-07:00

Video from Youtube by GMNextTV

Car Design process from sketches to production.

2008-09-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

Hi friends,

in this video a good example of what is a car design processus.

Video from Youtube made by dvddesign83

Wishing a relaxing vacation

2008-08-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

I'll be back in September...happy summer holydays to all...

Photo: Maiori (Salerno) - Campania, Italy

RESPITE shelter + hammock

2008-08-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Are you going for camping this coming summer? Here a great design proposal by RESPITE, style and functions together to make your stay a confortable one.

This shelter has been designed by american designer Ryan Heiser.

Info via Coscablog.it

Managing your time

2008-08-04T02:07:00.000-07:00

Hy friends,
this image is a very good introduction to our topic of today: managing your time.

To be a freelancer or a manager (in our case in Design) means first of all to learn how to manage your time and so yourself.

In some specialized schools it is possible to receive some well done courses on management, so we have the opportunity to learn and understand the importance of managing certain priorities in order to accomplish a demanded result or mission. For example a complicated exam or a portfolio organization before interview.

When we start to work as "freelancer" (I own my company) or as designer and later as design manager for someone ( Toyota, Fiat, GM, Honda,...) we learn mainly by experience of working. It is the day by day activity with all the annexed complications and unknown problems we face up discovering the real thing.

In my career as design manager I have seen a lot of people getting lost simply because they did not apply some simple rules necessary to follow to accomplish the mission. It is impossible to keep the "artist designer" attitude, this naif way of living our life as designers too close to "utopia land".
To be a real freelancer or design manager we must be realistic without loosing our talent and creativity. We start by learning how to manage our time to be disciplinated, to respect some rules that will lead us to a good work and result.

I used to tell my students (some time ago...) " be manager of yourself, and you will become a manager".

What does it mean?

It means to start from our personal life, at what time do we get up? Do we eat healthy? (impossible to be productive with an heavy head), check emails and have an answear for the most important ones in a short time. I hate those that say " I receive a lots of mails have no time to check!" This is a stupid sentence, we will find the time and we will learn to give priorities.
In a project we have priorities, too. Read well the briefing, understand the key values of it and find out a strategy to procede in the right direction. Find the time during the day to recheck your emails..you might have received interesting answears for your work.
Take care of your networking within the company or suppliers, they could do a lot of good things for you if you keep good relations...
Do not put too many meetings concentrated in few hours, better few a day and well distributed during the week, this will give the time to go back on your project for action after decision taking.
Organize well your business trips, thanks to internet this is really easy. Take notes always (even sketches of proposed solutions), learn how to make an efficient reporting to give direct simple and clear instructions on what to do next. Learn to keep informed your boss about how you are moving on your strategy to make sure you both agree on it (save your ass!).

Do not forget to find time for yourself during which work is "not" the topic , in other words find time to relax and enjoy life!

Good luck!

Photo via www.cartunista.com.br by Mauricio Rett

SPD Car Design Master course 2008-2009

2008-07-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

Scuola Politecnica di Design has started the selection for the 2008-2009 edition of its Car Design Master Course, that will be supported by Lamborghini. The English-spoken Course will begin on October 2008 and end on October 2009.

For more infos please contact:

info@scuoladesign.com

SPD Via Ventura 15
20134 Milano, Italy
Tel: +39 02 21597590

Info via: www.carbodydesign.com

Good Photoshop and digital media samples for portfolios

2008-07-30T01:41:00.001-07:00

Dear students working on your portfolios, getting ready for September interviews and ( I hope) Design contract signatures, here some samples of what I believe to be a good use of Photoshop and digital media applied to your art works and projects.

All these images are taken from the website www.local-motors.com where you will find more and more interesting stuff to learn to improuve your abilities and skills.

Interior made by: Geoffrey Richhmond

Exterior made by Popkov Artem

Both exteriors made by Aurélien François

Exterior made by Iliya Bridan

Final presentations: Photoshop bad habits

2008-07-28T03:50:00.000-07:00

Hi students, this is the most difficult period for you..some of you are preparing (or just finished) the final presentations in Design classes or the Thesis for Diplomas.
I know that many of you are concerned with their own portfolio quality and content, and you better be because I see around (during my design school's visits or on internet) a lot of recurrent bad quality problems...

Few weeks ago I have been invited by a Design school in Europe to be part of the examination committee as their president.
This was a Transportation Design Dept., I have seen 15 portfolios presentations and given (I hope well accepted) a lot of suggestions and hard realistic critics to all of them.
I admit it has not been easy for them to go through that day, but I hope that with the short time left they will really rethink about their portfolio trying to rework it as suggested by me and the teachers and other members of the committee.

What was their main problem?

Except for 2 students (at a very high level in terms of talent and organization) all the others abused of Photoshop getting a poor result on each presented project. Moreover, they decided not to give importance to their original hand made sketches (extremely important for us designers and recruiters) putting together a sort of lifeless portfolio with no emotions!
The other aspect penalizing those students was also their sufficient ability in using Photoshop, basically no extraordinary stuff putting in great value their design proposals. The result has been poor and compromised the general perception of their protfolios.

What to do?

To me, the first thing to do is to give importance to original sketches (but no fingerprints or destroied paper..lets be professional).
The second thing is to add some digital work but without exaggerating (we do not hire you because of your ability on Photoshop..).
The third thing to do is control the rythm of your portfolio, in a few words do not bore us..be careful at the order you choose for your projects (what to put first? What at the middle?What at the end?...)
The fourth thing is you! You have control of what you present so sell it to us in a convincing way! Before going in front of a committee try at home your presentation, yes you have to try it to gain selfconfidence and to learn well what to say and mostly the how.

Good luck!

Local-Motors.com best cardesigner community on-line

2008-07-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

This great color illustration has been done by ACCD student Nikita Bridan, this student is part of an on-line community for designers and car nuts named Local-Motors.com (in which I signed in few weeks ago).

At this link you will find Nikita's works (impressive) and searching on the site you will also discover many other car freaks with great drawings and sketches...for sure a great help to all car design students reading this post.

http://www.local-motors.com/vprofile.php?u=376

Make your own Jackson Pollock

2008-07-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

Seen on http://poppypetunia.blogspot.com/ for you! Today you can visit the site www.jacksonpollock.org and try to make your own artistic composition.

Click and try!

Image and info via www.poppypetunia.blogspot.com

Chair and feet-rest "Dolce vita" by Stefano Bigi

2008-07-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

Designer: Stefano Bigi, Italy

www.helldesign.com

for

La Cividina srl progetto 2008

Source: www.youngdesigner.it

Marketing, Trends and Design

2008-07-07T07:01:00.001-07:00

Some years ago (about 15) in Italy’s car design centers we started to pronounce words like « benchmarking, marketing, trends, future scenarios ».
At that time, I just came back from the States (late 1989) and I heard the same words 5 years earlier in California at school.

During 90’s the Design community was starting to follow and learn how to really work with those “Styling tests, Marketing surveys, Benchmarking studies, Statistic population analysis at so on”.

It was the beginning of potential client Designs versus emotional Designs.

Today all this is a lot amplified due to global markets. In 1997 the Fiat Palio was named “the world car”, 10 years later the Renault Dacia Logan is the “world low cost car” in a completely changed contest.

Client tests are very commons; ethnic studies are often proposed, interpretations of future scenarios, too. The question is: can Design exist without Marketing? What is the real advantage for designers to listen and follow what marketing studies tell about a product or project development?

Personally, I never liked to follow too much all this Marketing and Trends stuff simply because I come from a school where “Emotions and talent” drive the project. In other words; to make a product to get the wanted success we designers should follow our talent and emotions and make proposals that at the end do provoke similar reactions by potential clients (I wanted…yes I love it..)
Naturally, there must be coherence between Design and real product cost. The market will never by something extremely good if out of price.

So this is not easy to reach, not every designer will be able to do it, but it is important not to create a stereotype of client Design culture that follows only the recipe of today’s picture! This would work against design progress.

All the studies and reports produced are only about today’s people reaction, the future scenarios are predictions made by analysts. However, nobody can certify that it is the only true story! I think that the designer with talent and good knowledge (who follows life changes) is able to make such type of prediction better than a specialized marketing and trends’ studies team. To me it is a question of emotional feeling about how life goes through, about how people change and try to anticipate them by following their emotions.
It is not about a cold report that puts together all sorts of statistics, photos, habits questions at so on…

We must follow ourselves by using our talent and culture; we will read and learn about marketing and trends’ studies knowing that they are not the only way to solve the problem.

Photo via: www.interactivemarketingtrends.blogspot.com

Dynamic Tower by David Fisher

2008-07-02T02:29:00.000-07:00

Over Architecture limits with this creation by David Fisher.

Black & White photography by David James Williams

2008-06-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

Great photo made by David James Williams and discovered on Flickr. Here his gallery:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78337738@N00/

Go check it out!