Drawing Cars

I've said what i've said about car design, and those views would obviously suggest I want cars to be plainer, more rational, and more honest. But when I sit down and draw a car, as I do out of habit at least 5 times a day, it ends up looking something like this:

A journey though a nearby folder takes me to all these random drawings, which took on average about 20 seconds each-

Here's a recent one - it's a casual re-fresh of audi's visual identity -

There seems to be a consistent, and rather surprising (if you've been redding this blog) observation - it's all very expressive. This brings up some very pressing questions. Most importantly, Why?

I've been drawing cars at various degrees of competency for a vary, very long time, and what i've learned is a muscle memory technique for drawing various views of cars, very quickly. Why are they all so 'expressive' the answer is because that's what's fun to draw.

Car designers are in a weird and specific sector of design, where they are separated from the kind of rational or sociological thought that is required of an industrial designer, and there is a very serious culture of passion in the car industry.

So I find myself drawing cars in a particular, fun, expressive, passionate manner. But this is at odds with what I believe a consumer product should be. Something I find myself wondering is 'if this is what I draw, what I feel, then isn't that what should be delivered to the consumer?'. In a large way, this is the thought that drives the majority of car design today. Any hint at any form of restraint seems constricting and oppressive compared to this practice.

But no, despite what my hand and my elbow tell me, I don't buy these kind of 'expressive forms'. We have to understand that in the scheme of things , a specific kind of crease on the side of a car has no positive effect whatsoever. It doesn't give the petrolhead any extra performance; the traditional looking Audi A6 has the exact same drag coefficient as it's swoopy, 'aerodynamic' sibling, the A7.

I'm not sure wether i'm mad at the grotesqueness in the car industry because I now believe myself 'a designer', or if i'm just a disappointed potential consumer; The car industry is struggling to give people my age a reason to buy anything! But I think it's clear that , with respect to car design that is actually respected long term, form does and should follow function.

Think of any of the 'classics' (those that actually sold in volume that is) the Mini, the Beetle, the (now retired) Land Rover, the 500, the Porsche 911, the Golf, citroen 2CV. What primarily defines these cars is, over all, restraint, sincerity and functionalism. The climate today is moving more and more towards fads and fashion, including the VAG group. I wonder if the car market will ever produce a high volume, long run production car ever again.