car design

Another casualty in the collateral damage of auto industry woes: Graduating car designers are no longer finding jobs. The LA Times reports that in years past, manufacturer representatives would attend the Pasadena's Art Center College of Design's senior showcase and welcome a few visionaries into the hallowed world of car design. Now, manufacturer representation is down to one or two (if any), and those who show don't always end up hiring. For students who weren't chosen by manufacturers, the fallback was often working for a supplier, but these days, prospects there are just as bleak.

It seems Volkswagen has breathed a collective "Oops!", and is now working to turn its design ship around. VW was known for neat, differentiated designs with great interior details. While this stayed true in some parts of the world, in the U.S., Volkswagen design turned into chrome shield grilles fronting identical bodies in various sizes.

When Martin Winterkorn was lured back from academia, "he looked at Volkswagen's upcoming designs and binned the lot." Audi's design chief was brought in. VW started over on the Golf, which will be coming out later this year. The Polo redesign was taken up again from scratch. The Up! "was not fully thought through as a concept," and is getting a workover.

Click the image above for more hi-res shots of the 370Z and Infiniti design teasers.

Click above to view high-res gallery of renderings

A few months ago, we wrote about an amateur designer who penned today's vision of a Bugatti Royale. It was all good at the front, and then things got a bit, well, funky at the rear. Now another car designing buff with a pen suite of software has created his idea of a 4-seat Bugatti GT: the decidedly gorgeous Streamliner 12-2.