Automobile Design
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Pop-up Headlights: The Lost Boldness of Car Design
Pop-up headlights are rotating lighting units that hide beneath the hood or fender when not in use and rise up and light up when you press the headlight switch. This idea, which entered mass production with the 1936 Cord 810, added a touch of mystery…
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Why Are Cars So Gray Now?
Most new cars these days are white, black, or gray, because these colors sell more easily on the second-hand market, carry less risk in production, and technically work more smoothly with sensors. In the US, these "grayish" colors account for roughly…
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How Was Türkiye's First Car Born with the Devrim Design?
Türkiye's first car Devrim, is a prototype designed and produced in about 129 days at the Eskişehir Railway Factory, entirely by the hands of Turkish engineers and craftsmen, on the instruction of President Cemal Gürsel. So how was this car born, why…
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Why Did Cars Suddenly Become Round and Bulgy in the 1930s?
In the 1930s, cars suddenly became rounded and bulbous because engineers and designers carried over an idea from aviation - the idea that the teardrop shape offers the least wind resistance - to mass-produced vehicles. This streamlining wave was a de…
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The Quiet Revolution of Japanese Automotive Design
Japanese car design took a very different path from Europe's flamboyant classics: From the angular futurism of the 1980s to the creativity born from the rules of kei cars, from Mazda's Kodo philosophy to the origin stories of legends like the LFA and…
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Why Did American Cars' Tailfin Craze Come to an End?
Those giant fins that sprouted on the rear of American cars in the late 1950s, in other words tailfins, were born with the 1948 Cadillac, peaked in 1959, and almost completely vanished within a few years. So how did a design detail rise so high and d…
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How Did Italian Design Houses Shape Automobile Design Lines?
Italian design houses were independent workshops that personally drew the automotive aesthetics of the 20th century, regardless of whose emblem sat on the hood: Pininfarina, Bertone, Italdesign, Zagato and Ghia. Many Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Fiat mode…
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Can You Read a Car's Brand from Its Light Signature?
Yes, they're recognized! Even without looking at the logo, anyone who sees Volvo's Y-shaped hammer headlights, BMW's angel eyes, or Porsche's four-point daytime running lights will instantly name the brand. Lights are no longer designed just to illum…
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Turkish Automotive Designers Who Draw the World's Brands
Design teams at the world's major car brands include designers of Turkish origin; the best-known example is Murat Günak, born in Istanbul, who served as chief designer at both Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. On this page, we tell the career journeys of…
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Why Do They All Look the Same? The Growing Sameness of Car Front Ends
Look at your parking lot: if there are thirty cars, twenty-five of them are staring back at you with the same sloped hood, the same slim LED light strip and the same wide lower grille. The reason modern cars look alike is this: they all have to be de…
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Why Do Modern Classics Always Take Refuge in the Lines of the Past?
Modern classic cars are vehicles in which brands reinterpret the iconic lines of the past with today's technology; models like the Fiat 500, Mini and New Beetle are the most familiar faces of this trend. So why, after decades, do brands recall that l…
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Why Do Concept Cars Get Lost on the Road?
Concept cars often get lost on the road, because they are not built to be sold but to show a dream: Material costs, safety rules and manufacturing feasibility are far beyond what a standard vehicle can achieve. Still, every rule has an exception; som…
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