ABOUT

Cyberpunk and Design

As a fan of technology and retrofuturism, loving cyberpunk was only logical. The noir elements mixed with a high tech world which serves as both a backdrop and a premise for the story at hand fall squarely within my taste. Be it represented in movies, books or music, there is an undeniable draw to the foggy atmosphere it invokes.

I am thus frequently dissatisfied with the designs produced by these works. They are often striking, futuristic, and extremely kitsch. I've come to accept it as part of the genre, as none of its inspirations are free from it themselves. But I long for a new cyber style where things are thought through in terms of realism. Most often there is an amazing amount of work put into the mechanisms and the technology behind the objects in the stories. But very little care is put into plausibility. Things simply wouldn't be designed that way. If a product looks that way it is probably trying to appeal to a certain audience and not to the general public.

I want to design cyberpunk in the way it would be brought to the general public. A bright yellow antenna on a handset would be come a yellow plastic line on the side of it, because that's how antennas look now and they'll be at least as good as that in the future. Look for sleek, look for streamlined. Keep the shiny metal that will inevitably get dirty. Change the millionth thing that pops out of your car's hood.

I myself am guilty of falling back into this cyber-kitsch. I aim to fix it. I aim to design the future.

Modern Hot Rods

There is a profound void within today's car culture. With each era of automobiles we find it harder and more expensive to modify them. Yet we still do. Anything that captures the public's imagination will, given the broadly right circumstances, receive some sort of aftermarket "upgrade" options. Such is the way of the gearhead.

There are, however, several segments of cars produced which inexplicably escape entire style experimentations. And a style which has long been confined to the cars of the 1930's through 50's is the american style hoodless coupe hot rod. Think about it, several eras and designs have come and gone and not one of them took off as the new standard for hot rod? Surely something was skipped.

With this project, and with this series in particular, I want to make an argument for how the german saloon cars of the 1980's are prime candidates for a new era of hot rod culture. Take this E30 BMW, the boxy shape is revealed once you strip the bumpers and the roof. Neither modification new to the style. The basic shape is a slick yet rectangular canvas, begging to emulate the style of the post war machines. I hope to inspire some of you out there to at least dream up what you'd do with this blueprint I laid out.

Final Series

I've been aching to get this series out for almost two months now. After several delays, I am finally able to publish it, along with the previous, more experimental one and an upcoming, featuring an Italian monster of a car.

I took this opportunity to thoroughly refine my camera setup, which I was still unhappy with, and review a series of smaller details spread through the project. Lighting was again changed, now making use of an HDRI and very little help from area rigs. Materials were revised as well, with car paint finally going back to its fully glossy metallic self. And last but not least, discrete changes were made to the model to improve its appearance.

The one I am perhaps more proud of is a new technique I devised which allows me to quickly model solder points in a tube frame. You can barely spot it in the front closeup but I know at least a couple projects which will heavily benefit from this small innovation. Expect a more cheerful revisit of my V8 190 Evo III sometime soon and a possible return of the Turbo Canyon car. I'm looking into a way of compiling these small tricks and tips into a viable format for future release. It may be time to dust off my video editing skills.