Monday, May 31, 2021

ANYONE CHECKING THE VISITORS' PASSES? by John Crawford

The gate guards at the Toyota and Hyundai styling studios need to be a bit more vigilant.

 

When I put these two photos together, I reckon one of the exterior designers must have been looking over the other guy’s shoulder. Just look at the confluence of style lines, creases, curves, grille patterns and fender bulges on the RAV4 and new Tuscon.




This is exactly what happened with trapezoidal grilles, which were all the rage ten years ago – everyone had to have one.

 

Some of my very good friends who were Design Directors used to complain to me from time to time that their young designers would go off to an auto show, like the Geneva Salon, a mecca for current, and budding, young designers, and come back with their heads full of stuff done by ‘other people’.

 

If they were persuasive enough, I was never surprised when there was a cross-pollination of some styling gimmick or another. Next thing you know, everybody’s doing it.

 

JOHN CRAWFORD

1 comment:

  1. I know you have previously raved about the styling of the current Mercedes-Benz A Class hatch, but the rear lights in particular are an exact copy of the current Kia Cerato hatch.

    In fact, last Saturday night an A35 AMG in white was parked next to my 2016 Ford Focus ST in white, and the front lights and many styling elements were so similar that you would be sure Mercedes had photocopied the Ford and made some token changes.

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