Telegraph Feature on XM

[casalingua]

Whether or not it was David Browne I wouldn´t like to say. Was it Coventry? It was 13 years ago and my memory is now very frail and unreliable. Suffice it to say, the best tutors guide students around the possibilities and get them to ask questions of their work rather than hand down prescriptions. I remember my fellow students being very critical of a few ideas I had when I was learning how to design and I think nearly every one of my "crap" ideas eventually was done in some way by someone else. I had a thing for negative surfaces and I was told in 1997-1998 they were just wrong. Then BMW did all that flame surfacing thing; the Bangle 5 is covered in negative surfaces. I did a c-pillar once where the rear glass and side glass meet so as to make the c-pillar seem like a point just touching the base of the glass. The Renault Koleos concept later did the very same thing. This is only to say that ideas have a context and you can´t be very absolutist about design - as some, er, have been. Tutors, for example. I should note that at the time I didn´t draw very well and I lacked confidence.

[russ92xmsed]

Sounds like it was. And yep I went to Cov too, graduated in 2005. I know what you mean by the 'Critical feedback' and then ideas being nicked. God the back stabbing!!! I too initially was very self-conscience of drawing in front of people and the pressure to draw well. got there in the end, but we all started to go digital, so Photoshop became our saviour!. I also found, the more you were willing to go bold and a bit out there, they did appreciate it. My most favored design that went down well with fellow students and tutors was my Morris Minor traveller concept.
I have since tweaked it further. It's on my website.

[casalingua]

None of those ideas I mentioned made it to the outside world to be nicked. Others just thought of the same things a while after I did. Photoshop was starting when I was learning to draw. It´s capacity to help create high-contrast colour effects really lifted some very mediocre work, I recall. There was one guy who really couldn´t draw but he adopted Photoshop and churned out eye-catching but very empty sketches. In the hands of a real talent it can create fantastic images though. I always look at the line work not the colour. It´s the lines that convey the information. As Albers noted, colour can really deceive.

[Eddie nuff]

....It´s like owning my own space ship.

That's what my Grandson calls mine.

[russ92xmsed]

It's because they are......

[xmexclusive]

Positive publicity about XM's should be avoided.
It will adversely affect the price I pay for parts and cars to keep driving XM's.

John

[casalingua]

Hmm. I think positive publicity would help keep the cars on the road. Also, it would be nice, in a small way for people to recognise the car for what is and not have it dismissed as a failed French car.

[Eddie nuff]

Doesn't the fact that it is dismissed as a failed French car mean that those that do survive into old age attract the attention, and price, that the car deserves.

[captainhaddock]

Even space ships age.....ask William Shatner Or Leonard Nemroy but I would like to add about the XM: a very small space ship by now, Russ. Every time my XM is parked next to Micra's or other lousy cheap rental cars, it looks smaller. And I've never known about the SM design. In fact I never looked at XM's before

[russ92xmsed]

I have noticed that too Jaap. Modern cars seem to dwarf the design a little. The Ford Focus makes the XM look like a sensible sized car.

I had a closer look at the DS5 yesterday, and that car confuses me. Amazing design, but it is so small to how you expect it to be.
The DS4 next to it made it look smaller. Yet on the open road it looks big and MPV like.