Ford’s new “kinetic Design” theme that it’s been putting on all of it cars started back in 2004 when Ford executive design director for Ford Europe Mr Martin Smith was tasked with formulating a new design language for the company. And it’s not just limited to Europe – the next generation Fords will strive harder to be global cars and kinetic Design has also found its way onto the American Taurus.
It’s what I perceive to be Ford’s own take on flame surfacing, but in Ford’s Martin Smith’s own words: “it is the form language is communicated through bold, dynamic lines and full surfaces. When you look at it, you can see that it visualises energy in motion.”
The new design language was first shown on the Ford SAV Concept shown above. The front face stayed relatively conservative but the sides of the car began to feature deep creases to create lightplay and add a dynamic touch.
Ford later built on some of the ideas presented with the SAV Concept with the 2005 Ford iosis concept car. It was with the iosis that Ford started trying to put a visualisation of “energy in motion” onto sheetmetal.
The iosis eventually became the Mondeo we have today and I reckon a two door version that looked closer to the iosis could serve well as a new Cougar or Capri.
The Ford Verve Concept shown in 2007 continued the kinetic Design language and it showcased how the future Ford Fiesta which has since already been unveiled (look at the first photo above) would look like.
This created quite some excitement because kinetic design on a Fiesta would mean that the stamping for the sheet metal would be more costly because of the way it curves, and this was not something that many car manufacturers choose to do on a B-segment “my first car” type of car that the Fiesta is meant to be.
Kinetic design was later applied to the Ford Kuga which was basically a compact SUV built on the Focus, and the latest concept car featuring kinetic design is the Ford iosis-MAX shown at Geneva 2009 earlier this year.
The iosis-MAX is what Ford calls a “multi-activity vehicle” and features regular front doors, rear doors and slide backwards, and a design without a B-pillar for better ease of access into the interior. This concept hints at the design language for the next gen Focus and/or Focus C-Max.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
woohoo, 1st comment!!! i think the ford looks awesome and they seem to be getting some inspiration from aston martins.
[quote comment="241646"]woohoo, 1st comment!!! i think the ford looks awesome and they seem to be getting some inspiration from aston martins.[/quote]
ford used to own a controlling stake in aston martin, so i wouldnt be surprised if they've been sharing ideas during that time.
what a waste of time to spend for a puny recognition of effort.
on the car, it is clear that Ford is moving into, what i would say, the "seketul" concept: the car is seen more as a whole and not like a patchwork of different parts.
from the front to rear, there's fluidity in motion which is evident in european compact cars and missing from japanese makes.
Walau…the third picture, SAV Concept is damn beautiful, pls make it…
in fact ford europe has some nice design models but just not available in asia.
Wow..that S-Max mini mpv sure look nice!
[quote comment="241692"]Walau…the third picture, SAV Concept is damn beautiful, pls make it…[/quote]
They already have. Its called the S-Max
One thing about Ford is, their concepts are usually quite faithfully reproduced on production cars….except maybe for the wilder ones…like the Iosis which is more a design language showcase than an actual production concept.
They should bring back the Cougar but this time in RWD. It was a very nice design to begin with only saddled with a lackluster drivetrain.
Are those from P1 drawing? hahaha
Is there a CKD plant in Malaysia? That will bring the price down and level it alongside Honda