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Old 05-22-2013, 11:57 AM   #61
Norm Peterson
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Drives: 08 Mustang GT, 19 WRX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc View Post
I've seen sketches of many talented designers but they all tend to follow trends and look similiar; sharp angles, jagged slashy shapes, sharp pointed knife-blade style designs. That's great if you're doing Japanese anime but not so great for a Camaro. Camaros are all about sculpted curves, just like muscles; Sang Lee understood that and delivered a strikingly beautiful muscle car design. Whoever did the 2014 refresh didn't understand that and it shows. You can quickly pull up images of half a dozen back ends of other cars; toyotas, hondas, etc. that have that same plain look. Nothing looked like the muscular back of the original 5th gen.; it was instantly recognizable even from a distance.
This ↑↑↑ .

Just because such a hard-edged design can be described as "bold" or "edgy" does not make it graceful or beautiful. If anything, it risks perception that it's anything but beautiful, and that it "works" more in spite of itself than because. Jaguar's XK-E would have been a forgotten footnote in automotive history if Malcolm Sayer had been as abstract in his approach as Picasso was in some of his paintings.

No mfr is immune here; the 2010 Mustang refresh suffered somewhat from this too.


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