My beloved Matra Rancho

Posted on by Medina Davide

As a kid, one of my favorite toys was a 1:24 scale Matra Rancho. It was so far ahead of the boring sedans everyone was driving in early 1980s. What if Stellantis builds a New Matra Rancho on the Citroën Berlingo/ Peugeot Partner platform? Something in between a SUV and a fourgonnette? Because, let’s face it, the Berlingo is very very practical but not very alluring. A big boxy body coupled with small wheels is not attractive, it lacks the ‘Indiana Jones’ effect that we want to show while stuck in traffic halfway through our daily commute.

What’s a Caprese?

Posted on by Medina Davide

My interpretation of an exclusive caprese taxi.

You might know the Caprese salad or the Capri Sun Juice (that’s not juice) or Ford Capri. No, I’m referring to a niche in the niche, a ‘caprese taxi’ is a custom built convertible taxi that only exists in Capri, Italy. It’s not just a cabriolet, otherwise it would simply be called an ‘open top taxi’. It must have 4 doors, two or three comfortable rows of seats and when the top is open passengers can watch the panorama from a 360 degrees POV. A convertible cab is already cool, a Caprese is top. The base to build a Caprese taxi is always a sedan or a minivan with room for people and luggage of course. To be fairly honest, their design is not exactly the apex of Italian design but the main character in Capri is the view from the car, not the car.

Fiat 500 4 door

Posted on by Medina Davide

I know, I know, do we really need a 4-door Fiat 500? Maybe not, but the romanticism of the 2-door model has the inconvenient shortcoming of not being practical. You may argue that Fiat already features the 600 with four doors, but that’s different model: it’s way bigger and more expensive. Four doors on the tiny 500 would make life easier when going for groceries, shopping or taking kids to school. Clearly, fifteen additional centimeters to the original length are needed to fit two more doors and real people in the backseat, as we all know human beings can’t be folded and stored in the back like empty bags. Actually they can but it’s not recommended, that’s why cars have ‘Emergency Trunk Releases’. The truth is the population is getting taller and fatter, microcars are still cute but not anymore as practical as they used to be in the 70s or the 80s. The list of manufacturers quitting 2-door versions of their cars is increasing every year, not even Volkswagen bets anymore on a 2-door Golf GTI. The challenge is to balance the cuteness of the original model with the needs of nowadays drivers. Not easy, I know, especially on a Monday morning like this.

Milan. In every sense.

Posted on by Medina Davide

The Alfa Romeo Milano

If you’re a car guy or just simply lived through the 80s you might had seen this rare car. The Alfa Romeo Milano (75 for the European market) was an Italian sport sedan and the Brainchild of Ermanno Cressoni. Cressoni (1939 – 2005) has been a prominent designer born and raised in Milan and worked many years for the Milanese brand. On top of that he’s been a professor with the Polytechnic University of.. well.. Milan, my alma mater, the University where I graduated in 2002. I attended his classes and learned a lot about styling and design from him, I learned the ‘responsibility of beauty’ which means as a designer not only I have to focus on functionality of products but I have to consider the importance of pleasuring the eyes.

A new adventure in art

Posted on by Medina Davide

I am relatively new to drawing characters, cartoons and portraits. I did product design my entire life therefore I still find somehow difficult to approach faces. Not only there are proportions to respect but expressions are important as well. What makes a character interesting is the feeling conveyed: anger, happiness, sadness and how good is the artist in doing it. I have to admit I am still a rookie trying to learn as much as possible from others, nonetheless I’m getting truly involved into it. Drawing something animated is a complete new adventure for professionals like me used to create lifeless things. Yes, an object can move too, like a car or a plane, but the difference doesn’t reside in motion. The difference between things and people is that with people there’s always a story behind them, a story recounted by the expression on their faces. Try to sketch quickly a face on a piece of paper, do it now; you’ll immediately notice that there’s no way to make it devoid of emotions. No matter how bad your drawing can be (like mine) you will always stamp an expression on it and a general feeling to the character. That is his/her personal story and it’s what’s lacking in objects.

Applying white chalk on Pantone for a mixed effect. Remember, don’t do viceversa (Pantone on chalk) or the tip is gone for good.
#drawing #sketching #art #design #inking

Memorial Day 2022

Posted on by Medina Davide

No design discussion today, there’s a more important matter: Memorial Day. Independently from what you’re into, put it on pause and take a minute to remember the fallen of every war. I made the following short video to say thanks to all the troops who fought and freed Europe in the 40s. If it wasn’t for those men who made the ultimate sacrifice and eventually succeeded, I wouldn’t be here writing on social media in a free country; I wouldn’t probably be in this world at all. So yes, I have no interest in art and design today, let me just focus on how truly lucky and blessed I am to be born after the brave generation who landed on Omaha Beach and Anzio and gave me the possibility to pursue my dreams. They perished so we could enjoy freedom. Respect.

Do not stand by my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints in snow
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning’s hush,
I am the swift, up-flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight,
I am the day transcending night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry
I am not there, I did not die.

Let creativity loose

Posted on by Medina Davide

This drawing is at least 10 years old, it was my first time trying to make a trench (or something vaguely similar) so I thought “let’s make something unseen, something eye-catching”. When approaching a new task, or should we say challenge, we designers have to go big, to think outside the box. Trying to make something as commercial as possible would be the worst error: we’re not marketing guys, we are the ones breaking the rules, we are the professionals leaving other professionals jaw dropped. We are entitled to raise perplexity and confusion in viewers’ minds, it’s a designer’s duty to deliver something unexpected and unestablishing, close to a punch out of the blue. So this is my idea for a trench, as weird as I could conceive it.