CCS 2020 Transportation Design Summer exhibition

2020 will be forever remembered as a year of unprecedented disruption. It has seen tragedy, but it has also seen incredible bravery, resistance, and a global uprising of hope and renewal. And while schools around the world continue to grapple with uncertainty, all have the opportunity to embrace the excitement of seeding new foundations and blazing new paths. As we forge ahead, CCS Transportation Design is taking the chance to first look back at the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis projects from 2019’s graduates. These projects were not published then to make more space for sponsored projects but their collective spirit of disruption seems particularly fitting to show now. The MFA Thesis topics range broadly from the pragmatic to the philosophical. Common to all, however, is the drive to push the limits of how we might envision the future of transportation and the society it will move.

Sung Kim | MFA Thesis: Materiality

In the era of sustainable living, highly-developed artificial materials (which infuse reclaimed and renewable materials with technology and artistry) will deliver a rich sensory experience beyond what even authentic materials can provide. All while enjoying the added benefit of being responsible towards our environment.

Deven Khatri | MFA Thesis: Formula Homage

Formula Homage is a tribute to the 75-year anniversary of F1, commemorating the event with the creation of an ultra-exclusive collectable race car. One that celebrates the evolution of the sport by combining the highlights of design and engineering of the past 75 years into a single vehicular masterpiece – a literal, drivable work of art.

Yeongsoo Choi | MFA Thesis: Unleashing Expression

Automotive design has been developing for over a century. For the majority of that time it has followed a process that typically begins with sketching ideas in 2D and then translating these into 3D volumes & surfaces. As a result of this process a bias has evolved towards ‘line and from’ being the dominant emphasis of vehicle design. In the fashion design industry however, colour, material, pattern, and texture are all equally as likely (as line or form) to be the driver of thematic design development. This thesis explores how advanced 2D/3D polygonal software can help pioneer new hybrid design processes. Processes capable of ushering in a new era of unlimited expression for vehicle design.

Jiachen Wang | MFA Thesis: Motel

Today’s hotels provide excellent service but are limited in many ways. “Motel” is a luxury mobile hotel service whereby the essential amenities of a traditional (stationary) hotel are packaged into a singular mobile hotel room. One that autonomously transports travelers to various destinations along their journey, guarantees close proximity to rest and relaxation throughout each day, and provides tailored experiences and conveniences.

Won Choi | MFA Thesis: REMS

REMS is an emergency medical response system consisting of an autonomous ambulance and robotic stretcher. Designed for the year 2035, the equipment and integrated service will enhance not only the safety of the patient, but the safety and efficiency of medical responders as well. This is achieved through the robotic stretcher’s ability to navigate to and retrieve patients from conditions that may be too dangerous for responders. And through the ambulance’s gimballed operating table with its ability to swing in any axis. This cradles the patient from stressful g-forces (traffic), and thus allows doctors to remotely operate on the steadied patient with robotic surgical arms.

Cesar Olivera | MFA Thesis: MBox Mobility Gaming 2030

MBOX is a mobility-entertainment service platform for the year 2030 that combines mobility services with the next generation of AR/VR digital gaming. The future of the entertainment industry will blend actual experiences with fully immersive, virtual environments. The MBox mobility gaming platform will take such augmented, immersive experiences to an even higher level by capturing the dynamic forces felt during real-world traffic conditions and incorporating these sensory perceptions directly into virtual fantasy gameplay. Thus, transforming bothersome commutes into thrilling daily rewards.

Shahbaaz Nilgiriwala | MFA Thesis: Mars X1

Mars X1 is the first large-scale tourist expedition to Mars that will take place from 2049-2051. Funded by today’s space industry pioneers, this expedition will have two main objectives. First, to provide investor-tourists with a once in a lifetime opportunity to preview, investigate, and select choice investment opportunities while still in their earliest stages of development. And second, to allow investor-tourists and their sponsored guests (friends, family, and business associates) to be the first civilians to experience and explore the genesis of Martian colonisation.

Dong Wang | MFA Thesis: Autopia

In the year 2050 autonomous, shared mobility may become the norm. If so, it is easy to assume vehicles might evolve into commodities optimized for system efficiencies, and away from the expressions of individuality they are today. This raises the question that if personal vehicle ownership disappears will there no longer be a need for personal preference or, therefore, vehicle aesthetics at all? This thesis posits that the exact opposite could be true. That vehicles in such a future scenario might actually become more expressive than ever before – precisely because they are not owned. Vehicles part of city-wide service fleets could be specifically designed not only for the exact functional needs a customer may have on any given day, but even to suit a particular occasion or mood they may be in at any given moment.

Yihao Duan | MFA Thesis: Performing Aesthetics

Until today, vehicle design aesthetics have largely been concerned with conveying dynamism through static form. Advances in technology, however, now allow for the actual motion of design elements to be incorporated into vehicle aesthetics. Recent attempts to do this have only begun to uncover the potential for increased sophistication in communicating a brand’s identity. This concept explores how aesthetic messaging can be more deeply expressed through actual motion aesthetics that are carefully tuned for a specific brand. Maserati, being an established Italian sport-luxury brand, was chosen as the test subject. It offers multiple layers for analysis as well as a complete yet narrowed set of competitors to measure its differentiation against.

2020 BFA Graduates

Like the rectangular monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, COVID-19 has served as an imposing catalyst for evolutionary change. Long after this crisis is over and things have supposedly gone back to normal, we will be socializing differently, consuming differently, and of course, learning differently. Anyone on the fence about remote teaching before the pandemic surely can’t help having a solid yay-or-nay opinion now. Having had a front row seat for the mad scramble, this writer can report that some points of view, unimaginable before, are now surprisingly easy to embrace. For example, maybe an animation can be a far more valuable deliverable than a physical model. As you will see below, the May graduates at the College for Creative Studies met this life event called COVID head on – and the resulting concepts are arguably more impactful than ever before.

Shubham Singh | HOPE 2080 Senior Thesis

Unless you live under a rock, you’re probably aware of the ever-blurring line between Transportation Design and Entertainment Arts. Naturally, it helps that both disciplines use similar digital tools. But when a BFA Transportation Senior is faced with their last shot at a pie-in-the-sky school concept, the results often reach more for the stars than the terrestrial road ahead. Enter Shubham Singh’s HOPE 2080 Thesis, an outer-planetary exploration vehicle. Singh postulates a future in which Earth has become uninhabitable, Mars is being populated, and humans have their eyes on Callisto – a desirable site to produce fuel for further space exploration.

Because Callisto is the most heavily-cratered place in our solar system, special considerations must be given to chassis design and tire technology. To that end, Singh has devised a computational wheel structure with large spaces to avoid sharp rocks. The chassis employs a rocker-style suspension that balances itself via a center differential and two pivoting bars with wheels on either end. The vehicle’s cab provides a striking contrast to the mechanized frame; its sinuous lines enveloping a high-visibility cockpit and a multitude of floodlights. While the likelihood of such a concept becoming reality is slim, OEMs can regard this as Singh’s imagination stretched to its absolute limit – a sort of creative dynamometer, revealing the maximum output they can expect from their potential new hire.

Kyeong-min “Calvin” Kim | Mercedes-Benz Rally SUV

Creative partnerships have long been instrumental in the evolution of car design, and Calvin Kim’s senior thesis follows this tradition. Envisioning a future collaboration between Boston Dynamics and Mercedes-Benz, Kim has penned an extreme Rally SUV for professional drivers. The three-pointed star itself provided the key inspiration for Kim: a triathlon-style competition taking place over land, air and sea. “The vehicle form is inspired by water beetles, which are capable of walking on land, flying and swimming underwater,” he says. “I really wanted to create an SUV that will excite users, rally racers, and gamers in the virtual world as well.”

Kim’s renderings show the extent to which his SUV embraces the triathlon concept – even sprouting legs to engage in a robot race! Most telling of all is his inclusion of gamers into the potential audience. As with Transportation Design and Entertainment Arts, the line between real and virtual worlds is becoming increasingly hard to define – thus lending credibility to the imaginative visions seen here.

Yun Sik Hwang | Range Rover Expansion

Land Rover’s migration to the high-end luxury market has been well documented. What sometimes gets lost in the analysis is what did not change with this migration – namely, the clean, functional shapes that communicate utility and purpose. Yun Sik Hwang’s Range Rover Expansion concept celebrates these shapes with some surprisingly fresh results. “The objective was to design a multi-functional truck that provides not only cargo transport, but also entertainment to the driver,” he says. “The word ‘space’ led me to think about ways to use the cargo bed more efficiently.”

Hwang’s solution was a special truck bed that transforms into an outdoor social space. From above, the circular roof shape suggests the resulting expansion. Of course, there are the expected luxury accoutrements, but the lasting impression is one of utility. Like a macro-sized u-joint, this truck seems to recall the overriding simplicity of a Defender 90 – while still embracing Land Rover’s 21st century luxury image.

Yixuan Song | Nissan YX-S Thesis Project The Nissan IMq made quite an impression in 2019 – featuring bold, jewel-like facets that very few show-goers were anticipating. It inspired students to explore similar possibilities, and in this particular case, Yixuan Song also benefited from Nissan’s generous sponsorship. Song’s thesis project explores surface treatments that start with geometric addition and subtraction. From there, theoretical links are formed between specific points, yielding unique organic transitions.

A key inspiration for Song’s aesthetic was modern Chinese architecture; appropriate, considering his concept is aimed at China in the year 2030. It remains to be seen how advanced surface languages like this one will filter into future production vehicles. Given the current metamorphic nature of the business, it may be wise to table old paradigms and expect the unexpected.

Andrew Gombac | DreamCatcher

Students are often told that showcasing their creative process is essential to getting hired – and more broadly, that successful designers are driven mainly by the process itself. Graduating Senior Andrew Gombac clearly understands and embraces this mindset with his DreamCatcher thesis. “A design pipeline starts with a dream, idea or a concept,” he says. “The goal is to retain the vision of the dream and have the concept evident in the final product. Although the essence of a concept is not always present in a production vehicle, it is undeniable that the dream state, or concept phase, lays the foundation for a dynamic design process and identity.”

Gombac’s work derives significant inspiration from the terminology surrounding dreams; names like “Lucid Dynamism” and “Sedentary State” are present throughout his presentation. Most critically, however, is the use of computational modeling to cultivate three-dimensional forms. This seems to be a very natural fit for the creative journey we are guided through. In the end, Gombac’s forms find a potential home with interior seating, enveloping occupants in the essence of his original concept.

Henry Parrott | World Apart

The disruptive nature of the pandemic has left many people reconsidering their visions of the future. What if governments as we know them become obsolete? What if city affiliation eventually supersedes national origin? Questions like these are daunting for many to digest, let alone answer. Henry Parrott presents them as launching points for future contingency planning, and ultimately, fresh design directions. “The US National Intelligence Council uses current global trends to construct hypothetical scenarios which could arise in the near future,” he says. “These timelines can provide insight when making design decisions.” Parrott begins by using the council’s own scenarios as inspiration. Examples include the long-hypothesized nonstate world, the emergence of megacities, widespread automation and even declining birthrates.

Where some would see the outcomes of these scenarios as bleak or apocalyptic, Parrott sees new, intriguing possibilities. Picture a world where sleek, four-seat autonomous vehicles offer people two distinct types of transportation: InterCity , using high-speed maglev rails, and IntraCity , via flight plans tethered to an AI director. The common component in both modes of transit is the occupant capsule, an environment defined by Feng Shui principles and the use of natural materials. Clearly, this is one of many directions Parrott could have taken, but the viewer gets the sense that in any case, they would be left with a positive impression of the future – a refreshing change from the many foreboding sentiments as of late.

John O’Laughlin | SENTINEL Lander

Revisiting the synergy of Entertainment Arts and Transportation Design, we find a provocative story arc presented by John O’Laughlin. In the year 2070, runaway greenhouse gases have ravaged Earth’s climate, prompting an exodus to Mars by those responsible for said destruction. This gives rise to the Outdistance Faction, people left behind on the polluted Earth to fend for themselves. In a dramatic leap of faith, they decide to establish a research base on Callisto; the hope being that they can breed life on this desolate moon. The vehicle system they devise to get there is the focus of O’Laughlin’s thesis – a thought-provoking example of necessity as the mother of invention.

Given the limited resources left on Earth, the Faction must use anything they can find to construct their vehicles. This leads to an interesting juxtaposition of patchwork textures and sleek mechanical appliances. The centerpiece of O’Laughlin’s work, the SENTINEL lander, employs a wheel system that tucks away during transport aboard a rocket. Once deployed on Callisto, the SENTINEL can function as a base, with an undercarriage pod acting as a supply courier. O’Laughlin’s command of digital tools is instrumental in making this adventure seem plausible. Add to this the realistic depiction of a cold environment with celestial lighting, and it’s hard not to be drawn in by the story. Plus, like any good science fiction epic, there is an underlying morality play at work – and a message of hope that we can all identify with, now more than ever.

Lichen Zhang | Mustang E-FiftyOne Exterior Concept

When Ford Motor Company unveiled the Mustang Mach-E in November of 2019, the response from car enthusiasts was, understandably, polarised. However, as the initial hoopla died down, it became clear that this move could open up a plethora of new design possibilities. Unsurprisingly, CCS students were quick to pick up on this too. So when Ford later announced a sponsored Mustang studio for the Winter 2020 semester, expectations were at an all-time high. Then the pandemic hit, nixing any possibility of physical models as a deliverable. Was this the end of a promising project? Hardly. Using the latest animation software, students presented their ideas with a near-Hollywood level of polish, to the enthusiastic approval of Ford’s design staff.

Leading the charge was the striking E-FiftyOne exterior concept by graduating Senior Lichen Zhang. “This theme is trying to visualize the future of the pony car,” he says. “I combined lots of different textures and materials to explore the characteristics of an electric Mustang.” Beyond material choices, the E-FiftyOne’s sleek body hints at several classic Mustang cues – while at the same time drawing inspiration from volume twists found in vanguard fashion. A contrasting mechanized interior was penned by Zhang’s equally-talented teammate Ryan Schlotthauer. Together, these concepts were showcased in a compelling assembly line video. This was just one of several animations the studio produced, earning the praise of Ford VP Moray Callum for their excellent storytelling. What began as a project with high expectations had ended with the bar raised even higher, COVID complications notwithstanding.

Seungwan Han | MINI PACMAN Micro EV

Brand name collaborations have long been a go-to strategy of automotive marketeers. Too often, such collaborations are perceived by the public as merely skin deep; lacking any authenticity (and frankly, these perceptions are usually spot-on). So it’s refreshing to see a mingling of two brand names that actually makes sense beyond the obvious advertising potential. Seungwan Han’s senior thesis combines the already-robust MINI brand with vintage gaming icon PACMAN to create a surprisingly thoughtful microcar.

At just under 9 feet long, MINI PACMAN can squeeze into the irregular spaces larger vehicles often leave vacant. The occupants enter and exit via the large clamshell front door – a fun reference to PACMAN’s mouth and a callback to classic microcars like the Isetta. Han’s rounded forms give the body a solid, almost rotomolded feel. In fact, this is a key part of the vehicle’s charm. Like a well-built toy, MINI PACMAN looks ready to take on whatever a busy city can throw at it. And it accomplishes this without a hint of aesthetic aggression. That, in itself, is also quite refreshing.

Ben Treinen | Jeep FC-1000

Here’s an exciting prospect: What if Jeep built an all-terrain utility vehicle to compete with the GMC Kodiak and Mercedes-Benz Unimog? Uber-functional aesthetics aside, Ben Treinen understands that there are serious considerations for a vehicle such as this. “Utility applications require maximum functionality and cost efficiency,” he says. “The vehicle also requires a versatile, modular design that can be adapted to suit user end needs.”

Accordingly, Treinen’s FC-1000 can be configured a variety of ways – most notably as a single car hauler. As a bonus, Treinen also designed a Dodge GTX muscle car to go with the FC-1000. It’s a fun pairing that we usually see reserved for the toy racks. Here, it paints the picture of a dyed-in-the-wool Mopar aficionado who knows how to work hard and play hard. As well as the projects mentioned above, there is much more to see from the 2020 BFA class. Here are some galleries showcasing the rest of the graduates: (BFA work not shown above in the gallery below.)