A Car Styling-based Study:the Design Proposal And Engineering Implementation

This research was granted by National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973Program) and commercial car styling design projects. To Car-styling domain, it has significant theoretical and practical values.Car-styling is a classic interdiscipline. Mixed with the features of both natural science and the humanities, it formed an unique design thinking. Design proposal and engineering implementation are the design communication and coordinateness between designer and engineer, and they are the two cores phases of car design development. Logical, sequential and data relationships between these two design solution process is unstable and iterative. Car design is a creative process in which "design information" is delivered, transformed during all steps and finally turned out into car product. Therefore, the process and information of design creativity and engineering implementation were theoretical issues need to be studied in car styling domain."Car-styling" is the main research domain of this paper and "car engineering design" is a related one. The purpose of this paper is to form a theoretical frame about design consistency between car styling and car engineering. The method is to analyze and study role-relationship, inner interactive mode, design information model and inner cognition logical relationship between designer and engineer.The research of this paper has three points:one is two different roles-designer and engineer-during the whole design process have different design information understanding and its expression; the second is the process that how to reach the design consistency between them; and the last and most important is based on the mentioned two points how to improve and optimize car-styling process and method.The tools used for this paper are "case study","survey" and "experimentation" With these tools, this paper divides the process of design proposal and engineering implementation into related phenomenon, level and structure; finds out the inner relationship between them; and promotes related design methodology through structure of relationship frame and model.The findings of this paper can be summarized as follows:1) With history review, reality analysis, and model structure, this paper deeplystudies historical evolution, knowledge features and interactive phenomenon of two design activities and thinking modes then promotes consistency model of car-styling design.2) With survey, analysis of cases which the author participated, this paper systematically analyzes the input of design originality, target analysis and the process of form generation. And then it promotes design information flow model at design proposal stage through the research of the relationship between engineering package and holistic form, between automobile brand feature and benchmarking, between creativity divergence and reasonable convergence and the combine of brand feature demarcation and relationship mode of engineering and styling at proposal stage.3) With analysis of cases, practice, observation and review, this paper deeply studies design relationship of styling and engineering at implementation stage, and discusses different design thinking between styling and engineering and the interaction way to achieve the consistence. For styling, engineering implementation is the concretization of concept and the interaction between these two different design thinking. And then this paper promotes design consistency model of styling and engineering at implementation stage through the research on the relationship between inspiration and induction of engineering restraint and styling and on the technical system model and its application and on the design consensus between styling and engineering.4) With reflective practice, comparative analysis and comparative observation on design thinking between designer and engineer at design proposal and implementation stages, this paper deeply studies formation mechanism during creative divergence process and transformer and re-building of creative formation during implementation process. And then this paper promotes formation commonality relationship between styling and engineer is the theoretical foundation for designer and engineer to communicate on car-styling and achieve the final consensus.5) This paper summarizes the task relationship between designer and engineer in car-styling, the creative relationship between form meaning and engineering technology, and the mapping relationship of formation cognition between styling and engineering. And then it promotes integrated innovation strategy and consistency methodology model of design proposal and engineering implementation.The core of this research is to study the ways of thinking, interactive relationship and design consistency between design and engineer in the process of design proposal and engineering implementation. And then promote the consistency methodology and method of design proposal and engineering implementation. To Car-styling domain it has significant theoretical and practical research innovation.