Colour Scheme and Design element analyse

Colour Scheme and Design element analyse

To round up all the images and information I collected I want to do a few personal analyses of the whole aesthetic elements of some of my favorite cars I have seen through visiting these shows. I will analyze colour schemes, design elements, the influences and the image the cars owner wants to communicate. This analyze will bring in an element of design context into the whole subject.

Show car's
Bellow are a selection of show cars that share different aesthetic styles through there colour schemes and the aesthetic body/shape modifications.

The bellow 1980s VW Caddy Pickup goes against the grain of typical classic restored show cars as they tend to follow a trend of just carrying out a high restoration of its standard appearance with a few subtle modifications.

While not the most extreme modified car this car sways away from the mentioned trend with the addition of a wooden roof rack with some sort of barrel and storage box and the cars number plate mounted up there adds an abstract aesthetic to the car. Combine this with the two tone pastel khaki/olive & cream colour scheme, the brown Script and contrasting uppercase condensed sans serif typeface it definitely demonstrates a unique and original aesthetic fit for its purpose of advertising for this Tiling Company. The tones used do still demonstrate a traditional context though so this works well with the cars history. 

I like how well the colors work together, with the main colour scheme been made up of very dull and earthy hues to create a subtle and understated overall colour scheme that doesnt rely on contrast as all the colors work in harmony together.

Compare the previous Caddy Van to this one theres alot of different things going on, the colour Scheme is more of a high impact scheme. This works for the cars advertising purpose of been a promotion car for a company that sells Car Cleaning & Paint treatment products so the car needed to have a high impact and tonally strong colour scheme to demonstrate there products.

The car again goes against standard restoration methods but not as much as the above Tiling Caddy van, the reversed mounted gold wheels are very in your face and provide a contrast in colour and tone bringing alot of attention to the wheels wich look to be restored and minted to a very high standard, again promoting there products and services. 

I liked this old fashioned tool box in the cab, it really suits the whole classic restoration concept and flows with the rest of the color scheme due to the way the brown works with the burgundy red colour. 

All the colors work together apart from the golden hue used on the wheel, this contrasts with the whole scheme but not a clash. It just helps make them stand out 

This BMW owner really succeeded here with the "originality" concept that rules the show car scene. I personally hate it has far too much going on for me I prefer the more subtle and simple builds. The cars shape and size has been altered with the body widened to accommodate for deeper and wider wheels to give the car even more impact in conjunction with the bright and loud color scheme. In terms of aesthetic its probably the most "artistic" car I have seen due to the vivid use of a combination of bright toned contrasting colors topped off with the tonal contrast of the white wheels.

To contrast all the above examples here is how I prefer to see cars modified, I like the look of subtly and minimal aspects. Modification wise it has been lowered in height from an air ride system, small carbon fibre wing mirrors added and a carbon fibre spoiler, gold race wheels that have a very simple contraction and don't have a very high impact appearance allow you to appreciate the engineering and the aesthetic of the huge brakes behind the wheel.

All the modifications are subtle so they either compliment something like the wheel and brake combination, or they help portray a certain image without making a huge statement like the carbon fibre parts are very expensive and the material is used in racing so suggests the car has lots of engine modifications. 

The white color is a blank canvas for details like the wheels and highlight elements like the brakes to stand out. As mentioned about the subtle modifications like carbon fibre and the lowering of the car the white helps all these things tie in together and lets you appreciate all the small details without been distracting. 

Drift Cars

Due to the nature of the sport I feel the trend within drift cars is to create as much impact as possible within the aesthetics. This supports the physical side of it as the idea of drifting is a very loud, dangerous and adrenaline filled driving style. 

This Nissan Skyline from Local Leeds based drifter Simon Perry is a classic example of high impact, and in your face aesthetics. No subtlety here, clashing bright pink tones with some sort of abstract pattern on the wheels creates a high impact base for the huge amount of high impact typographic elements from the cars sponsorship. Loud Heavyweight uppercase sans serifs typefaces used with the majority sharing a large sheer angle, combine this with the clash of colors and random alignments and positioning of the logos it all makes up a large random mash of colors, shapes, typography to help create a very high impact overall appearance. 

While maintaining this high impact color scheme Falken Tyres cars share a more thoughtful colour scheme. With obvious body modifications supporting the "aggressive" appearance like the vents on the bonnet and the cut outs in the bumpers and the wider arches. 

No focus on creating an impact on the wheels happens here simple white or standard silver is the choice of colour. The main body of the car shares a main colour scheme of a pastel turquoise and blue hue that compliment and support each other through there similar chromatic value. Combine this with the more considered application of the sponsor logos around the car, varied sizes, positioning and shapes of logos have been considered depending on the area were they are applied.

This avoids the random mash up and clash of sponsors creating a better advertising concept. The orange "MAXXIS" windscreen banner appeared on all the drift cars I think they were the main sponsors of the BDC Championship that year but the orange contrasts with the blue and turquoise but its not a contrast that causes a clash. 

Theres lots of little details here that they considered, the blue support bar behind the bumper has been colour coded to match the turquoise and blue two tone, the yellow lights work well with the turquoise surround.

Time Attack Car

Compared with drift cars the time attack livery designs were much more subtle, much like this Subaru relying on a white blank canvas to compliment all the other details time attack cars follow a similar concept. 

The colour scheme uses this blank white canvas as a way in wich to orderly order the vast amount of sponsorships and manufacture logos on the car. The obvious main sponsors been Scorpion and the Tuner who created the car Roger Clark Motorsport takes up the majority of the canvas. The rest of the sponsors are organized in a neat grid on the front half of he side of the car.

If there was a colour scheme here it would be a majority simple red white and black creating contrast in tone and hue through this trio of hues. The detail colors are a random array of different hues from the sponsorships but they don't cause a garish clash they work due to the white canvas not causing a distraction and the orderly alignment of the logos and typography. 

This whole idea stemmed from the wheel categorization section were I came up with a plan on analyzing what makes up a Show car, Race car and Drift car. The Colour Scheme and aesthetic analyse is the start, next is the technical side of things and potential cultural influences, all this will provide detail for the final presentation.