Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152740
5 6 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 Film has for the longest time served as a safe haven for the visionary artist, and represents the zenith of professional opportunity for the designer with a fertile imagination and broad technical repertoire. The same can be said for a certain class of vehicle designers in the automobile industry. Avid curiosity and a speculative interest in topics as broad as emerging material sciences, psychology, aeronautics, manufacturing techniques, vehicular dynamics and anthropology, not to mention the technical abilities to distill, package and successfully communicate these ideas, is considered the baseline in the world of vehicle concept design. Good vehicle design for mass production relies on a confluence of systems being integrated, including graphic and surface design, engineering, marketing, supply chain logistics, manufacturing processes, trend forecasting and human machine interface, among others. The criteria for vehicle design in film and television is similar to that of the manufactured automobile, airplane or oceanliner, however, most of the film vehicle's characteristics are driven by the completely graphic nature of the medium and by the personal priorities of the various stakeholders in the film, namely the producer, director, Production Designer, Supervising Art Director, Vehicle Art Director, and finally, the designer of the vehicle, euphemistically titled, Illustrator. Motion picture vehicles are typically more akin to the auto show concept car, possessing little practical utility from a usability standpoint, but A G o d z i l l a : K i n g o f t h e M o n s t e r s V E H I C L E C O N C E P T D E S I G N B Y M A T T H E W C U N N I N G H A M , W I T H G E O R G E H U L L A N D T I M F L A T T E R Y