Toyota Virtual Concept Car Designing

The purpose of this design study is to design a super car for the game “Gran Turismo”.The study is based on the cultural background of consumerism becoming the leadingfactor in the society’s consumer culture. Under this background, people’s emotionalneed turns to become more personal and private. This gives birth to a growing marketof emotional need consumption. One of the most noticeable ways for emotional needconsumption is virtual gaming. It holds great advantage for its spectacular scenes andrealistic controls. The virtual games have become one of the most common ways forpeople to relax and find emotional need nowadays. This paper is focusing on Toyota’sconcept racing car for the game “Gran Turismo6”, using it as guidelines for thedesign. This project will also combine current social design elements and consumerculture, together it will present a design project for the next “Gran Turismo” game.The idea is to show the next step of concept car designing, at least one of the possibleways for tomorrow’s super car design.The “Gran Turismo” series are designed for Sony’s PlayStation gaming system. It wasfirst introduced in1997by Polyphony Digital. It emphasizes on the realistic gamingexperience. The tracks and cars are all made out of real objects and possessing greatdetails. The total sale of more than65million copies shows the GT series havebecome a tremendous influence for today’s gaming market. With the improvement ofgaming system and hardware, this game will absolutely change the way of enjoyingvideo games and bring in a more exciting and realistic experience for virtual drivinggames.This project means to envision the next generation of Toyota’s GT supercar, bystudying the company culture of Toyota and the “No Design” spirit of Muji, a brandfamous for its simple design and healthy way of life. This paper will also discuss thepossible strategy for Chinese concept car designing business by studying the current concept cars designed by multiple car companies, and also, the current consumerculture in China.One of the highlights of this paper is the model it uses for research. It gives a list ofcurrent concept cars, and lists some keywords concerning feelings of forms, lettingthe interviewees to choose from the word box the word that most properly describescertain part of a car. Then, by choosing different design language for different partsaccording to the main design language of this project, we can get the rough idea abouthow to form the surfaces of the object.The other part that worth noticing is the method for designing the side view, or, inother words, deciding the feeling of the whole project. The process is, first choose anexisting package from an existing car. This gives a rough idea of what goes where foryour project. Then choose an image form the image board that most describe the mainidea the design needs to present, change the shape by using computer software, thenput the parts together, use the surfaces of existing products to shape the feeling the carneeds to convey. This method helps you decide the language of surfaces for your car.It’s both time-saving and efficient.The project will focus on the beauty as well as the social values of the design. Asmentioned before, the car will represent the consumer culture for the society, and thepossible trend for future car design. It will also serve as a possible guideline for futureChinese concept car design.