Why Is This Automotive Design Feature Always Ignored?
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There are two types of designers. Those that enjoy the challenges of constraints, and those that loathe constraints. Automotive design is hard for the latter type, as there are tons of legal requirements for automobiles. You can’t really hide tail lights or reflectors when there is mandated minimum visibility. And so you get styled lights, sometimes really expensive styled lights. But there are also aspects of automotive design that are swept under the rug; aspects that designers just pretend are not there.
Door jams and other “B-surfaces” are ignored to various extents by designers, depending on the brand. But there is one feature that is seemingly always ignored: the cut line between the bumper and the body. The thinking around this line has always been “Let’s make it as small as possible and pretend it’s not there.”