blog.miroslav-dimitrov.net

Lately I haven’t been very productive on my blog, in fact posting fresh stuff on the blog & website was the last thing I was worried about. The long hours at work drain all my energy and I am left with no juice to battle with my personal projects you see here :))))

Few days ago I received a message from a visitor of my blog, informing me about a person (who apparently is using my name) and posting some of my design works on cardesign.ru. The weird thing is that he is not only posting the works, but he appears to be pretty keen on receiving compliments for his original design works from the visitors on the website.

With today’s world, the information spreads within seconds. Once you upload something on the internet, it’s immediately available to the millions of users online and all that annoying digital media. The social networks are even worse, anything you do is becoming a knowledge of the thousands of people and your private life is practically no more existing.
On the other hand side, publishing around 300 slides on my website alone  and running a blog on parallel, means that I am ready to share with the world a part of my personal design work. I am of those people who believe the creativity & talent are given to us in order to create, enjoy and please (up to certain extent) every person on this earth. With the help of talent, our job is to conduct/manifest cool ideas that make the surrounding world more attractive, rich and beautiful. I am not of these designers who consider themselves to be the greatest in the world and never share their ideas, these very same people who secretly keep their magnificent sketches in the drawers and never show it to the world. At the end of the day, we all die sooner or later and what we leave behind us is our work or creations if I may say. Therefore things like: “this is too great to show” are not my spirit! Of course, when it comes to working in the companies or client’s work, things change but this is a different story….

Having said all that, I would appreciate it if people ask or inform me before posting any of my designs onto another website or just give a link to the original source of information if they do so. It is extremely intolerable to post my sketches on a website and present it as his original art work. This is steal of intellectual property and in most countries that leads to consequences where legal actions are undertaken. On top of that, the fact he is using my name means he doesn’t only steal my intellectual work but my identity too! This is not acceptable not only in the Car Design industry, but everywhere…..in general!

Looking at the bright side of the things, if one decides to “shine” with my works, that means my work is well appreciated and people like it  :) Especially going as far as posting with my name and reaping the compliments of the audience. Funny enough my sketches on cardesign.ru triggered more comments than my own blog :)))) Second thing is… I was quite happy of  the fact that my work was recognized by some of the guys over there and one of them signalized about this cheeky move. I wish to thank P.B. who emailed me and then quoted my answer on the very same page.

For those of you who understand russian, here are the links:

1. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2918/17485/
2. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2918/17320/
3. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17449/
4. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17379/
5. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17340/
6. http://www.cardesign.ru/portfolio/pro/13309/2910/17286/

And here is one more, the two images bellow are very good example of what you shouldn’t do. If you’re going to copy or underlay somebody’s work you better make it more successful than the author because you risk of looking stupid big time. It’s very difficult to be original with so many things already created around us, but sometimes it’s better just to mention where we got our inspiration from…. Reactions welcome :)

Recently busy times have kept me away from my blog which has resulted in me not posting here. Just now I have to say I am very proud to announce my new design position. Since January 2010 I joined the design team of Lotus Cars based in England and I am very excited to work for a sports car manufacturer with such a great history. The Lotus Design Team is very professional, as well as very fun and enjoyable to work with. Lotus’ return to Formula One racing is one of the things which indicates the company intensions to return back to glory……

I left Ferrari in December 2009 with positive impressions only. It was an outstanding experience being a part of their design studio and working on projects like Ferrari 599XX, Ferrari 458 Italia and some others you’ll see in the future. I had the opportunity to be surrounded by cars such as F40, F50, Enzos, 430 Scuderia…599s and especially the Classical Beauties. If you have the chance to visit Maranello, make sure that you go to Galleria Ferrari – their museum where you can find their super and F1 cars. Make sure you try their Cafe Espresso too!!!

I take this chance to thank the colleagues I worked with in Ferrari! ….It will be great to see you again!

miro

Time for an update!

I am sharing couple of WIP images on the Aston’s rear as well as some work made by Peter on the wheels. Peter has started initial 3D model on the wheel/rims design as you can see and although there are some corrections needed, I thinkg it’s getting there already. With a little input on my side, I think we’ll be able to close the wheels soon and move on to the exterior as there are many things to be sorted out there – especially the body side.

I am still not showing you the interior of the car, that will come shortly after Christmas. Before that I have other things to share with you on this project and more to see of Peter’s work too!

Oppinions anyone?

Here is the Auto & Design Issue 179 featuring some of my sketches on the 458 Italia Interior. The whole interior and many other bits on the car were designed by our little team based in Maranello. The 458 is a very important product for Ferrari and we all gave our best for it!

Oh yesss, the time has arrived to show you this…. finally!!!!! The Aston Martin V8 HydroElectric-Hybrid Concept!!! A project of my portfolio that I started a long time ago, but just now is the moment to share with you the development process of this car. That is going to be a serious team project involving in-deep design process and here on my blog you will see everything – sketches, renderings, 3D Model, technical…all the stuff! You can comment, criticize…worship or even damn the project if you like.

How It Started?
It started back in the 2006…well, I did a sketch of something I liked…but I just didn’t know what do do with it, sure… that didn’t stop me of making even more sketches on the topic. The problem was that I wasn’t quite convinced with the car, so I decided to give it some time until this thing takes a further shape in my head.  Then again in 2007 I continued with it, thinking at the time I had it resolved….well, I didn’t! The problem wasn’t just sketching it, I wanted to create an interesting and an unusual car, therefore instead of endlessly drawing something I am not too sure about, I decided to wait once again because I really liked this one and I wanted to finish it all-over!

Design and why Aston Martin?
If that thing looks wrong to you from the first sketches…..hmmm…you’re probably right! Or maybe not! When I decided I want to name this vehicle Aston Martin I realised…hold on, I am not going for the journey in persuading the ultimate beautiful and elegant car. Without doubt the Astons are pretty looking vehicles and so they have always been, however in my opinion it’s a brand that’s hardly been “investigated” design-wise. Most of the works I’ve seen for Aston are some design ques that keep repeating on and on (particularly after the AMV8 Concept came out in 2002). Therefore, instead of making another boring car for my portfolio I thought some fun is needed and here we are – doing something out of the box and driven on the contrary of what the Aston Martins are all about.

While doing sketches in the year of 2007 (as mentioned above), Lamborghini showed their Reventon to the public and I was quite annoyed to see they had explored the Aeronautics kind of design language. I was already on the subject of applying that kind of design language on the Aston – it was fitting very well the body shell with multiple braking surfaces changing directions and giving the car this Stealth look. I continued doing few things here…few things there then I stopped and waited until better times arrive for this one. However, those of you who visit Car Design News regularly may have encountered this project featured in my online portfolio at the CDN – I refer to the 4th image in the gallery bellow. The first three images are some thumbnails sketches showing how this project began. (2006 & 2007).

After giving it the break for 1-2 years, I started thinking of the Aston again at the end of 2008. Peter already proposed me to combine our skills together and create something cool and I thought this is the perfect opportunity. Knowing what kind of work Peter is capable of, that boosted my imagination further and I began thinking of even more details and in-deep design development of the car was implemented. I let my mind go free in terms of package and the idea of having alternative fuel used in the car was also quite appealing to me. All this resulted in a 3 seater sports car keeping more or less the same design language with hard brutal surfacing, but now what’s more interesting is how the car is put together. The unusual package of the car measures about 4.65m in length, 2.0m width and 1.15m in height (or a little bit less). It is capable of fitting 3 passengers (1 driver in the centre and 2 passengers on each side of the driver – much like McLaren F1 layout). The vehicle has interesting structure inside made from carbon fibre and reinforced in places with casted Titanium or Aluminium bits. It is powered by front mounted V8 hydrogen internal combustion engine (HyICE) driving the front axle and two in-wheel motors fitted in the rear wheels of the vehicle. The car should be capable of running on liquid Hydrogen or electric power individually as well as utilizing both power sources at the same time – running on the internal combustion engine and benefiting from the instant torque of the electric motors while accelerating – something like K.E.R.S. in the Formula 1 cars. There will be more to see with the next posts where additional sketches and information will be revealed.

To give more light on the team subject I think it’s appropriate to introduce my partner on this venue – Peter Tarkanyi. He is a great guy I must say and you will have the pleasure to enjoy his amazing work throughout the project. You will see what I mean with this, really, just be patient with us! For your information the Aston Martin will be a mix of Hi-End poly and NURBS modeling using different software during the our project.

Before ending today’s novel, I would like to point your attention in some technical but interesting facts related to my car. There are also some links of existing hydrogen internal combustion vehicles. Enjoy reading!

Liquid Hydrogen – physical facts /source Wikipedia/
Hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle – definition of the HyICE engine /source Wikipedia/
HydrogenCarsNow – Website featuring a good list of vehicles using this source of energy
BMW H2R Concept Car – BMW Official Website
BMW H2R Concept Car – /source Car Design Online/
Italdesign Vadho Concept – Images

NEXT – More sketches of the Aston Martin showing what’s inside the car /sections for example/ and basic 3D Alias model for proportions…

It was about time to have new posts here, but I wanted to make sure my blog is working well before continue with posting! There used to be some issues with IE users but it’s all fixed now. I am in the process of conducting a global improvement/enhancement to my blog which may result in some changes in the layout at times.

In the meantime, here are some drawings I did almost year and a half ago – NVidia Game Vehicle. I hope you like them :)

 

 

 

 

I am happy to post the link for the interview we made with Riznlog.  They had this idea of interviewing me and asking me questions about the car design in general, how we work , what it takes to become a car designer and few things about working and living in Italy. In order to make the interview more appealing to the public we made it in two versions – Bulgarian and English, this would allow the Non-Bulgarian visitors to read the article too. It took us considerable time to put it all together but the final result is really worth it I must say! I hope you enjoy the reading!

The Interview with Riznog – Part 1

The Interview with Riznlog – Part 2

I am very very pleased to annouce my website’s first Birthday – on 11th of August it turned 1 year since it’s launch. It was a long anticipated project and now I am very proud with it, we managed to create a digital portfolio featuring nearly 300 images, while keeping extremely clean layout that helps you navigate easily through the projects (you always know where you are). It is professional, clean …it’s just cool looking digital portfolio!!!

What’s Next? Well, it is still plenty of work to be added – the BMW T1 Motorsport should be made in Hi-End 3D model some time in the future. I am planning to “close” the Buick Roadmaster55 and the Alfa Romeo Coupe as well – both with 3D models. The Ferrari 248 Michael Schumacher Edition is also on the waiting list, and believe me…this is going to be a killer! Right in this moment I am concentrated on finishing the DVD Tutorials (finally)…while in parrallel developing the Aston Martin HE-Hybrid. Occasinally, I try to do a little bit of sketching on the Maserati GT-Uno.

For your information, here are some statistics by google analytics for the past 1 year:

13 576 Visits coming from 110 Countries

225 386 Pageviews

16.60 Pages/Visit

00:10:07 Average Time on Site

9 629 Unique Visitors

Michael Schumacher is racing again!!! I never thought I will see that happening and I didn’t believe it until it was officially announced.To me it was all stories!!! But yesssss, he is back to Formula 1 racing in order to replace the injured Felipe Massa, while the Brazilian is recovering from his terrible accident that happened in the Hungarian GP this year. It is quite an unfortunate reason to bring Schumacher behind the racing wheel and we all pray for Felipe’s recovery!

Surely Schumacher’s come back to racing is to help Ferrari in this difficult moment and replace Felipe, which means he will be on the track for up to 7 races. However seeing him again even for a single race is going to be a magic and am absolutely positive he is just as great as he was before leaving the motorsport in 2006! There is no doubt in his skills and motivation and if Ferrari manages to improve the F60 we shouldn’t be surprised to see him winning again! To me and all the millions fans of Michael’s this is going to be a magnificent moment to see the best Formula 1 driver in a race…….again! Can’t wait until the next race!

Now I know I am going to the Italian GP at Monza this September! I don’t have words to describe the way it makes me feel….

Felipe siamo con te!!

Here we are with the Maserati again! I am sharing with you few sketches I did – mainly concerning the front of the vehicle. I am trying to squeeze some spare time for this project and get it finished as I do not intend to invest too much of time on it. Still, I am having fun drawing this vehicle and I want to create something  that is cool….and finished too :)
What I can say now is that I am shaping my mind around few concept directions that already emerge to me and they will be better illustrated with the upcoming sketches. So far it has been fun sketching the different ideas but I could go on like this forever and it is time to put the things in order. I am a kind of tempted to start a 3D model of this, it could boost the Maserati project a lot. Anyway…more sketches and renderings coming next. I hope you like these ones for now! Thoughts anyone?

This post has nothing to do with car design and cars at all. As a person who loves music a lot, today’s news of Michael Jackson leaving us made me feel sad, very sad indeed! The music as we know it wouldn’t be the same without him, his talent and contribution to the world of music are unmeasurable by any means!

I just want to share with you a few of his songs! I am sure you know them all…and love them all!

Goodbye and Thank you Michael!

Hi all,

I feel obliged to do this because It has been a long time since I last posted something. It is not because I don’t want to, or I don’t pay attention to my blog…It’s mainly because the lack of free time.
As usual, I am quite busy working while at the other hand until recently I had to deal with some other technical and administrative issues – few of them serious enough to delay the highly anticipated DVD with my tutorials. Thank you for your patience, by the way! Things are moving!!!
Nevertheless, somehow I find few spare minutes to do my projects and the things I want to show you are piling up….so, stay tuned!

Here is a list of the things coming next:

- After a month or something I will show you the development sketches of the 3 seater Aston Martin HE-Hybrid Concept I am designing. Some of you may have seen the initial sketches on Car Design News back in 2007, but the car changed a little bit. This car has really grown on me and it’s getting even more interesting!

- A little work on the front of the Maserati GT-Uno is coming up too. Still searching for something I want to stick with.

- Few renders of a project I did last year that didn’t have the chance to show you earlier. Hopefully they will be uploaded on the website too.

- For the people who enjoy my work, there will be a Print Shop available some time in the summer. A selection of my designs will be available for you on A3 and A2 sizes, as well as some renderings of classic sports cars.

- Last but not least important, there is an interview that I think you will enjoy reading in two weeks time – at latest.

yours,
miro

Yeah it was about time to do some work on this one…my tablet was getting dusty at home. This project could be running slow but I will finish it one day :) Now…seriously…I still look for a good theme “surface-wise” for this car and if having more time I will bring it closer to a defined concept that has something more to show. I found few potentially interesting solutions for the front wing that worth exploring. All in all when available and when having the proper mood, I will continue developing this one. I will do it! Feedback?

miro

Hello again!

I hope people here enjoy visiting and reading this blog because I have a lot coming on the way…mainly cars!

This evening I decided to share one image with you. It is a picture of the Formula Ford series car, that has Bio-Ethanol engine and took a part in the Goodwood Festival of Speed back in 2007. Just before I leave FORD in the summer of 2007 I was given one short and a little unusual project – to create the livery of this Formula Ford Bio-Ethanol car.

The task was to create a graphic that really shows the public this car is Eco-Friendly. At the beginning I found the project boring but as it progressed during the week I started to enjoy it and came up with some bold ideas such as the “Crazy Cow” and other ridiculous stuff… The customer liked one of them – The Sunflowers! Huge yellow sunflowers wrapping the whole car. We considered two options for making this decoration job. 1st Option was to bring it for a paint job where every single detail will be air-brushed by hand and the whole car will be as a piece of art. This would be really cool but takes so long, it is expensive and just a small scratch can ruin the piece of art. The 2nd Option we actually took was to make it out of vinyl on a base of a pure white car. I insisted on making it like a puzzle – several pieces/jigs that bring the whole picture of the Yellow Sunflowers and having a small white margin of 50mm between the vinyl pieces (the actual colour of the car), where the shut lines of the body panels join together.

Unfortunately they didn’t make it the way I insisted (with the small margins between the vinyl templates), also something went wrong when printing the vinyls because they look more Orange than Yellow….as well as the actual Sunflowers are more like ordinary flowers unfortunately! Nevertheless, the car still looked fresh and cool at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2007.

Dear all,

I am sure you’ve noticed my inactivity in the recent months, this is due to the fact that I’ve been quite busy at work and not only there… therefore I didn’t have much time to spend on the blog. But no worries, things are looking absolutely great and the financial crisis doesn’t bother me at all or reflect on my mood in a way :)))) There is a lot more to come….and I am catching up with it!

I’ve been thinking and organizing this FAQ page for a long time and it’s finally here. It is designed especially for the young and talented ones (of course, girls are always welcome!) passionate about chasing a career in car/transportation design. I’ve been receiving a lot of e-mails with different questions, on the base of which I designed the page, I hope you’ll find important information on how to start, design schools, preparing a portfolio, getting into the industry and so on. Professional designers also feel Welcome to contribute with their comments to the page!

best,
miro