Car Design News
Car Design News is an online news, picture and information service for the international automotive design community. It regularly publishes: information on new production and concept cars; design reviews and design development features; interviews with senior designers; coverage of the major international auto shows, design competitions and graduate student exhibitions from most of the leading automotive design colleges worldwide; and extensive photo galleries of hi-res images.
Much of the information is free, with paid membership available to studios or individuals, which allows access to detailed content and downloads of hi-res images.
Founded by Brett Patterson – an automotive designer with General Motors on assignment in Detroit – in November 1999, Car Design News was the first online service to cover car design specifically – the field was previously only being served by the bi-monthly print magazines Car Styling (Japan) and Auto&Design (Italy).
The company began to grow and in 2004, Patterson relocated to London, UK, taking on partners Nick Hull and Sam Livingstone, two designers with a wealth of expertise in the automotive design sector.
Eric Gallina came on board in 2005 and helped grow the site's editorial content as well as its reach. He became Editor just before the company was acquired by Ultima Media Ltd in 2008. Gallina continued to work under new ownership, singlehandedly running the website and commissioning contributors from 2008 through 2012.
The Car Design News team currently consists of Owen Ready (Editor), Joe Simpson (Associate Editor) and Rufus Thompson (Staff Writer). The team, along with a small number of design professionals and correspondents around the world, provide the original content featured on the site.
The Car Design News portfolio of activities currently includes: Car Design of the Year, Car Design Night, Car Design Awards China, Car Design News Webinars, Interior Motives (a print magazine illustrating in detail the design development of selected car interiors), Interior Motives conference, and the Interior Motives Student Design Awards.