Some 2012 Stuff - February

Some 2012 stuff - January

Bmw Inspired sketch

Random doodles. A concept of Fuction > Form

The Next Big Thing

     Before I really get into the details, I was reminded of this blog of two things. First, my friend Ivan and the next, some automotive design blog that followed me on twitter. And another particular reason that urged me to do something about the blog was that, while having breakfast yesterday with my friend, he highlighted some issues regarding my self expression. In other words, this post represents another step into overcoming my rather un-enthusiastic side of myself. Committing myself to my own creation and blog will probably still be a good investment in terms of confidence and new doors of opportunities. To be frank, there are many other good reasons why I could be blogging, just that I have plenty other more excuses not to.

Anyways, one of the next big things are on its way. That is, finally being able to go for the course that I have long awaited. If you still didn't get it, it means going to College. And if you need a more fancy way of describing it, it's something called Tertiary education. So anyways, how do I start off....

Now position ourselves like Spongebob. Think, Imagination!
*Note that it works, therefore I encourage you to use your imagination.

Let's go way back to 2 months ago in 2011. The month was November. It was almost like a Life and Death situation. Maybe not, probably just an exaggeration. But you get it. It was SPM.

Let's get down to the point. Like any other students, they've probably started thinking to themselves what they'll be doing in roughly about a few months time with their lives. In fact, I'm pretty much confident since I had already known what I've always wanted to do. Straight forward in that sense. Now there's a hiccup here. Living in Malaysia means that opportunities to enter an automotive design or transportation design course spells in-existence. And the nearest door is way up north in Japan. Thinking about it, I had two options. To either take up Industrial design or go abroad and study. Even if I did, Japan is not even on the top list for automotive design courses. Say the US or Europe (it means selling a kidney).

Okay, so during SPM, it was safe to say that it was still way too early to think about it And yeah I had plenty of time left to make my decision since I didn't kena NS. But anyways, it was then that I was talking to a friend of mine about how she got her prayer answered from God. Of how her course she wanted, suddenly got offered in a college right after her STPM. Well, 2011's theme was all about Living In Kingdom Miracles, so there wasn't any harm trying to pray and ask for a transportation design course. It's a pretty big thing to ask from God. I mean, I really did thought to myself whats there to lose anyway? Obviously, there were doubts. What are the chances some random college is going to decide to go, hey! Let's start a transportation design course. Seriously. What are the chances?

So the new year came and pass. It was the first week of 2012. Despite it just being the first week of 2012, somehow I did had that sense, God telling me to wait it out for a week more. Just one more week. Okay.. so there's nothing to lose again on that right? Strange enough, the Star had an education fair at the end of the weekend. So I decided to go for it. Having been to several education fair's before, you'd already know what to expect, with basically not much and nothing new to expect.

Apparently I was wrong. I was walking around the convention hall, knowing what to expect and I went over to the Raffles booth. Actually knowing that Raffles doesn't offer the course I want, I took the chance to ask more about their product design course instead.

Funny thing though, my conversation with the education consultant later went..

" Actually, I'm more interested in Transportation Design."

"Transportation design.. transportation design.. I've heard of that somewhere.." *he searches for something.
" Oh yes, we just started offering Transportation design in our Singapore's Raffles college" *flips through booklet.

And I was like, " Oh!? Really??? From what I know of there are no college's or institution's offering the course. I'm quite surprised! Really unexpected, I didn't know that I'd find the course here"
*In actual fact, I was more than surprised. In fact, I was more like no way... you can't be serious, holding back the excitement and seriously in deep awe of what just happened.

To add to the even surprising fact, was that I asked him when did the course started, he replied not long ago, around 2 months back, which was roughly the time I started praying. So for all miracles? This is one, I won't forget. Cause God is friggin awesome! It's too real to be a coincidence and it's something you got to be experiencing for yourself.

And so, the next step is probably to enroll into the degree programme which consist of a two years advanced diploma in Singapore. Yup indeed, it's actually pretty exciting. Cause it's Just the beginning. :)

West Meets East Mpv - Rant!

Not VIP Enough? Who said Mpv's can't be badass?

Just a few moments ago I had stumbled upon a video of the current Alphard on youtube which led me to the 2010 Nissan Elgrand. I was pretty impressed as like any other Asian that perceived Mpv's pretty alright. We all know about Estima's, Alphard's, Vellfire's, Elysion's, Elgrand's etc etc.. that basically is the cream of the crop of Asian Mpv's. While the Japanese get the good stuff, most of the time the rest of the other Asean countries either get the crappier stuff or let me rephrase that; lower quality stuff... the other option to obtain the good stuff would be to grey import them. But what i really want to talk about is mindsets regarding Mpv's.

In this age of globalization, most car manufacturers do have a fair share of marketing their products around the world. Though the only problem is when it comes to Mpv's or people mover's, that's where it really gets messed up. While the Europeans claim that they were the first ones to create an MPV, the Americans claim they started it with Minivans. So with all this confusion, there isn't much left for us Asians to talk about. However it seems, we are picking it up pretty well. (especially the Japanese). Years back when the Europeans and Americans got the trend started, the Japanese pretty much failed in that aspect of building a people mover (based on a "Van"). Fast forward today, their actually making better mpv's than the westerner's do.

Why do I say so? What really amazes me, (well to me) is that whole perception of Minivan's in the U.S. (i find it pretty annoying though). While the European's came up with Mpv, the term minivan used just isn't clear enough to differentiate the segments for a vehicle. If you look deeper into it, it's just a combination of "mini"-"van". Which clearly describes it as a van. But the problem is, an Mpv is targeted to a different consumer range and technically different from a utility van. (by today's standards, even though the size and shape may be almost the same). And the whole idea about minivan's are for soccer mom's (just because the majority of people who drive those in the U.S are moms doesn't mean the rest of the world does!), uncool and ugly is just seriously lame. The European's do make pretty good Mpv's, so do the Japanese.

In Asia, the perception is completely different when it comes to Mpv's. There isn't such a thing that just downright labels a vehicle segment as lame. Thanks to the Japanese, the whole set of ideas and thinking is so far different that they've gone ahead in that area. Like why can't Mpv's be considered luxurious? Or even sporty? The culture and ideas pretty much got the rest of Asians infected with it as well. Look at Kei-cars, or the VIP culture? Even Malaysian's do it now.. That whole idea of Minivans is just boxing ones mind up about exploring bigger possibilities in the car culture. No wonder Japan has one of the most diverse sub cultures and the American market only offers rather plain offerings of the minivan segment.

If you get what I mean, Mpv's arent just there to serve it's purpose. It a matter of asking the same question, if you could put a V8 into an ordinary family Sedan, make it sportier, give it a sports badge and call it a sports sedan, what makes it any different to a Mpv and market it as premium? The only matter now is, car manufacturers should stop giving us half-baked ASEAN cars... like the so-called "New" Toyota Innova.

To sum it up, I like what a commenter on youtube said on a video that was about Kei-cars.

This is why I love Japanese tuning philosophy. They don't dismiss a car because of it's letdowns, instead they focus on its strong points and go from there.

Here's the videos of the 2010 Nissan Elgrand I was referring to earlier. The Rider version looks awesome. lol

Now why wouldn't anyone find that luxurious or premium!?

I actually personally like it.. lol!

Exciting Times!

Here are 2 awesome songs. God is great!