MG launches new graphics packs for MG3, god they are awful, would you want your car to look like this ?

• MG Design display at London Design Week - Tent, Superbrands 18-21 September
• First showing of MG Personalisation Design Concept
• MG also launches new expanded personalisation collection
• Designed in UK by young British female designer, Louise Thorburn
• Follows highly successful launch of MG3 and personalisation collection
• MG3 offers affordable British style with top model only £9,999 or  PCP available from £99 a month

MG revealed the marque’s latest MG3 personalisation design concept, alongside the latest additions to join the MG3’s one million personalisation options, at Superbrands London tonight as part of London Design Week.

Created by MG Designer Louise Thorburn, the concept display car will be on show at Superbrands from 18-21 September, alongside the latest three designs to join the MG3 personalisation range. Louise, a recent graduate of Dundee University’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, with an honours degree in Textile Design, is the latest addition to the MG Design team. 

After various magazine features and exhibiting her graduate work at London based exhibition, New Designers in 2012, Louise completed two internships, one at MG and one at iconic shoe designer, Jimmy Choo, before returning to MG as Colour and Materials designer, a role created as part of MG’s growing investment in UK design talent acquisition and facilities.  Louise will join Vice Design Director, Martin Uhlarik in the Supertalks Design Exchange event on the future of design and transport design, on the 18 and 19 September respectively.

The Superbrands event, now in its eight year, will run from 18-21 September in central London, and features the very best in global contemporary design, providing an anchor for the London Design Festival. Last year over 21,000 visitors attended the Superbrands event, which is part of the Festival programme, made up of over 300 events and exhibitions staged by hundreds of partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world.

The latest collection of MG3 personalisation graphics, named the Autumn Additions Collection, will join the existing range of more than one million options currently available in the MG3 range, starting from just £39.00 fitted. MG3 personalisation options have already been phenomenally successful for the Midlands based manufacturer as, since the supermini’s launch last year, over 40 per cent of orders have featured at least one specified design addition.  All current options can been seen on the MG3 configurator at www.mg.co.uk/mg3/configurator. The three new designs have been added to the configurator following the launch yesterday, 18th September.

Launched in September 2013, the MG3 benefits from an ultra low 4E insurance group, strong residuals of up to 61 per cent, exceptional interior and boot space, class leading chassis and driving dynamics and high levels of equipment on all specifications as standard. There are also over one million personalisation options and exceptional value for money aftercare packages to choose from. The MG3 is priced from only £8,399 to £9,999, or on PCP with zero  deposit or from only £99 a month.

Over 280 companies from 29 countries will be represented at Superbrands this year, grouped into four 'trends': Raw (exposed textures and revealed processes), Bold and Beautiful (big colours and arresting visuals), Frame (geometric and arrestingly simple designs) and Refraction (optical effects and Pop Art stylings). Among the notable appearances will be glassware from the Crafts Council of Ireland, a Tokyo Designers Week retrospective and artisan creations from Korean Traditional Craft 2014.

THE COUNTDOWN CONTINUES - Jaguar XE Word Cloud Sculpture Debuts at London Design Museum

• London Design Museum to showcase unique Jaguar XE word cloud sculpture during London Design Festival
• Aluminium installation designed by Jaguar design team to celebrate the global reveal of Jaguar’s latest vehicle, the XE sports saloon on 8 September
• The XE vehicle shaped structure is constructed from 95 words in seven languages
• Words express the aesthetics and characteristics at the heart of the new vehicle
• On display from 5 September to 6 October in outdoor London waterfront location by Tower Bridge

Today Jaguar and London Design Museum revealed a unique aluminium word cloud sculpture in the shape of the new Jaguar XE sports saloon. Installed in the Design Museum’s ‘Tank’, the design piece marks the start of the global launch of the new Jaguar XE due to be unveiled in London early next week.

Jaguar design collaborated with a range of creative experts across the fields of computer aided design, graphic artwork, stage design and metal work to design a word cloud representation of the new XE consisting of 95 words using seven languages including French, German, Spanish, Italian, English, Russian and Mandarin.

Design Museum Head of Communications Josephine Chanter said: “Large scale installations like this striking sculpture are always hugely popular with our visitors, and the Jaguar XE form is already attracting lots of attention. We’re sure that it will be a hit with the public, and it makes an eye-catching addition to our programme for the London Design Festival.”

The production methods are a combination of man and machine. Computer modelling was used to create the words that are molded to the dynamic form of the Jaguar XE then finished using metal craftsmanship by the team behind elements of the London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

Ian Callum, Jaguar Director of Design, said: “It has been an enormous amount of fun bringing a word cloud of XE and everything it means to life. It’s hugely satisfying to be recognised by London Design museum and to have our work become part of London Design Festival.”

For 25 years, the Design Museum has championed creative thinking and inspired problem solving, celebrating the talent of the world’s best designers and architects. The museum has welcomed five million visitors and built an important collection of contemporary design.

Six TOP !!!!! designers explore the future of Travel - MINI reveals 1st look ahead of major exhibition.

From genetically engineered cars to vacuum-packing bodies for space travel, MINI reveals the extraordinary vision of six cutting-edge designers ahead of a pioneering exhibition launching at London Design Festival, 17-21 September 2014.

Earlier this year, MINI teamed up with Dezeen and the UK’s most progressive young designers to explore how design and technology could transform the way we travel in years to come. The following images and videos are an insight into their inspiration and an exciting first peek at their work before the final pieces are unveiled at the exhibition, ‘Frontiers - The Future of Mobility’.

Each exhibit has been part inspired by the spirit of the MINI brand and the newly launched MINI, a car that combines iconic design with cutting-edge technology.

Body Architect Lucy McRae invites visitors to designjunction to take part in an interactive performance, in which their body is vacuum-packed to prepare it for space travel. Inspired by artists working with NASA, McRae's installation will consist of a series of pods, which visitors will be invited to step inside to prepare their bodies for the rigours of a zero-gravity environment. "Astronauts that come back to earth suffer an extreme osteoporosis because there's no gravity for bones. So the idea is you get under these golden aerated cocoons and slowly the air is sucked out of these pockets…. It is going to be weird!"

Click here for more information on Lucy's work

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s experimental design will investigate genetically engineered cars grown from living materials. Synthetic biological cars, she suggests, could evolve and mutate as they are used and repaired so they become better adapted to their environments, just like living organisms. "My concept is around 'repair ecologies,'" she explains. "Would cars that are repaired in a hot place be different to cars that are repaired in a city full of pollution, or cars repaired somewhere humid?" Click here for more information on Daisy's work

Designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda’s research explores the possibilities of augmented reality, which could be used to super-impose digital traffic information and road signage onto the physical world. Currently augmented reality is limited to using a physical interface such as a tablet or a headset like Google Glass. Matsuda believes that is about to change. "I'm aware of some projects happening right at the moment, which are set to revolutionise this kind of process," he says. "People are looking into contact lenses as a way of introducing this digital overlay on the world, and the other big thing is projecting directly onto your retina."

Click here for more information on Keiichi's work

In a future of fully automated, computer-controlled vehicles, airbags and crumple zones will be redundant, British artist, designer and inventor Dominic Wilcox suggests. So why not build an intricate stained-glass car? The safe, driverless cars of the future will free up designers to create radically different car designs, ones that you can just sit in and sleep while it drives you to your destination. "I was really struck by the stained glass windows of Durham Cathedral," he explains. "I thought, 'Why don't we use that so much in contemporary design?' So I'm learning a bit about glass making and working out how on earth does one make a stained-glass car of the future?" Dominic is interested in technology, he says, “because it is the closest thing to magic”.

Click here for more information on Dominic's work

British-Colombian artist Matthew Plummer-Fernandez re-imagines the familiar dashboard bobblehead as a personal, 3D-printed driving companion used to communicate with our cars. The idea is inspired by the practice of sticking small figurines onto car dashboards to bring good luck. "These avatars would have a personal relationship with the driver," he explains. "They would be something that you would purchase as a product or a service, but as you develop a relationship it would learn your preferences. So even if you change vehicle you could take this avatar with you and install it into your next vehicle. 

Click here for more information on Matthew's work

Architect Pernilla Ohrstedt will design MINI’s exhibition space at designjunction and showcase her take on the future of travel within it. Pernilla predicts our cars will soon be able to collect detailed 3D scans of the world around us as we drive – and will explore how we might use this to create real-time 3D maps of our cities. "We can already go onto Google Earth and check tourist destinations," she says. "In the future it's really conceivable that we'll start travelling the virtual world instead of the physical, because it will be scanned at such high resolution." Click here for more information on Pernilla's work

‘Frontiers - The Future of Mobility’, presented by Dezeen and MINI, takes place at designjunction, the Old Sorting Office, from September 17-21 as part of London Design Festival. Press previews 17 September, exhibition open to the public 18-21 September.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is a year-long collaboration that has seen the first man-made leaf, a flying dress for Lady Gaga and computerised musical gloves for Imogen Heap. All this and more at:www.dezeen.com/minifrontiers