HI all! Another year is almost behind us, and with that, many of us have achieved so much. It is during this time we look back to the year that was and at the same time look forward to the new hopes of the new year.
While my 2015 didn’t exactly match the highs I experienced in 2014, the year did contain some pretty awesome bits of work that I loved working on.
Formula 1 Race Posters
Back in October I came down with a mild bout of tonsillitis. In my time recovering from the pain and slight anguish I started a side project in developing some fake promotional Formula 1 Race posters.
So far I have only done one for Belgium and one for the Australian Grand Prix.
The style is sort of minimalist, but also plays on the design cues of vintage posters such as the one below for an Oslo Grand Prix
These posters always had this charm to them, and great artistic input, especially when you consider the time they were produced. The use of minimal colours to bring out such details is impressive.
Using colours of the national flag of the country the race us held, I have tried to recreate this feel in my designs. I feel like my designs are lacking something, perhaps intricate details, and are perhaps a bit too plain, but I am not totally disheartened by the end result. On the contrary, they have given me ideas for a range of designs for next ythe sensitivirear’s races (or perhaps for 2017)!
Racing Car Design
This is my next big project along side the Sunbury International Circuit.
The idea behind this project is simple: Design a realistic, believable racing car that has been design to tackle some of the issues found in modern open wheel racing. These issues are mainly concerned with the sensitivity of turbulent air coming off the car ahead of another car, and cockpit had protection.
Racing cars produce a lot of downforce in order to take corners at a greater speed. Downforce allows the car to remain controlled during a corner while at a greater speed than would otherwise be possible. However, by producing downforce, the air is worked very hard and is no longer smooth as it flows off the car. When another car follows the car in front, the aerodynamics of the front of the car behind no longer work as designed, and downforce loss is an effect of this. This means that a car following another car has a performance loss, despite possibly being quicker. This reduces the possibility of the following car battling the leading car for position, and can cause the following car to settle in behind the leading car and not try and overtake. This finally results in fairly mundane racing.
The other issue facing high performance open-cockpit racing cars is cockpit head protection. Thought of as being the last real safety concern for Formula 1 drivers, the head of the driver remains open to outside objects, including other cars. While there have been measures in the past to stop outside objects penetrating the cockpit area, tradition has meant that the cockpit has remained open.
My design will try and respond to these two issues and attempt to solve these issues while providing a high performance racing car that will provide quick lap times and exciting racing.
But how?
Ground effect is an aerodynamic effect that has been used in Formula 1 racing cars in the past, particularly in the late 70s and early 80s. The theory behind this effect is to make the sidepods act as wings of their own. In order to exract the most downforce out of these wings, the underside of the sidepod would be run quite close to the ground, and the whole underside would be sealed off from the outside air by the use of a ‘skirt’, which was basically a wall that travelled all the way to the road. This enabled the air inside the downforce-producing channel to not be mixed with the outside air, which would remove the efficiency of the ground effect. The issue that occured with ground effect was that in the event the seal was broken (i.e. the skit rose off the ground), the downforce loss would be dramatic and unexpected, causing the driver to lose control of the car. This caused serious incidents that were also compounded by the lack of safety at circuits at the time.
While the bringing back of ground effect to high performance cars is seen as controversial given the safety implications when used previously, I believe that it can be reintroduced safely, by mandating a minimum gap between the skirt and the ground. While this will effectively provide a lower performing ground effect system, it will help eliminate the issue of sudden and dramatic losses in downforce.
I also plan to investigate the introduction of closed-cockpits, looking at how WEC currently incorporates closed cockpits (for safety and also driver ingress/egress), as well as some of the concepts that have since come out recently.
I have stated to develop some sketches of my own, in order to get the layout correct to allow for not only the essential parts of the car, but also to help plan the aerodynamic elements of the car.
The dimensions of the internal components were roughly generated from scale drawings from 2015 Formula 1 Power Units and gearboxes.
I then started to generate my aerodynamic concepts, going so far as to try my hand at something along the lines of the Red Bull x2010:
At this point I felt like I was going in a direction that would result in a x2010 clone (which is similar to what has been produced previously). I didn’t want to develop something that would look similar to what had already been developed, and I also wanted something that was a bit more believable. So I got back on to the drawing board and started to design a couple of layouts.
The main concept I developed was based around the ground effect (green on the overhead shot above), but I did not want the effect to be too effective, so I did not extend it out to the full width of the car. I was aware of having the air flow through the car as well, instead of having it free flow and causing it to flow around the spinning rear wheels without much control. So I introduced some venturi tunnels (red in the above) like on the x2010, as well as flow deflectors such as those seen in 2003 – 2008 era Formula 1 cars (yellow in the above overhead shot).
I also experimented with closed cockpit designs early on, just to see what it would look and feel like. These cockpit designs are more suited towards WEC style racing cars:
While the concept is fairly early on and tinkering definitely needs to be done to get a decent design, I developed this rough 4-view look of the car to demonstrate the early concept.
The design currently employs a simpler front wing that will in theory be less sensitive to turbulent air. The ground effect channels can be seen on either side of the cockpit, and the venturi tunnel openings can be seen on the side view forward of the rear wheels. Also, the rear wheel flow deflectors can be see from the side and from the top view. Currently, a standard rear wing is used, although this is to be developed further as the design goes on.
In the future, I will hopefully go about modelling the car in order to get a better idea and appreciation for the packaging requirements of the car, and this will also allow me to assess how effective my aerodynamic concept will be, provided the internal requirements of the car.
Pretty interesting!
Disneyland Logo
So in January, my wife, her family, my brother and are going to disneyland! As part of this, I designed a logo to go along with it. Previously, I had shown this design:
On review, this design was basically rejected. In a bit of a rush to get something out, I redeveloped the concept (together with my wife) and developed this for our disneyland trip logo:
It is a lot simpler, much more effective, happier, and proportionally works a lot better. Look forward to seeing these on T-shirts!
2015 In Review
2015 was a pretty awesome year! Here are some of the highlights from this year:
Ferrari Formula 1 Retro Livery Design:
Motukarara Circuit:
Formula 1 Race Weekend Reviews:
Pixel Formula 1 Cars:
Sunbury International Circuit Itrms:
Melbourne topography:
2016!
In 2016 I hope to concentrate mainly on the following 4 (and maybe a 5th?) projects:
1) Sunbury International Circuit
I hope to finally complete the circuit simulator version (rFactor), including adding in all grandstands, viewing mounds, buildings, etc. I also aim to complete the final circuit layout drawing, and make some ways into the booklets that will come with it (design process and SIC info book).
2) Racing Car Design
I will develop the design, through developing the model of the car. The aerodynamic concept of the car will be explored and finalised, before a final model will be developed and rendered in all its shiny gloriousness.
3) Australiair Airline Branding
This is a project that I really, REALLY want to get started. I always neglect it and it never begins but I always come back to it and wish that I had started it. This project involves the development of a branding for a new fictional airline that I am calling ‘australiair’, a new Australian airline. The design will include logo, website layout, cabin crew uniforms, aircraft livery, and basically everything.
4) Formula 1 Race Weekend Review
This I want to develop maybe more so for 2017, but I want to further develop the concept, including the layout and the type of info included. I will obtain information as the season goes on instead of having to fish for it at the end of the year.
That’s it from me for this year! I hope you have enjoyed StylePixelStudios for 2015 and I am looking forward to a wondrous 2016! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Happy New Year!