Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission
Teslas Cybertruck has left the internet divided, no thanks in part to its door stopper-like design and a demo-gone-wrong.
Inspired by the boundary-pushing silhouette, designer Chris Livaudais attempted to explore variations of the automobile, which has thus far only been unveiled in steel gray.
This resulted in several Photoshop renders that took Livaudais just over an hour to complete.
To start off, the executive director of the Industrial Designers Society Of America selected the most striking visual of the pickup, its side profile.
Understanding that Tesla utilized cold-rolled steel for the exterior surfaces of the truck with a thickness of 3mm, Livaudais decided to retain the thickness of the truck, which is a contrast from most modern vehicle skins. He learnt that the thickness might be the reason for the angular design as a curved surfacing would be tedious to manufacture.
I tried to respect as much of the original intent as possible while making minimal adjustments to create a new proportion/profile of the truck, he shared.
Livaudais detailed the design aspects of his reinterpretation, which was mainly seen inthree areas: the roof/bed line, the shoulder line (under the windows), and the bottom skirt area. This resulted in further minor adjustments in the front and back corner light areas.
Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission
Livaudais started his adjustments by touching the roof line. His first instinct was to remove the pyramid top of the truck. However, flattening the top of the vehicle would do the trick by giving it a traditional truck look, a concept rather distant from Teslas intent.
By allowing a more traditional truck bed area, the designer decided to keep the pyramid top as a compromise, since the feature was a distinct element to the side silhouette.
Teslas version has a solid crease from the front to back, showcasing two main surfaces on the side of the truck, so in Livaudais design for the shoulder/mid line, he depicted the truck to have a thicker, flat mid-surface that was wider at the front of the truck and all the way through the two doors before skimming it down towards the rear. He then added a third flat surface to create a nice home for the door handles to be placed.
When it came to designing the rear and tail lights, he sprinkled some detail to the rear of the truck to top off the modifications made to the three-body lines and to offer a more traditional tail light configuration.
Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission
Livaudais included an extra crease at the backs bodywork, right from the bottom of the back wheel up to the top of the tail light, once again eliminating the signature look of the original design. According to the man behind the redesign, this bit delivered subtle references to the past Model-T trucks bed.
Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission
For the colors, Livaudais admitted that silver has always been the top pick for consumer vehicle, but he ventured into various other hues to explore how forms and lines would react to the color applications. He also thought the colored variations would make the Cybertruck more approachable.
Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission
Respecting the Cybertruck as it is, Livaudais added a little spin to it and shared his redesign on Instagram, leaving many to discuss its design structure. However, there is no stopping for the Cybertruck takeover as Tesla boss Elon Musk revealed that 20,000 preorders were made in the weekend since the vehicles unveiling.
Take a look at the transformation below.
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[via Fast Company, Image by Chris Livaudais and featured with permission]