My Top 10 Notable Designers

Alright so it seems my tribute to important designers generated some interest. I unfortunately did not finish the list…In fact, I only discussed two designers. Twitter's 140 characters can be limiting and tiring you know, Anyways I had stuff to do, had to stop halfway. I only started this list because I was, well, a bit bored and inspired (bad combination in my field, depending on how you look at it)….and the first thing that popped in my head was paying tribute to my top 10 favourite designers. Not the best designers, not world-changing designers (again, depending on how you look at it), but designers I regard to have made an impact in their respective fields. I have therefore continued the list (and finished it this time), with a quick recap of the first two I mentioned on Twitter (bear with me if you've already read this part).

(P.S – This list is subjective….pure personal preference for recognition of true talent, skill and creativity...you do not have to agree with it)

Here goes….

Starting with:

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Russian Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who designed an Automatic assault rifle in 1947 called the AK47. The Automatic Kalashnikov model 1947 assault rifle became the Soviet Army's standard issue rifle and went on to become Kalashnikov's most famous invention. Other famous weapons by Kalashnikov include the AKM (Automatic Kalashnikov Modernized) and AK74 (Automatic Kalashnikov model 1974). Mikhail says he's still willing to shake hands with anyone who designs a better rifle.

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Ninth designer is an Italian Automobile Designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, designer of the Volkswagen Golf Mk1 (known as the Golf 1) in 1974. In production since 1974, the Golf I was one of the first widely successful front-wheel drive hatchbacks. Its predecessor was the Volkswagen Beetle and its successor was the Golf Mk2 (known as Golf II). Giugiaro was named 'Car Designer of the Century' in 1999 and Inducted into the 'Automotive Hall of Fame' in 2002. Some of the notable designs by Giugiaro include: Alfa Romeo Brera (2002), BMW M1 Homage Concept (2008), Ducati Motorcycle (1975) and Ferrari 250 GT, amongst many.

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The Eighth designer is a German engine-designer and automobile engineer who also invented the gasoline-powered car and founder of Mercedes-Benz. His name is Karl Friedrich Benz. Karl was granted patent for his first automobile in 1886. He patented all of the processes that made the internal combustion engine feasible for use in automobiles. Karl’s company, Benz & Cie, merged with Gotlieb Daimler’s DMG in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz. Gottlieb Daimler invented the first high-speed petrol engine and the first four-wheel automobile. After Emil Jellinek created a car in 1900 called Mercedes, named after his 10yr old daughter, he joined forces with Daimler’s DMG and Karl Benz’s company, and came to be known as Mercedes-Benz. A new logo was created, consisting of a three pointed star (representing Daimler's motto: "engines for land, air, and water") surrounded by traditional laurels from the Benz logo, and the brand of all of its automobiles was labeled Mercedes Benz. In 1984, Carl was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

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The Seventh designer is an Italian-born French fashion designer by the name of Pietro Cardin, later to be called Pierre Cardin. He introduced the “Bubble Dress” in 1954 and is known for his avant-garde style and space-age designs. Cardin was trained as an architect and worked with a renowned Jeanne Paquin before becoming a fashion designer. He also designed automobile interiors for muscle cars. Like many other designers today, Cardin decided in 1994 to show his collection only to a small circle of selected clients and journalists.

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The 6th designer is an American Automobile Designer who, until recently, was the Chief of Design at BMW. His name is Chistopher Edward Bangle. Bangle’s designs run through the entire BMW lineup including 1,3,5,6 and 7 series as well as X3, X5 and X6. Bangle describes his work as “flame surfacing” and is the first designer to adapt Deconstructivism to automotive design. During the Bangle era, BMW overtook Mercedes as the global leader in premium car sales. It was through his most remarkable Z9 Gran Turismo design which generated current styling themes that led to intense controversy amongst other automotive designers. The most controversial of his work was the E65 (2002 7 Series), a sharp contrast to the preceding E38 (1994 7 Series) generation which was conservatively styled. Time magazine named it as one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time for its rear end styling and iDrive functionality; nonetheless it became the best-selling 7 Series of all time.

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The fifth designer is an American shoe manufacturer Marquis Mills Converse who designed and manufactured Converse All-Stars under the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in 1908. Marquis started his company by providing winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women, and children. By 1910, Converse was producing 4,000 shoes daily, but it wasn't until 1915 that the company began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis. The Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced in 1917; that was the turning point of the company. 4 years later a basket-ball player named Charles H. “Chuck” Taylor walked into Converse complaining of sore feet. That same year Chuck joined Converse, improved the All Star shoe’s traction and ankle support, became America’s first player endorser, and published the first of 60 years of the Converse Basketball Yearbook. Converse added Chuck Taylor’s signature to the All-Star patch, giving birth to a not only American, but world-wide icon. In 1935, World famous champion badminton player Jack Purcell designed an innovative and durable performance court shoe, with its telltale toe Smile, that changed the game and soon became a staple of early Hollywood and boarding school “bad boys”. The Chuck Taylor All Star shoe has developed a number of nicknames over the years, such as: "Cons", "Connies", "Convics", "Convos", but in SA, they’re better known as, Drievyf, Chaysta, 4 Eleven dlala mapanstula…others have dubbed it as the only shoes u can wear with anything, or with nothing.

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The fourth designer is French born Chief Aeronautical engineer and designer, Pierre Satre who designed the Concorde in 1969. The Concorde was an ogival delta-winged iconic aircraft with four Olympus engines based on those originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. Concorde was the first airliner to have an (in this case, analogue) fly-by-wire, flight-control system; the avionics of Concorde were unique because it was the first commercial aircraft to employ hybrid circuits. The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport (SST). Concorde had a maximum cruise altitude of 18,300 metres and an average cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (2140 km/h), more than twice the speed of conventional aircraft. The jet is powered by 4 Rolls-Royce Olympus 593 engines. It was retired seven years ago, but it is hoped the jet could return to flight in a heritage capacity. Only 20 aircrafts were built in the development phase; which represented a substantial economic loss. Concorde pioneered technologies such as: Double-delta (ogee/ogival) shaped wings; Variable engine air intake system controlled by digital computers; Supercruise capability; Thrust-by-wire engines; Droop-nose section for better landing visibility. The aircraft is regarded by many as an aviation icon. The only Concorde crash to take place was on 25 July 2000. It was ceased on 24 October 2003 due to economic effects from the 9/11 attacks, and other factors. Principal designer Pierre Satre worked with Sir Archibald Russell as his deputy on the project.

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The 3rd designer is a Belgian car designer named Luc Donckerwolke who used to be Head Designer of Lamborghini, now Design Director of SEAT. He was responsible for the 2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0, 2002 Lamborghini Murciélago and 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo, winning the 'Red Dot Award' in 2003 in recognition for his work on them. He also worked with Walter de'Silva to produce the 2006 Lamborghini Miura concept. He also worked on the Audi A4 Avant and the Audi R8. In September 2005, Donckerwolke was appointed SEAT Design Director overseeing the design of future SEAT models. His first visible contribution to SEAT is the SEAT Tribu concept.

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The Second designer is a Spanish fashion designer named Manolo Blahnik, founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand. Working alone without apprentices or assistants, he sketches his shoes, chisels the wooden lasts on which they are moulded and sculpts the heels. Like all truly talented designers Blahnik had the ability - even at the start of his career - to stamp all his work with a distinctive signature style. After showing his portfolio of fashions and set designs to Diana Vreeland, she told him that he should design only footwear. Blahnik was awarded the honorary title of Commander of the British Empire in 2007 for his service to the British fashion industry. He has achieved all this without any formal training in shoe-making., his parents enrolled him at university in Geneva to study politics and law Hoping that Blahnik would become a diplomat, but after a term, he switched to the more congenial subjects of literature and architecture. He is regarded as stylistically innovative. He also made the most of his collaborations with fashion designers, notably Calvin Klein, an experience which taught him a great deal about designing for a broader market, and the younger designers, Isaac Mizrahi and John Galliano. He says he has studied the art of the shoe… for over twenty years, knows every process, how to cut and cut away here and there and still make it so that it stays on the foot. In 2001 he was given an Honorary Doctorate at the Royal College of Arts in London and in 2003 became the first shoe designer whose work was celebrated in an exhibition at the Design Museum. In 2006 Blahnik developed a 'heel-less' shoe balanced on an S-spring.

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And finally, the number 1 designer is Hartmut Warkuss, designer of the World’s fastest commercial car, the Bugatti Veyron. Hartmut Warkuss is simply the most legendary and mysterious car designer of today. The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a proven top speed of over 400 km/h (407 km/h). The car is built by Volkswagen AG subsidiary Bugatti Automobiles SAS. It is named after racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1939 while racing for the original Bugatti firm. When the production of the Veyron was announced, it was promised to be the fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car in history. Instead of the W18, the production model would use a VR6/WR8-style W16 engine. The W16 has four turbochargers, producing 1001 horsepower (for the non petrol heads, that is the equivalence of two narrow-angle V8 engines mated in a vee configuration.)
After the release of the car, it was been reported that while each Veyron is being sold for £840,000 (R 9,600,000), the production costs of the car are approximately £5 million (R 57 million) per vehicle. This is not the price to produce one vehicle, but rather the cost of the entire Veyron project divided by the number of vehicles produced at that time. As Bugatti, and therefore Volkswagen, are making such a loss, Jeremy Clarkson likened them to Concorde; in that they are test-beds for advancements in technology and developed as exercises in engineering.
The Veyron reaches 100 km/h with an estimated time of 2.5 seconds. It also reaches 200 and 300 km/h in 7.3 and 16.7 seconds respectively. This makes the Veyron the quickest-accelerating production car in history.
It also consumes more fuel than any other production car, using 40.4 L/100 km in city driving and 24.1 L/100 km in combined cycle. At full-throttle, it uses more than 125 L/100 km —at full throttle, the Veyron would empty its 100 L fuel tank in just 12.5 minutes. Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from 406 km/h to a standstill in less than 10 seconds. Warkuss’ many-sided work includes many recent Audi and Volkswagen models. Regarded by many as a design flaw, Hartmut Warkuss has nonetheless, rewrote the rule book of automotive design. The Veyron won the award for "Car of the Decade" in Top Gear's end of 2009 award show, with Clarkson describing it as “an amazing piece of engineering, a genuine Concorde moment”.

There you have it, my list of 10 important designers. They’re not the greatest designers, certainly not the most famous, but they’ve each made remarkable impacts in their respective fields.

Nathi M

Lost Without Lyrics

So I was told hope lies ahead
In this eminent soul I search
Maybe a speck of understanding
Maybe a revelation of what’s to come
The song is lived, the song continues

Everyday is a wonder, you breath in you breath out,
Gratitude knows itself by name, but my name I wonder
“the Lord is with us”, what a name indeed
Little did my mother know the heavy connotation
Like an orchestral conductor does this name define this man’s character
The past embeds itself as an unknown future, defined in lyrics
Lyrics of sorrow and joy, passion and doubt
The song of life had started two decades ago
The song is lived, the song continues

“the Lord is with us”….they said with a smile
“the Lord is with us” was birthed with a cry,
first line of lyrics after nine months
Serenity meant concern, for every song started with such lyrics
Lyrics unknown yet very much anticipated
The song is lived, the song continues

Failure became a luxury too expensive to afford
Genre knew no roots, no direction,
Only the author enjoyed the beats, timeless lyrics
Marked by the ever growing, ever increasing tune
One cant help but wonder about this interesting song
For the song is lived, the song continues

A moment of pause, a moment of silence
Time suspension, maybe fourth dimension, a light introspection
Too many questions, too little answers
Where are the lyrics, the passing of time is, but delayed
Time, the greatest healer, seems to be paused,
Too many questions, too little answers
The pain although anything but bearable, was confronted by time
The song is lived, the song continues

The author declared the song, and the world wondered
Infectious did the song become, uniquely were the lyrics painted in time
As the genre revealed itself, undefined as it was, a definition was given
The song emanated, souls were touched, others became attached
A mark was made, the sun brightened
For the song lived, the song continued, time gave birth to lyrics
Lyrics defined a soul, a lost soul, lost in genre
lyrics lived on, feuled by genre
But the SONG, the SONG was lost without lyrics

I am Child to the Moon

I am child to the moon, brother to the sun

Liberated by chained souls

Souls lost in life’s mishaps

My people taught never to hide

Reconcile thy consciousness

Life’s mysteries and wife’s histories

Wife’s mysteries and Life’s histories

I strip open wounds of a forgotten past

I am child to the moon, brother to the sun

With wounds so deep, the oozing puss

As fluid and solid as my dreams

As dark and painful as my thoughts,

Thoughts of a life imagined, imagined by hearts

Wrecked hearts, leaving remnants of such

Imaginations, So ravished and wrecked,

The hearts can only pump false blood

To the ever scornful winds of the devils deeds

One wonders such an alien blood

For it is such blood exposing my people

To the truths so disturbing, a lie comforting true minds

That I can truly concede equal possession

Of my land, my people, my life

To the foreign parasites

I am child to the moon, brother to the sun

I stand in full dominion

Over this confused land, hands ready to capture

Life’s torments and riddles,

I am child to the moon, brother to the sun

I stand in full gear

Over this trampled heart, words ready to rapture

Life’s moments and titles

I am child to the moon, brother to the sun

I stand ready to give birth

Over this troubled galaxy of beings, getting ready to nurture

Life’s movements and riffles

Rivers of Sorrow

To realize, to love, to feel

The joy as never felt before

Inexplicable commotions

Inside lost feelings expressed as

Rivers through passionate

Sayings of forbidden feelings

Worlds unleashed as streams

Intently do the rivers flow

Freeing every soul and spirit

Gushing down our cheeks and heavy-burden faces

We wipe yesterday’s sorrows away

Rivers of sorrow run down

Take every pain and ache away

Washing down sweet and bitter moments

Expressing deep and intense emotions

Unlocking hearts to other worlds

Breaking silence through serenity

Leaving marks of healed pasts

Running from very first breaths

Expressing unmentioned feelings

Worlds apart brought together as one

Rivers of sorrow run down

Take every pain and ache away

Beyond Colour

Deep within the midst of sorrow

skinned with thick clouds of passion

in this dark place called self

Consciousness esteemed within walls of pride

black hearts fruiting bright souls

Lust of the red hills, beyond has but become

Seeds planted yet grow yonder

when we were still black we danced

contours have controlled our longings

move, and move- for that’s all we could do

for deep within the midst of our skins,

we remained

suspended in transitions of dimensional discrepancies

we remained

our skins aggressively ripped off from our constantly terrorized bodies

we remained

our passions exposed and paralleled to be less than those of monkeys

we remained

confusion, lack of direction, strong yet senseless

for the new elite had come

ravished by our sense of awareness, yet very much aware

Today we remain, who can contend the cruelty of another’s thoughts

God help us, for we have lost ourselves in search of others

Necessity became null, to a man’s heart, pride still rules

but its all that remains, beyond that, new worlds arise

red hills spoke a language unknown

to those who understood, it was honey to the ears

for beyond red hills, beyond prideful gestures

beyond self, beyond doubt, beyond conscious hearts

lies a very strong world, to take over this world

For at the end color gave history incomprehensible to man

and man found his feet through comprehending history

crossing the distinct boundaries laid by our forefathers

we lie freely side by side in green summer grasses,

gazing through the clear skies, our minds marching in agreements

with judgment postponed, knowing that hope lies ahead,

we are ready to face our fears

In-Scribe

Greetings fellow beings.

I do believe this is my first blog. One of many more to come.

It's real simple. I write. You read. You write. I read. It's as simple as that.

About what though?

Mostly Poetry....and this and that!

We're good?...right, now buckle up.

Let's do this.