Every year LA Auto Show organizes a design competition for the local major manufacturers design studios. This years theme is "Youthmobile 2030" and the participants are the studios of Audi, GM, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota.

This is the winner, Nissan V2G (UNLMTD) which is an electric car (of course) that uses a Grid system (similar to cell phone companies) for its function and ownership plan, however the more rebellious owners will use it ("off-grid") outside the 'official' routes and customize it. Apart from the lifestyle story and the essential eco-credentials this is a very clever concept with a simple but striking form. The forward pods with the tandem small wheels is a smart design that allow the designer to get away with a non-wheel and maybe hover like look while retaining a credible (even in paper) technically design.

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These are the first renderings of Beachcomber concept that MINI will show in the Detroit auto show in January. It is an evolution of the Crossover concept and a prequel of the actual MINI SUV that will soon enter production. The Beachcomber's main theme is a tribute to Mini Moke of the 60's. However instead of using a bespoke simple utilitarian body like its ancestor, this concept car is obviously the fore coming SUV without doors and roof and with the added 'concept car' flash details.

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In 1975 Martin Newell, a researcher in the University of Utah used a Melitta teapot as a model for the most recognizable generic 3D model, the famous Utah teapot. It was one of the first realistic computer graphic models of an object with simple but not simplistic geometry.

Some 35 years later the designers of the Russian ArtLebedev studio followed the inverse route in order to put in production a teapot based on a low polygon Utah teapot model, the Martinus.

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