The Car Design Police blog has a thoughtful blog post on the Cadillac CTS redesign in 2008. I am mainly a function over form person, but I do appreciate a detailed analysis of design elements with explanations, rationale, and examples. Very well done opinion piece.
I also love seeing the Allante advertisement that they use to start the article. This reference because the Allante, designed by Pininfarina, was arguably a clean design. It was definitely the 1990s-Cadillac-chic look and not the current approach.
Overall positive review:
But after seeing them on the road for a while, the latest CTS is actually a very nice design. It maintains the Art and Science aesthetic but is fuller and more dynamic than the previous CTS or the XLR.
but I would still like this type of analysis even if it were not positive. I know what I like, but not always why. This type of discussion can help educate all of us on what works and why we like it.
I like reviews by design folks as well–even when I don’t necessarily agree, it’s good to have a context and a language to help understand why things work. In some ways, the practical things, like design, impress me more than “art”, as in design one is focused on solving a problem, in a practical way.