From a Universe to Other
A project of experimentation
— PROJECT NAME
LIFESTREAM
— INSPIRATION
Final Fantasy VII videogame
— RELEASE YEAR
1997
This is a different project that I made for the simple fact of challenging myself. I always studied the car brand I wanted to redesign. The lines, grills, shapes… But now I wanted to look for a new source of inspiration. I based this car design on my favourite videogame.
Twenty-one years after its launch, I´m going to re-discover and develop every detail in this game to create a vehicle based on different characters, villains, monsters or landscapes. This is going to teach me how inspiration can works if I think out of the box. If you want to discover it, please take your time and enjoy this project.
METEORFALL
Meteor is the most powerful offensive spell in the world of FFVII, and referred to as "The Ultimate Destructive Magic". Meteor summoned a celestial body by the villain to harm the planet.
LATERAL DESIGN
Meteor and the FFVII Logotype have inspired the lateral design of this prototype. The way I see it is an aerodynamic design based on a natural, faster and powerful element.
LIFESTREAM
"The Lifestream. That's what we call the river of life that circles our planet, giving life to the world and everything in it"
Prologue to FFVII Advent Children
The Lifestream is a spiritual and ethereal substance that flows inside the planet of FFVII. That stream is used as the petrol we use nowadays. It´ll be the life fuel at this project.
EXTERIOR DESIGN
I decided to design a sports car because the world of Final Fantasy VII is spiky, punky, and industrialised. Even the logotype is aerodynamic. So it reminded me of sharp shapes.
I designed the front view ins inspired by the main characters, with their personality, clothes, heritage or weapons, among other elements. The back view is also inspired by the main villains, secondary characters and teams that play an important role in the story.
There is too much information hidden in these designs, so there is an explanation below of every car and why they have that design and not another.
Redrose
The Redrose is inspired by Aerith. She belongs to an ancestral race that can talk with the Earth. She works as a florist but will die to save the planet, that´s the reason this car´s name is Red Rose.
Punisher
Tifa And Barret belong to a terrorist and ecologic group. They fight to save the planet. And, as you can see, they have got some armoured parts on their bodies. This design should have a rude impression, like them.
Rider
Nanaki is part of an almost extinct animal, which gives the wild strength to this bodywork. Cid is an experienced pilot of aircraft, and this car must be his favourite craft. Both are riders in different ways!
Fortune
Cait Sith is a robotic cat manipulated afar. It fights through a big Mog plush, giving it orders from a megaphone. Yuffie is a ninja girl who loves to steal materia. Every shape in this car is not a coincidence.
Brave
Cloud is a Soldier, armoured and always ready to fight for his friends, as this car! Vincent has been an experiment victim, he´s shy but as resilient as you couldn´t imagine.
Stamina
SOLDIER is the elite fighting force of Shinra. Its members are soldiers with superhuman strength, speed and agility.
This car is destinated to be the fastest of all designs.
Black
Sephiroth is the black-caped man and the villain of this videogame. I needed a black car to portrait only his personality because he has got several details that any character has, and above all, a stronger appearance.
Defender
Avalanche is an ECO-terrorist group that attacks Shinra to stop the planet deterioration. They know their acts cause damage to innocent people, but they won´t stop till defeat Shinra.
Lighting
The Tsviets are a military elite group that leads the Deepground Army. They are feared by their power and weapons, and all wear representative clothes with a blue light.
Furtive
The Turks is the unofficial name of the Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department at Shinra. They are consummate professionals, adhering to the mission, no matter what.
WHEEL TRIM DESIGN
Midgar is the capital city and power base of the Shinra Electric Power Company, and it´s the most important city in this videogame.
Due to the attack and explosion of Reactor 7 by Avalanche (an ECO-terrorist group), Shinra decided to destroy their own Sector 7 to eliminate the terrorists, and this action will mark this design.
The wheel trim design is inspired by this city.
MIDGAR CITY
Described as a “technological pizza” and known as the city of Mako, Midgar is powered by eight reactors and divided into nine sectors (sector 0 is the central building with the headquarters of Shinra).
CONFRONTED SWORDS
Cloud is the main character in this story and carries the Buster Sword as a legacy of a SOLDIER´s friend. Sephiroth is the main villain and carries the Masamune, a katana ready to destroy everything.
WEAPONS
Weapons are powerful monsters created by the Planet. When it´s in danger, they wake up and reducing everything to nothingness. Life returns into the Planet and the Lifestream blows again.
There are several Weapons in this World, and each Weapon bears a unique appearance, and a few have elemental attributes. They are reminiscent of the giant monsters that appear in Japanese Kaiju films, like Godzilla.
INTERIOR DESIGN
I have used Weapons and Materia (magic spheres) to design the interior of this car. The interior is full designed with the shapes of five chosen Weapons, using their arms, claws, horns or armour as inspiration. This interior design will use a code of colours based on the five types of Materia to be in communication with the passengers depending on some facts:
-Green (Magic Materia & Emerald Weapon): you´re driving in ECO Mode.
-Yellow (Command Materia & Chocobo Weapon): you´re driving in free mode.
-Blue (Support Materia & Saphire Weapon): the car is driving autonomous.
-Purple (Independent Materia & Ultimate Weapon): the car is driving autonomous in an emergency.
-Red (Summon materia & Ruby Weapon): the car is broken down or at fuel reserve.
-Black (Special Materia & Diamond Weapon): the car is switched off.
All the colours will illuminate the interior light and not too strident to avoid distractions when you drive.
Let´s see the explanation:
ANATOMY INTO DESIGN
As you can see, the pattern of shapes in every Weapon is repeated and adapted to their anatomy, but I chose an identified and unique part of all of them to design the cabin.
EMERGENCY
Also, when the car is driving in a purple mode in an emergency stat, there are three lights at the exterior that communicate your situation and facilitate your arrival at the hospital.
FINAL DESIGN
I reach the end of this project by explaining the designs chosen to compound the Lifestream Concept Car.
At the exterior design, I decided to create a car with a different language of design at the front and back view. I didn´t choose only one prototype and made the other view, no. The purpose was to create a car from two different designs. The Brave and Furtive concept cars have inspired the final design. I created some link elements among both cars to compound the Concept Car.
As an industrialised car, I prefer the Modern wheel trim design. I find it more interesting by its shapes than the classic and contributes to creating a solid view of all as a group.
Finally, the project reaches the end
This project taught me to find inspiration in unexpected things. Sometimes, I got stuck when I´m imagining elements, and I spent more than a half year, working and enjoying every detail, understanding better the shapes and signs we all see but not observe, and study slowly all the important elements, in this case, a game, to design into a Concept Car. Sure I´ll do more projects like that, they free my mind and made me motivated and productive. I hope you have enjoyed it and all the meanings hide in it.
Thank you.