December 24, 2024 • 23 mins
Ever wondered why the boxy shape of early automobiles continues to be a favorite among modern car designers? Follow AutoLooks, as we unbox the history and evolution of the iconic two-box design, a structure that revolutionized automotive aesthetics and functionality.
Everett J.
#autolooks
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's that time of the year, the time
that we box up gifts or box up food for
people we all talk about.
Well, let's just say a lot of boxes.
We have to put stuff in boxes, we have to
get boxes, we have to wrap boxes, we have
to deliver boxes.
There's a lot of boxes going around.
Well, at one point in time in the
automotive history, boxes were just like
(00:21):
Christmas time.
They were everywhere and we used them on
nearly every style of automobile.
Well, except for supercars, they went to a
wedge, still flat surfaces, but they
weren't a boxed design.
Today, autolux is taking a look at the two
box design, one of the most simplest
designs ever and going back to my school
(00:42):
roots, today we're going to talk about why
some companies decide to still utilize this
design for new products that are coming out.
So today on Autolux, we're getting all
boxed up, not just for Christmas, but for
automotive design.
(01:03):
Welcome back to the Autolux Podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
automotive industry, mr Everett Jay, coming
to you from our host website at Autoluxnet.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out, read some of the reviews, check out
some of the ratings and go to the Corporate
Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
companies from around the globe, all
available on the Autoluxnet website.
(01:25):
The Autolux Podcast the globe all available
on the autolooknet website.
The autolooks podcast is brought to you by
ecom entertainment group and distributed by
podbeamcom.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autolooksnet.
So, like I said in the beginning, box
designs they've existed a very long time in
the automotive history but, unlike our true
beginnings, where we utilized box designs
because of the most simplistic things to
(01:45):
build, later on became part of the
evolution of the automotive design.
Yes, boxed designs, they were here and
they've been kicking around for a long time.
But why do we still utilize them and why do
utilize them in full force?
Well, let's just take a look back to my
automotive design years.
(02:06):
In my first year at college, our first
design course, when we're starting to teach
people other than myself how to truly
design a vehicle, either in 2D or 3D format,
we get them to draw a box.
Then you draw a point in the horizon.
You bring all the angles up to that point
in the horizon.
That gives you your cube.
That's how you're designing this thing.
(02:27):
That's how it's going to fade into the
background.
But why do we do this?
Even today, professional designers
utilizing even computer programs and a
digital draft board are still utilizing the
box design to start all of their design
aspects.
Nobody just looks at it and goes whoop,
whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop and makes a full,
amazing design.
(02:48):
Sure, there are a lot of us out there that
can do that.
And you watch people online and watch
people in TV shows, I don't know.
For years I remember hearing from people oh,
have you seen Chip Foose and what he could
do?
I'm like he's drawing existing vehicles.
He's not creating something new, he's
creating something that already exists.
(03:11):
But if you look at his designs, he still
starts with essentially a boxed image.
And the best way to get a start on drawing
an automotive design is by creating two box
the lower portion of the box for all of
your workings this is your trunk, your
engine compartment and the seating
arrangement and then your top box.
Because humans sit upright in vehicles, we
need a viewing area, which essentially is
the top tier of the box design.
(03:32):
It's a viewing area.
That's all its purpose is.
But as we learn from the initial stage of
automotive development and design.
You can even look back to the original Ford
Model as and see how boxy those designs
were.
Now we get it.
The wheels were exposed, they had wheel
well covers, they had running boards, but
the initial compartment the human sat in
(03:52):
and the covering for the engine compartment
were essentially two boxes.
And if you watch the original construction
where you sit in the original Model A was
one solid coach build seating compartment.
It was literally just dropped right down on
the frame, the engine was placed in and
then it was covered over.
You had essentially your front box and your
rear box.
That's how automobiles started.
(04:14):
And then we started adding trunks on the
back.
Now, literally trunks were just bolted on
trunks like traveling trunks onto the back
of a vehicle.
That's where the name came from.
This kind of gave it a three box design.
But those trunks were added effect to the
vehicle, kind of like roof rails and your
headlights.
They're all added on after the initial
(04:34):
design of the vehicle.
So the trunk was a forethought.
The passenger compartment and the engine
compartment were the initial two boxes in
the original two box design and from there
we eventually started evolving and taking
those two box designs and morphing them
into something better.
Then we start moving into the bathtub
(04:54):
designs, the streamlined designs, the
winged designs, then we get the wedge shape,
then we get the wide arches, all the while
remembering the original theory of the
automobile.
And it really wasn't until trucks started
getting the wheels integrated into the
fenders that we again started to see a two
box design.
Taking a look at pickup trucks in the 1950s
(05:16):
when they start going from sidestep rear
designs to fully integrated boxes.
Personally, right now I'm taking a look at
a 1957 Mercury M-Series and even the Dodge
Customs Sport Special.
These weren't sidesteps, these are
streamlined designs which had a passenger
compartment on top and a full straight-line
body line on the bottom.
Essentially, a two-box design has a full
(05:38):
body line that goes straight from front to
rear.
Some of these are tapered upwards towards
the back, if you remember the BMW 7 series
in the late 80s, early 90s but some of them
are directly straight across.
One of the most memorable two box designs
in history was in the late 70s and into the
80s the Chevrolet C10, silverados and K5
(05:58):
Blazers.
Those were the epitome of two box designs
and they lasted forever.
A passenger compartment as one upper tier
box and a lower tier where the front hood
was the exact same body line as the box of
the truck.
It was the bottom box of the vehicle.
But, like I said, in the 60s and even
(06:19):
before in the 50s, we had these two box
designs coming in trucks.
Then we started seeing them in SUVs with
the release of the Ford Bronco, giving us
more of a two box design.
But why were we utilizing boxes, hard edges
and box-like designs?
Space Space is the biggest thing you get
out of a two box design and with trucks,
(06:41):
especially with single cabs, maximizing
space in the cab while pushing the cab as
far forward is better when people sit in
more upright position.
And because pickup trucks back in those
days didn't have to get good gas mileage,
didn't have to look good and never went
fast, they didn't worry about any of those
special features, proper airflow or fuel
(07:02):
consumption in them.
Pickup trucks weren't included in this
until the early 2000s when the CAF
agreement came in and started saying fleet
management had to have 35 miles per gallon
across the entire fleet of your vehicle.
So all these car companies with massive
pickup trucks had to realize oh, we got to
squeeze some more fuel out of these bad
boys by having a box design.
(07:24):
That's not very aerodynamic.
Boxes have been used for a long time, but
from the advent of the automobile, by the
time the 1930s were rolling around, box
designs had disappeared.
We were starting to streamline our designs.
We loved curves, we loved tail fins, we
loved chrome.
It was only really in the pickup truck and
SUV marketplace that you saw a two box
(07:44):
design.
Cars were still designed this way.
Even if you look back to old designs in the
1950s, you'll still see people utilizing
the standard box format to make automotive
designs for car corporations.
Even to this day, people still utilize that
feature.
It's ingrained in our heritage of
automotive design.
Box design is the easiest way to start.
(08:06):
Essentially, it's one of the easiest ways
you can start with anything, and I'll give
you a perfect example of this.
If you've ever watched the Simpsons and,
yeah, I'm getting back to one of my most
favorite TV shows of all time Do you
remember the one episode where they're in
the attic and they find out that Marge is
an incredible painter and painted a ton of
Ringo Starr images back in the 1970s when
(08:26):
she had a major crush on him?
Well, she decides to take a class and learn
how to draw, and the teacher shows her a
cube and how you can turn even the simplest
of cubes, spheres, cones, and even you can
turn that into a wonderful little bunny.
Yeah, I'm actually quoting right from the
show because I've seen these things
hundreds of times so I kind of have them
(08:49):
memorized.
But he's showcasing to us how we can use
this box design, essentially creating the
3D images using cubes and spheres and cone.
That's where automotive design starts.
Like I said, it starts with a box, a box
and a point on the background.
That's where everything fades into it.
And even when you draw people, animals,
buildings, the box design comes into play.
(09:12):
For designers, learning to draw a box in 3D
format is your first step to learning how
to design a car.
But bringing that into the automotive world
is something completely different.
We all try and take those boxes and make
them look amazing.
Well, at one specific time in history we
had to revert back to where our original
theory of automotive design started,
(09:33):
utilizing boxes yet again, during the gas
crisis in the 1970s, everybody was trying
to find new ways to bring down their fuel
consumption.
We thought smaller engines was part of it.
Well, to get the money to put it into these
car companies to build the products that we
needed with lower fuel mileage and better
safety features.
Because now we had to have integrated crash
(09:55):
bumpers and we were also moving into a time
period where round headlights were being
changed for the square headlights.
And if you want to know about headlights,
we're going to be doing this in a future
podcast.
So trust me, we're.
It's in the books, it's going to be coming
there.
There's an explanation, the reason why we
went from route square and then we started
allowing the bubble, and it'll all be
exposed on our headlight episode.
But as we made those changes in the late
(10:16):
70s and into the 80s and more and more
safety features got started being added in
to the automotive industry, we needed to
get vehicles changed and out into the
marketplace as quick as possible and to do
that we had to revert back to the most
simplistic designs of all time.
All these new safety features were just
coming in line.
We didn't know how to add them to all these
amazing designs.
You get a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.
(10:39):
You're going to add front impact zones,
you're going to add body cladding, you're
going to add radial tires, a fully
integrated independent suspension system, a
front wheel drive system, airbags,
seatbelts, crash proof glass, as safety
features came out heavily during the 1970s.
All along, while we're trying to save fuel
(11:01):
because we can't sell these big, burly V8s
anymore, the automotive industry and the
evolution of automotive design took a back
seat.
We started going back to our first theory
in automotive design.
We went back to our square.
That disappeared into the horizon.
We started utilizing the box design to make
brand new vehicles.
It was easy to add all of these safety
(11:22):
features to a standard box.
To add all of these safety features to a
standard box, and because the industry in
the 1970s took such a hit with the loss of
big, burly V8s and the ability to design
anything they wanted?
Because we didn't understand how to get all
of this new technology into brand new
products, especially ones that look good
and follow clean, smooth lines.
(11:43):
We wound up going back to the drawing board,
taking a look at the first theory we ever
learned in design class and applying it to
the automotive industry.
We understood the fact that a two box
design, or in some cases almost a three box
design, can maximize space more efficiently
than anything else, and by maximizing space
we could fit as much as we need to into the
(12:04):
product.
So by the mid 80s, nearly every car company
around the globe was now utilizing a two
box design.
It started becoming mainstay in every
automotive corporation around the world.
We were maximizing space but still creating
brand new products with all the safety
features and environmental regulations we
had to have in.
As the world around us changed and more
(12:26):
things evolved and started getting added in
to the plethora of brand new vehicles, we
started evolving our designs around it, our
box designs.
As I said, we went back to the most
simplistic form of automotive design in the
1980s, just to fit all those new features
and new regulations into one small package
and sell it to the customers.
(12:46):
We needed to make them look good, handle
good and have everything in it.
If you ever take a look back at the
original Range Rover, it wasn't very
luxurious.
It was essentially a giant toaster on
wheels.
Hell.
The original Caravan maximized interior
space to the extreme.
The only thing other than that that
maximizes it even more are products like
(13:07):
the Honda Element and Scion XB.
Every market in the 1980s, like I said,
except for high performance vehicles, was
being taken over by the two-box design.
Even entry-level sports cars like the
Nissan Pulse, the AXA Sport and the Hyundai
Escoo they were all standard two-box
designs.
Volvo evolved out of the 70s out of what
(13:29):
they were already using for two-box designs
and made their vehicles look even more like
two-box designs.
Volvo, from the 80s and until the early
2000s, was essentially known as the car
company who made the safest vehicles in the
world.
Why?
Because what's tougher than a box?
Literally Well, an egg.
That is where automotive design started to
make a change in the world.
Why?
Because what's tougher than a box?
Literally Well, an egg.
That is where automotive design started to
(13:49):
make a change in the 90s, where the
teardrop in egg shapes.
But that's because we started to learn the
technology that was around us.
We started smoothing out the edges of our
box designs.
If you look at the original Ford Bronco II,
the first generation, and then you look at
the second generation kind of like the
Broncos in the late 80s to the Broncos in
the early 90s, like the one OJ Simpson was
(14:10):
driving it's still a two-box design with
clean edges.
As technology got better and we became more
advanced in adding all of that into our
designs and into the vehicles we were
creating for the marketplace, we're slowly
managing to take away the two-box design.
It still exists even in today's marketplace,
and some companies still swear by them for
(14:32):
specific markets Sedans, suvs and trucks
and vans.
So sedans, suvs, trucks and vans were the
number one place for two-box designs and as
crossovers started coming out in the late
90s, this became another segment of the
marketplace that utilized the two box
designs.
Crossovers maximized it because of their
(14:52):
small footprint and essentially a crossover
is a vehicle that's supposed to maximize
and create the most efficient use of space
around you.
Because, you have to remember, crossovers
are essentially tall wagons.
The Ford Flex is a big part of that.
It's a tall station wagon.
Station wagons essentially had the two-box
designs in the 80s and into the early 90s,
(15:14):
but as they smoothed out and became more
stream-like, like sedans by the mid to late
90s, they were losing that two-box image.
Crossovers and compact vans were one of the
few markets where this was still sticking
together, even the SUVs.
If you take a look at nearly every major
SUV that started coming out in the 1980s
and the early 90s, they were all box
(15:34):
designs and some of the most famous ones
were the biggest box designs out there the
Broncos, the Cherokees, how the Blazers.
They were all boxes on wheels, giant
toasters rolling around the world.
But boxes can still be cool and the
utilization of a two-box design could still
be something for the future.
But as we learned through the 90s with the
(15:57):
egg shape and teardrop, we learned how to
make boxes not look like boxes.
We started rounding out the corners.
New technology into headlight designs
allowed us to add bubbles so we can go
anywhere we want.
If you look at the Dodge Dynasty and
Chrysler New Yorkers of the late 80s and
early 90s, their evolution and changeover
came from the Dodge Intrepid, which looks
(16:19):
nothing like a two-box design but
eventually then morphed into the Dodge
Charger, which you may fight with me on
this one and say that it's not a two-box
design, but it is.
It's just because a few of the corners have
been rounded out.
Two-box designs are still around.
My Borrego is a two-box design.
The Nissan Frontier's held on to the
two-box design all the way up until three
(16:41):
years ago when they finally changed the
design.
General Motors still utilizes the two-box
design for their pickup trucks and even
large scale SUVs.
It's still there and still kicking around,
and there are new products utilizing it.
Now, with the increase in the electric
vehicle industry, box designs are starting
to make a slight comeback Because, like I
said, when new technology comes into play,
(17:03):
we have to resort back to the most
simplistic design format.
Once we figure out how to get all of that
technology into the most spacious design of
all time, we can start working out the
kinks to moving that technology into some
of the most streamlined designs out there.
Technology it's one of the evolutionary
factors in automotive design and the
(17:25):
two-box design.
The only reasons why we've ever used them
in history are for two reasons One, to
either maximize the space for a small
product, or two, because we had technology
we didn't understand and we couldn't fit
into any design we made.
So we resorted back to our beginning.
It's kind of like us as a human species we
eventually resort back to where.
We Kind of like us as a human species.
(17:46):
We eventually resort back to where we
started to see where we went wrong.
We evolve from what we've learned, but if
we don't learn anything, we'll never evolve.
Had we not evolved out of the reverse
bathtub and added tail fins, we would have
never got giant spoilers and those sleek,
big, burly chrome designs in the 1950s
would have never morphed into the more
(18:07):
streamlined designs of the 60s.
It would have never added harder edges to
it and given us vehicles like the Cadillac
CTS and Edge Design.
Taking a stance and going back to our roots
can help improve us for the future.
The electric vehicle industry is starting
to do that.
Even though its platform is more versatile
than the internal combustion engine, we
(18:28):
still need to work with it.
And with new companies coming out,
utilizing the most simplistic two-box
design could help them break through.
Two companies out there maximizing this is
Monroe Automotive and Bollinger Motors.
If you've seen the Bollinger B1 and B2
pickups and SUV, it is literally the
highest use of two-box design in history.
(18:50):
More so, range Rovers or Volvos from the
past and the Monroes, their MK, their SUV
and pickup truck are the same.
They're the most basic design elements and
they're utilizing it to evolve their
technology.
Boxes Whoever thought a box can be part of
our evolution in the automotive world?
(19:11):
Without boxes we wouldn't know where to
start.
Literally, it would just be lines on a
piece of paper that eventually form a
product.
That is something I originally learned when
I first started designing and became
self-taught.
I used two lines on a piece of paper and
then started wondering why my designs
didn't flow properly.
But when I learned about the box design and
(19:32):
the disappearing lines into the horizon
line, that's when I understood how I had to
make things and every design out there in
the world all starts as a two box design a
lower box and an upper box.
The only design out there that doesn't
start out that way is a wedge, because a
wedge doesn't need to be more than one box.
(19:53):
By adding a passenger compartment on top of
a design, we create the two box design and
with it we just get all boxed up.
Thinking about it and designing it Hard
boxed edges every single portion of the
design until we start curving them into
each other to give us our final look.
All cars start out that way, but not all
cars wind up that way.
(20:15):
We only wind up that way when we don't
understand the products that we need to put
into it, that we make the design the
simplest form we could think of, fit all of
the technology in it and learn to evolve
from there.
Hell Henryd did it when he put the world on
wheels, when he built mass-produced
vehicles at a lower rate than anyone else
with the most simplistic design in history,
(20:37):
and today new car companies are trying to
do it.
Hell tesla is attempting to do a two-box
wedge design for the cybertruck, simple and
yet evolutionary in the future of
automotive design Boxes.
They're a wonderful thing.
Even if your tour of the box factory is not
a wonderful thing, it could still be
something, part of your future.
(20:58):
So, have you been all boxed up?
Do you remember boxy vehicles or known
people that have owned boxy vehicles?
How many of you have known somebody that
owned an Element or a Nissan Cube or a
scion xb or even a k5 blazer biggest
toaster boxes on the road.
Do you think they're cool?
Do you think they're way too simple?
Hell, tell us below, write a comment and
(21:18):
send it out to everybody.
Send this podcast out to people.
Hell, wrap them up from last year's
christmas episode and throw them in a box,
because that's what we're all about.
We've wrapped you up and now we've boxed
you up.
I guess next year we're going to talk to
you about bows on a car.
But there are no bows, except for the bow
tie on the front of a Chevrolet, which is a
very funny story about where that symbol
(21:39):
came from.
We could talk about it in a future episode.
Or send me an email and ask me where the
original Chevrolet bow tie comes from.
And after you, send this podcast out to
your friends, your family, your
well-wishers, your boss, your co-workers
and you know person that always comes
around looking for their stapler.
Have you seen my stapler?
I believe you have my stapler.
After you send it out to those people, stop
(22:00):
by the website, read some reviews, check
out some of the ratings and go to the big
or small.
We have them all on the autoluxnet website.
If you want to find something hell, you're
looking for something or you're having
trouble finding something send us an email
over at email at autoluxnet.
We can help you out.
All from the autoluxnet website.
(22:21):
The Autolux Podcast is brought to you by
Ecom Entertainment Group and distributed by
podbeancom.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autoluxnet.
So for myself, everett Jay, the host, the
creator and operational manager of the
Autolux website and the Autolux podcast,
I'd like to say thank you from the Autolux
podcast and we wish you all the best in
this holiday season as you box up all the
crap you don't want after Christmas and
(22:42):
strap yourself in for this one fun wild
ride as the Autoluxnet podcast and Autolux
podcast bring you as we all get boxed up
this Christmas.
Well, it's that time of the year, the time
that we box up gifts or box up food for
people we all talk about.
Well, let's just say a lot of boxes.
We have to put stuff in boxes, we have to
get boxes, we have to wrap boxes, we have
to deliver boxes.
There's a lot of boxes going around.
Well, at one point in time in the
automotive history, boxes were just like
(00:21):
Christmas time.
They were everywhere and we used them on
nearly every style of automobile.
Well, except for supercars, they went to a
wedge, still flat surfaces, but they
weren't a boxed design.
Today, autolux is taking a look at the two
box design, one of the most simplest
designs ever and going back to my school
(00:42):
roots, today we're going to talk about why
some companies decide to still utilize this
design for new products that are coming out.
So today on Autolux, we're getting all
boxed up, not just for Christmas, but for
automotive design.
(01:03):
Welcome back to the Autolux Podcast.
I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the
automotive industry, mr Everett Jay, coming
to you from our host website at Autoluxnet.
If you haven't been there, stop by, check
it out, read some of the reviews, check out
some of the ratings and go to the Corporate
Links website page.
Big or small, we have them all Car
companies from around the globe, all
available on the Autoluxnet website.
(01:25):
The Autolux Podcast the globe all available
on the autolooknet website.
The autolooks podcast is brought to you by
ecom entertainment group and distributed by
podbeamcom.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autolooksnet.
So, like I said in the beginning, box
designs they've existed a very long time in
the automotive history but, unlike our true
beginnings, where we utilized box designs
because of the most simplistic things to
(01:45):
build, later on became part of the
evolution of the automotive design.
Yes, boxed designs, they were here and
they've been kicking around for a long time.
But why do we still utilize them and why do
utilize them in full force?
Well, let's just take a look back to my
automotive design years.
(02:06):
In my first year at college, our first
design course, when we're starting to teach
people other than myself how to truly
design a vehicle, either in 2D or 3D format,
we get them to draw a box.
Then you draw a point in the horizon.
You bring all the angles up to that point
in the horizon.
That gives you your cube.
That's how you're designing this thing.
(02:27):
That's how it's going to fade into the
background.
But why do we do this?
Even today, professional designers
utilizing even computer programs and a
digital draft board are still utilizing the
box design to start all of their design
aspects.
Nobody just looks at it and goes whoop,
whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop and makes a full,
amazing design.
(02:48):
Sure, there are a lot of us out there that
can do that.
And you watch people online and watch
people in TV shows, I don't know.
For years I remember hearing from people oh,
have you seen Chip Foose and what he could
do?
I'm like he's drawing existing vehicles.
He's not creating something new, he's
creating something that already exists.
(03:11):
But if you look at his designs, he still
starts with essentially a boxed image.
And the best way to get a start on drawing
an automotive design is by creating two box
the lower portion of the box for all of
your workings this is your trunk, your
engine compartment and the seating
arrangement and then your top box.
Because humans sit upright in vehicles, we
need a viewing area, which essentially is
the top tier of the box design.
(03:32):
It's a viewing area.
That's all its purpose is.
But as we learn from the initial stage of
automotive development and design.
You can even look back to the original Ford
Model as and see how boxy those designs
were.
Now we get it.
The wheels were exposed, they had wheel
well covers, they had running boards, but
the initial compartment the human sat in
(03:52):
and the covering for the engine compartment
were essentially two boxes.
And if you watch the original construction
where you sit in the original Model A was
one solid coach build seating compartment.
It was literally just dropped right down on
the frame, the engine was placed in and
then it was covered over.
You had essentially your front box and your
rear box.
That's how automobiles started.
(04:14):
And then we started adding trunks on the
back.
Now, literally trunks were just bolted on
trunks like traveling trunks onto the back
of a vehicle.
That's where the name came from.
This kind of gave it a three box design.
But those trunks were added effect to the
vehicle, kind of like roof rails and your
headlights.
They're all added on after the initial
(04:34):
design of the vehicle.
So the trunk was a forethought.
The passenger compartment and the engine
compartment were the initial two boxes in
the original two box design and from there
we eventually started evolving and taking
those two box designs and morphing them
into something better.
Then we start moving into the bathtub
(04:54):
designs, the streamlined designs, the
winged designs, then we get the wedge shape,
then we get the wide arches, all the while
remembering the original theory of the
automobile.
And it really wasn't until trucks started
getting the wheels integrated into the
fenders that we again started to see a two
box design.
Taking a look at pickup trucks in the 1950s
(05:16):
when they start going from sidestep rear
designs to fully integrated boxes.
Personally, right now I'm taking a look at
a 1957 Mercury M-Series and even the Dodge
Customs Sport Special.
These weren't sidesteps, these are
streamlined designs which had a passenger
compartment on top and a full straight-line
body line on the bottom.
Essentially, a two-box design has a full
(05:38):
body line that goes straight from front to
rear.
Some of these are tapered upwards towards
the back, if you remember the BMW 7 series
in the late 80s, early 90s but some of them
are directly straight across.
One of the most memorable two box designs
in history was in the late 70s and into the
80s the Chevrolet C10, silverados and K5
(05:58):
Blazers.
Those were the epitome of two box designs
and they lasted forever.
A passenger compartment as one upper tier
box and a lower tier where the front hood
was the exact same body line as the box of
the truck.
It was the bottom box of the vehicle.
But, like I said, in the 60s and even
(06:19):
before in the 50s, we had these two box
designs coming in trucks.
Then we started seeing them in SUVs with
the release of the Ford Bronco, giving us
more of a two box design.
But why were we utilizing boxes, hard edges
and box-like designs?
Space Space is the biggest thing you get
out of a two box design and with trucks,
(06:41):
especially with single cabs, maximizing
space in the cab while pushing the cab as
far forward is better when people sit in
more upright position.
And because pickup trucks back in those
days didn't have to get good gas mileage,
didn't have to look good and never went
fast, they didn't worry about any of those
special features, proper airflow or fuel
(07:02):
consumption in them.
Pickup trucks weren't included in this
until the early 2000s when the CAF
agreement came in and started saying fleet
management had to have 35 miles per gallon
across the entire fleet of your vehicle.
So all these car companies with massive
pickup trucks had to realize oh, we got to
squeeze some more fuel out of these bad
boys by having a box design.
(07:24):
That's not very aerodynamic.
Boxes have been used for a long time, but
from the advent of the automobile, by the
time the 1930s were rolling around, box
designs had disappeared.
We were starting to streamline our designs.
We loved curves, we loved tail fins, we
loved chrome.
It was only really in the pickup truck and
SUV marketplace that you saw a two box
(07:44):
design.
Cars were still designed this way.
Even if you look back to old designs in the
1950s, you'll still see people utilizing
the standard box format to make automotive
designs for car corporations.
Even to this day, people still utilize that
feature.
It's ingrained in our heritage of
automotive design.
Box design is the easiest way to start.
(08:06):
Essentially, it's one of the easiest ways
you can start with anything, and I'll give
you a perfect example of this.
If you've ever watched the Simpsons and,
yeah, I'm getting back to one of my most
favorite TV shows of all time Do you
remember the one episode where they're in
the attic and they find out that Marge is
an incredible painter and painted a ton of
Ringo Starr images back in the 1970s when
(08:26):
she had a major crush on him?
Well, she decides to take a class and learn
how to draw, and the teacher shows her a
cube and how you can turn even the simplest
of cubes, spheres, cones, and even you can
turn that into a wonderful little bunny.
Yeah, I'm actually quoting right from the
show because I've seen these things
hundreds of times so I kind of have them
(08:49):
memorized.
But he's showcasing to us how we can use
this box design, essentially creating the
3D images using cubes and spheres and cone.
That's where automotive design starts.
Like I said, it starts with a box, a box
and a point on the background.
That's where everything fades into it.
And even when you draw people, animals,
buildings, the box design comes into play.
(09:12):
For designers, learning to draw a box in 3D
format is your first step to learning how
to design a car.
But bringing that into the automotive world
is something completely different.
We all try and take those boxes and make
them look amazing.
Well, at one specific time in history we
had to revert back to where our original
theory of automotive design started,
(09:33):
utilizing boxes yet again, during the gas
crisis in the 1970s, everybody was trying
to find new ways to bring down their fuel
consumption.
We thought smaller engines was part of it.
Well, to get the money to put it into these
car companies to build the products that we
needed with lower fuel mileage and better
safety features.
Because now we had to have integrated crash
(09:55):
bumpers and we were also moving into a time
period where round headlights were being
changed for the square headlights.
And if you want to know about headlights,
we're going to be doing this in a future
podcast.
So trust me, we're.
It's in the books, it's going to be coming
there.
There's an explanation, the reason why we
went from route square and then we started
allowing the bubble, and it'll all be
exposed on our headlight episode.
But as we made those changes in the late
(10:16):
70s and into the 80s and more and more
safety features got started being added in
to the automotive industry, we needed to
get vehicles changed and out into the
marketplace as quick as possible and to do
that we had to revert back to the most
simplistic designs of all time.
All these new safety features were just
coming in line.
We didn't know how to add them to all these
amazing designs.
You get a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.
(10:39):
You're going to add front impact zones,
you're going to add body cladding, you're
going to add radial tires, a fully
integrated independent suspension system, a
front wheel drive system, airbags,
seatbelts, crash proof glass, as safety
features came out heavily during the 1970s.
All along, while we're trying to save fuel
(11:01):
because we can't sell these big, burly V8s
anymore, the automotive industry and the
evolution of automotive design took a back
seat.
We started going back to our first theory
in automotive design.
We went back to our square.
That disappeared into the horizon.
We started utilizing the box design to make
brand new vehicles.
It was easy to add all of these safety
(11:22):
features to a standard box.
To add all of these safety features to a
standard box, and because the industry in
the 1970s took such a hit with the loss of
big, burly V8s and the ability to design
anything they wanted?
Because we didn't understand how to get all
of this new technology into brand new
products, especially ones that look good
and follow clean, smooth lines.
(11:43):
We wound up going back to the drawing board,
taking a look at the first theory we ever
learned in design class and applying it to
the automotive industry.
We understood the fact that a two box
design, or in some cases almost a three box
design, can maximize space more efficiently
than anything else, and by maximizing space
we could fit as much as we need to into the
(12:04):
product.
So by the mid 80s, nearly every car company
around the globe was now utilizing a two
box design.
It started becoming mainstay in every
automotive corporation around the world.
We were maximizing space but still creating
brand new products with all the safety
features and environmental regulations we
had to have in.
As the world around us changed and more
(12:26):
things evolved and started getting added in
to the plethora of brand new vehicles, we
started evolving our designs around it, our
box designs.
As I said, we went back to the most
simplistic form of automotive design in the
1980s, just to fit all those new features
and new regulations into one small package
and sell it to the customers.
(12:46):
We needed to make them look good, handle
good and have everything in it.
If you ever take a look back at the
original Range Rover, it wasn't very
luxurious.
It was essentially a giant toaster on
wheels.
Hell.
The original Caravan maximized interior
space to the extreme.
The only thing other than that that
maximizes it even more are products like
(13:07):
the Honda Element and Scion XB.
Every market in the 1980s, like I said,
except for high performance vehicles, was
being taken over by the two-box design.
Even entry-level sports cars like the
Nissan Pulse, the AXA Sport and the Hyundai
Escoo they were all standard two-box
designs.
Volvo evolved out of the 70s out of what
(13:29):
they were already using for two-box designs
and made their vehicles look even more like
two-box designs.
Volvo, from the 80s and until the early
2000s, was essentially known as the car
company who made the safest vehicles in the
world.
Why?
Because what's tougher than a box?
Literally Well, an egg.
That is where automotive design started to
make a change in the world.
Why?
Because what's tougher than a box?
Literally Well, an egg.
That is where automotive design started to
(13:49):
make a change in the 90s, where the
teardrop in egg shapes.
But that's because we started to learn the
technology that was around us.
We started smoothing out the edges of our
box designs.
If you look at the original Ford Bronco II,
the first generation, and then you look at
the second generation kind of like the
Broncos in the late 80s to the Broncos in
the early 90s, like the one OJ Simpson was
(14:10):
driving it's still a two-box design with
clean edges.
As technology got better and we became more
advanced in adding all of that into our
designs and into the vehicles we were
creating for the marketplace, we're slowly
managing to take away the two-box design.
It still exists even in today's marketplace,
and some companies still swear by them for
(14:32):
specific markets Sedans, suvs and trucks
and vans.
So sedans, suvs, trucks and vans were the
number one place for two-box designs and as
crossovers started coming out in the late
90s, this became another segment of the
marketplace that utilized the two box
designs.
Crossovers maximized it because of their
(14:52):
small footprint and essentially a crossover
is a vehicle that's supposed to maximize
and create the most efficient use of space
around you.
Because, you have to remember, crossovers
are essentially tall wagons.
The Ford Flex is a big part of that.
It's a tall station wagon.
Station wagons essentially had the two-box
designs in the 80s and into the early 90s,
(15:14):
but as they smoothed out and became more
stream-like, like sedans by the mid to late
90s, they were losing that two-box image.
Crossovers and compact vans were one of the
few markets where this was still sticking
together, even the SUVs.
If you take a look at nearly every major
SUV that started coming out in the 1980s
and the early 90s, they were all box
(15:34):
designs and some of the most famous ones
were the biggest box designs out there the
Broncos, the Cherokees, how the Blazers.
They were all boxes on wheels, giant
toasters rolling around the world.
But boxes can still be cool and the
utilization of a two-box design could still
be something for the future.
But as we learned through the 90s with the
(15:57):
egg shape and teardrop, we learned how to
make boxes not look like boxes.
We started rounding out the corners.
New technology into headlight designs
allowed us to add bubbles so we can go
anywhere we want.
If you look at the Dodge Dynasty and
Chrysler New Yorkers of the late 80s and
early 90s, their evolution and changeover
came from the Dodge Intrepid, which looks
(16:19):
nothing like a two-box design but
eventually then morphed into the Dodge
Charger, which you may fight with me on
this one and say that it's not a two-box
design, but it is.
It's just because a few of the corners have
been rounded out.
Two-box designs are still around.
My Borrego is a two-box design.
The Nissan Frontier's held on to the
two-box design all the way up until three
(16:41):
years ago when they finally changed the
design.
General Motors still utilizes the two-box
design for their pickup trucks and even
large scale SUVs.
It's still there and still kicking around,
and there are new products utilizing it.
Now, with the increase in the electric
vehicle industry, box designs are starting
to make a slight comeback Because, like I
said, when new technology comes into play,
(17:03):
we have to resort back to the most
simplistic design format.
Once we figure out how to get all of that
technology into the most spacious design of
all time, we can start working out the
kinks to moving that technology into some
of the most streamlined designs out there.
Technology it's one of the evolutionary
factors in automotive design and the
(17:25):
two-box design.
The only reasons why we've ever used them
in history are for two reasons One, to
either maximize the space for a small
product, or two, because we had technology
we didn't understand and we couldn't fit
into any design we made.
So we resorted back to our beginning.
It's kind of like us as a human species we
eventually resort back to where.
We Kind of like us as a human species.
(17:46):
We eventually resort back to where we
started to see where we went wrong.
We evolve from what we've learned, but if
we don't learn anything, we'll never evolve.
Had we not evolved out of the reverse
bathtub and added tail fins, we would have
never got giant spoilers and those sleek,
big, burly chrome designs in the 1950s
would have never morphed into the more
(18:07):
streamlined designs of the 60s.
It would have never added harder edges to
it and given us vehicles like the Cadillac
CTS and Edge Design.
Taking a stance and going back to our roots
can help improve us for the future.
The electric vehicle industry is starting
to do that.
Even though its platform is more versatile
than the internal combustion engine, we
(18:28):
still need to work with it.
And with new companies coming out,
utilizing the most simplistic two-box
design could help them break through.
Two companies out there maximizing this is
Monroe Automotive and Bollinger Motors.
If you've seen the Bollinger B1 and B2
pickups and SUV, it is literally the
highest use of two-box design in history.
(18:50):
More so, range Rovers or Volvos from the
past and the Monroes, their MK, their SUV
and pickup truck are the same.
They're the most basic design elements and
they're utilizing it to evolve their
technology.
Boxes Whoever thought a box can be part of
our evolution in the automotive world?
(19:11):
Without boxes we wouldn't know where to
start.
Literally, it would just be lines on a
piece of paper that eventually form a
product.
That is something I originally learned when
I first started designing and became
self-taught.
I used two lines on a piece of paper and
then started wondering why my designs
didn't flow properly.
But when I learned about the box design and
(19:32):
the disappearing lines into the horizon
line, that's when I understood how I had to
make things and every design out there in
the world all starts as a two box design a
lower box and an upper box.
The only design out there that doesn't
start out that way is a wedge, because a
wedge doesn't need to be more than one box.
(19:53):
By adding a passenger compartment on top of
a design, we create the two box design and
with it we just get all boxed up.
Thinking about it and designing it Hard
boxed edges every single portion of the
design until we start curving them into
each other to give us our final look.
All cars start out that way, but not all
cars wind up that way.
(20:15):
We only wind up that way when we don't
understand the products that we need to put
into it, that we make the design the
simplest form we could think of, fit all of
the technology in it and learn to evolve
from there.
Hell Henryd did it when he put the world on
wheels, when he built mass-produced
vehicles at a lower rate than anyone else
with the most simplistic design in history,
(20:37):
and today new car companies are trying to
do it.
Hell tesla is attempting to do a two-box
wedge design for the cybertruck, simple and
yet evolutionary in the future of
automotive design Boxes.
They're a wonderful thing.
Even if your tour of the box factory is not
a wonderful thing, it could still be
something, part of your future.
(20:58):
So, have you been all boxed up?
Do you remember boxy vehicles or known
people that have owned boxy vehicles?
How many of you have known somebody that
owned an Element or a Nissan Cube or a
scion xb or even a k5 blazer biggest
toaster boxes on the road.
Do you think they're cool?
Do you think they're way too simple?
Hell, tell us below, write a comment and
(21:18):
send it out to everybody.
Send this podcast out to people.
Hell, wrap them up from last year's
christmas episode and throw them in a box,
because that's what we're all about.
We've wrapped you up and now we've boxed
you up.
I guess next year we're going to talk to
you about bows on a car.
But there are no bows, except for the bow
tie on the front of a Chevrolet, which is a
very funny story about where that symbol
(21:39):
came from.
We could talk about it in a future episode.
Or send me an email and ask me where the
original Chevrolet bow tie comes from.
And after you, send this podcast out to
your friends, your family, your
well-wishers, your boss, your co-workers
and you know person that always comes
around looking for their stapler.
Have you seen my stapler?
I believe you have my stapler.
After you send it out to those people, stop
(22:00):
by the website, read some reviews, check
out some of the ratings and go to the big
or small.
We have them all on the autoluxnet website.
If you want to find something hell, you're
looking for something or you're having
trouble finding something send us an email
over at email at autoluxnet.
We can help you out.
All from the autoluxnet website.
(22:21):
The Autolux Podcast is brought to you by
Ecom Entertainment Group and distributed by
podbeancom.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at autoluxnet.
So for myself, everett Jay, the host, the
creator and operational manager of the
Autolux website and the Autolux podcast,
I'd like to say thank you from the Autolux
podcast and we wish you all the best in
this holiday season as you box up all the
crap you don't want after Christmas and
(22:42):
strap yourself in for this one fun wild
ride as the Autoluxnet podcast and Autolux
podcast bring you as we all get boxed up
this Christmas.
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