The first thing you notice about the Hyundai HCD-14 Genesis Concept is its imposing face.
That futuristic four-bar grille is hard to ignore. It’s big. It’s aggressive. It’s complex.
The glinting flat lines feature thin needle-like eyes on either side. Look closely between the lines to see the truly intricate design work — a rugged range of pyramid-shaped pits and peaks in perforated dark metal.
“It’s a bit brutal, it’s a bit out there,” said Christopher Chapman, chief designer for Hyundai Design North America. “We’re kind of shark-nosing at front a little bit.”
A striking snout no doubt, but not entirely non-traditional, according to Chapman: the shape of the polished stainless steel grate stays true to Hyundai’s usual hexagonal look, if just barely. Left and right lines bend very subtly to make it a full six sides. “This is a concept car,” Chapman said, “so we’re allowed to play around a little bit with the materials.”
By the looks of things at the 2013 New York International Auto Show, designers have been playing around a lot, especially with regard to the grille.
From the newly refined split-wing face on the Lincoln MKC to the sprawling spindle-shaped meshing that has entirely swallowed the front bumper on the Lexus IS 350 F Sport, grilles are getting bigger, shinier, and more distinctive all the time.
With good reason, too: the chrome frontage is an increasingly important marker of a car’s identity. After all, the shiny badges and hood ornaments that serve as the automaker’s signature are usually tiny, whereas a well-defined grille can be spotted from blocks away.
“The grille, or the face of the car, really is the first thing that people see from a brand standpoint,” said Phil Zak, exterior director of design for Buick, standing in front of the company’s new 2014 LaCrosse, which, like many new models, features a larger, more prominent grille than its prior incarnation. The up-sized waterfall-style design includes slightly undulating vertical bars atop a tight geometric grid, which frames the company’s circular three-shield logo. The finish, too, is greatly enhanced. “Right now, we have black chrome, which is accented with a chrome surround,” Zak said. “[It] really gives the car an upscale, premium look.”
Likewise, the shield-shaped grille on the new 2014 Cadillac CTS is both wider and emits a more refined luster than its predecessor. “We’re making a transition away from bright chrome to what we call Galvano chrome, which is a little bit softer, more premium, more of a polished aluminum look,” said Cadillac designer Eric Clough. Also featuring “more fillets and radii” and “more subtlety in the secondary textures,” Clough added that the new CTS grille has a newfound depth to it, as well.
If bigger is better, then Ralph Gilles is happy to take some of the credit for the explosion in modern grille proportions. Gilles, senior vice president for product design at Chrysler, pointed to the 2005 launch of the company’s 300C sedan, with its supersized chrome grille, as a catalyst.
“We actually argued with ourselves because grilles are typically designed around the required cooling. You don’t have to make them any bigger than necessary,” Gilles said. “But on the 300, it didn’t look right because the car had this beefiness, this chunkiness to it. We just kept making the grille bigger and bigger and bigger. Finally, it was, like, ‘Now, it feels right.’ All of a sudden, it became this very distinctive part of the car.”
Initially, the car’s larger-than-life toothiness was the source of some ridicule. “Now, it’s like there’s this big trend,” said Gilles, mentioning the new Aston Martin Rapide S, in particular, and the entire Audi lineup, more generally, as examples. “A lot of car makers are making the grille almost outsized.”
In Gilles’s opinion, that’s a good thing. “It gives the car this kind of puffed chest, this proud look,” he said. “So, I think it’s here to stay.”
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