If you think about it, cars are already works of art.
That new Bugatti Chiron or Lamborghini Centenario had to be sketched before ever being made into concepts. From there, a bare-bones skeleton gets transformed into a stylish exterior, with a detail-oriented cabin.
While automakers keep most of their designs in-house or at least close to their chests, Nissan recently decided to literally turn one of its vehicles into a work of art.
The company recently laid down the gauntlet to two emerging street graffiti artists in Melbourne, Australia. Their challenge? To reimagine the Nissan Juke into their own street canvas. The twist, though, was these two particular Jukes were wrapped in a special glow-in-the-dark skin, with the artists using black paint and pens to demonstrate their raw talents. Increasing the ooh-and-ahh factor was Nissan also allowed spectators to join in on the fun if they wanted, by drawing on the glowing canvas skin using a smartphone light.
What resulted was Snake Hole (the artist duo consisting of Josh Meyer and Josh Brown) transforming the glow-in-the-dark Juke into a design they called "Snake Wrap," while artist Chris Le designed the Juke into "Journey to the West."
Each then described their respective designs.
"Our initial impression when we saw the JUKE was it had snake-like characteristics. The grill, headlights and long smooth lines resonated immediately with us," Meyer and Brown told Nissan about their submission. "We decided to create a series of snakes that traced the shapes and features of the JUKE. We utilized negative space, so that the snakes were glowing, and everything else would be blacked out."
Added Le about Journey to the West: "One of my favorite TV shows as a kid was the Monkey Magic series. Since it is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese lunar calendar, I thought it would be fitting to depict Monkey and his friends on their journey to the West. Obviously an Asian themed illustration must include dragons since they are a big part of the culture, so it was only natural to draw epic dragons weaving past the character on the car."
Both end products came out awesomely.
Nissan held this contest in conjunction with White Night Melbourne, an annual art and culture celebration of Melbourne.
Pretty creative.