We’ve learned a lot about the nuts-and-bolts technical advances Toyota has made with new Prius, but the work invested in the car’s design and packaging has also had a big impact on its performance and its practicality as day-to-day transport

Three months ago we told you about Toyota’s iQ-inspired Royal College of Art competition. The entries have been whittled down to an eclectic 12 finalists, and the nominees are keeping their fingers crossed.
The competition, which aims to find designs inspired by iQ’s take on intelligent urban living, culminates in the announcement of the winners next [...]

What Japanese Design icons automatically spring to mind? Perhaps the 1998 Sony Vaio Laptop. No wait…maybe the 1999 700 series Shinkansen Bullet Train?
With such a rich heritage of making beautiful objects it is a tough challenge to précis the cream of Japanese design. Fortunately those cultural arbiters at TIME magazine have done it for us [...]

Sadly, it turns out that we jumped the gun slightly in Monday’s post, and fashionistas won’t be enjoying iQ clothes from SOMARTA just yet.
We set our Japanese contacts to work on translating SOMARTA’s press release. It reads something like this:
Toyota’s micro premium car, iQ, and SOMARTA have launched a collaboration art exhibition!
Toyota created the iQ [...]

iQ’s not short of good reviews, but we’re pleased to see that interest isn’t just limited to the motoring press.
For Wallpaper, Jonathan Bell wrote up his experience of iQ and its Milan press launch.
Reflecting on iQ’s form he wrote:

As a piece of design the iQ is far more coherent than, say, a Fiat 500 or [...]

Stimulated by an interesting post about Biomimicry on sustainable design blog Inhabitat, we thought it was time to reflect on the design philosophy behind iQ.

Biomimicry is a design discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The core idea is that nature, imaginative by necessity and with 3.8 billion years of [...]