The second generation Ford Taurus looked a lot better than the first. It was upgraded with slimmer headlights, smoothed out body panels, and revised headlights. I remember when I was like 11 years old my neighbor bought one of these. It had looked soo hot – in a nice darkish navy blue, similar to the one below. (picture of second generation Ford Taurus). It had the flair of a cop car, and he would drive it like one too. I remember how he would just charge into the driveway make a u-turn and then park the car vertically in front of his garage. He rarely parked the car inside; he loved to show it off! And I would always be at the window watching him, hahaha. He’d always look up (with his little beady eyes lol) and catch me at the window, and do a little presidential wave. (You know that style – that half-wave type little motion with the hand). Its like he was saying, “Yeah, I know you like ma swag lil boy”.
But anyway, back to the topic, the third generation Ford Taurus was from 1996 to 1999. It was an ugly redesign, just f**kin’ uggly (misspelling is intentional). The headlamps were toyish looking - almost cartoonish - with big and small oval and circle shapes. An oval/ circular-ish theme was also carried over to the taillights, and it looked just as awful! In fact, the whole shape of the car design is very oval, and egg-like and ummm, gives the car an “a**hole” appearance (lol). You know those people who just look
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4th generation Ford Taurus
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The Fourth generation of the Ford Taurus was from 2000 to 2007. The new redesign was much more stylish, and sexier. Look at that! A Ford Taurus looking sexy! Hahaha. But, what this new redesign of the Ford Taurus essentially looked like was a revision (yeah re-vision in deed, lol) produced by a designer who had previously fallen asleep, but now had awaken. He has regained some of his consciousness! He still has a ways to go, but he’s getting there!
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| 5th generation Ford Taurus |
The Fifth generation Ford Taurus was the shortest lived of all, it lasted from 2008 until 2009! See the designers were awakening from their sleep. They were realizing that, “wait a minute, what the f^*k are we doing?! The Ford Taurus introduced here was a rebadged Ford Five Hundred. It was a quick move by Ford…ummm you know like the yawns of men realizing they’re like totally f%^king around! It’s like they’ve thrown off the covers, jumped out of bed, sped to the sink and thrown cold water on their faces. Hahaha. Because at this time the Ford Taurus was going to be discontinued! However, upon their quick awakening (lol).They came up with a spur of the moment idea: rebrand the Ford Five Hundred as the Ford Taurus. Honestly, this design was more a more effortful innovation of the former Ford Taurus. It was more sexy too.. yep!
JWhat it lacked however, was more design drama in the side panels and on the hood. The headlamps were also too big and plain. The same thing with the taillights – too big and plain, and the car looked a bit truck-ish, it was somewhat too high
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Well, lets breathe a sigh of relief, we have now arrived at the sixth generation of the Ford Taurus. Okay, the stage curtain is about to open! A man in a magician-like suit says, “All rise!” (The crowd rises from its seat as the curtain is slowly drawn open). The crowd collectively gasps and announces, “Holy crap!” Holy f*^kin’ s**t, and gives a rousing and thunderous applause. The man in the magician suit says - while smiling - “The generation of fabulous-ness, and splendid-ness, and sexiness, and captivating design-ness has now come for the Ford Taurus!”. (The crowd thunderously applauds again before being seated).
Well yep! A new designer, by the name of Earl Lucas, has walked into the building. And again, it’s another African American designer doing fantastic things at the Big Three – following in the footsteps of Ralph Giles (Chrysler 300C designer), and Edward Welburn (Chief designer of General Motors Corporation). Earl Lucas gave birth to the best Ford Taurus ever to come out of the studios of Ford Motor company. I remember when I first found out about this vehicle, I think I was in my last year of college at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. What I can’t remember was where I found out about it. I can’t remember if it was on the TV, in the newspaper, or on the internet. But, any which way, it was a “Shock and awe” moment. I was like, “What! I guess America is really getting its s***t together! YAY!! They came with the Chrysler 300C, the Dodge Charger, the Dodge Challenger, and now this?! Wow!” I now set out to track news about this car from every medium: TV, newspaper, magazine, and internet! I became a Ford Taurus addict just like I did with the Chrysler 300C, and the Dodge Charger, and the Dodge Challenger. I am just so sincerely impressed with the beauty, and the effort put into the redesign of this car. It is extremely amazing!
Okay now, it's about that time! Like Missy Elliot says in the intro to Jazmin Sullivan’s “Need You Bad,” lets go! Lets get it in with this 2010 Ford Taurus 2010 critique! The greatest design showcase made by the new Ford Taurus is at the front. This is the first area that I was attracted to, more specifically the upper portion of the front end. What was snatching here, was the broad bulge in the hood, and this is made even more serious by another bulge on top of that! Talk about a designer serious or high on something (secret: he listens to music while he designs). This design on the hood imparts a tough, truck like demeanor to the car. Now let me mention this tidbit: you see, trucks/SUVs are cool (style-wise) regardless of their gas mileage J , and America knows it! Now, if you add elements of SUV styling to a car, it’s gonna look cool too! Ok, now that being said, lets move visually downward from the big hood bulge. Here is the grille. This here is a design piece all on its own. It essentially carries the front fascia of the FordTaurus. It’s the boss here! Everything else revolves around this grille. There are two grilles. The main one is in bold chrome, and is further up on the front fascia, the second one is only highlighted with a chrome outline. But what is unique about the second grille is that it is almost a mirror image of the upper grille. And it being placed right beneath the upper grille enforces, or emboldens the upper grille visually. Note: design is a visual thing and with intelligent composition and arrangement can make magic. And the magic is usually something that you know you see but can’t really interpret, but yet it’s why you like what you see.
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| Focused, assertive, and declarative! |
Moving outward from the grille, we get to the headlamps. The headlamps are slim (like those on the second generation Ford Taurus), but, more assertive, smiling-ish and sexy! The headlight within the headlamp housing is also a single circular piece – which gives the overall headlamp design this focused, assertive look. Also, aiding in making the headlamp deisgn pop is the placement of the turn signal, as it is positioned on the headlamp housing rather than on the car body. It visually ties together the circular headlamp within the housing, making the entire headlamp design fiercely appealing. To finish up on my critique of the front end of the car, I will also add that there is a convergence of tension here. Everything comes to a point, a level – right below the outline of the upper grille. Now tension as I have learned is very important in car design, because tension is like movement at rest . Tension is not static, it is a movement held at bay! Like a rubber band stretched on a slingshot! With one hand your index finger is holding the rubber band in a drawn back position - you can release it if you want hahahaha. But just for a moment, picture that rubber band stretched…that’s tension…and excitement! Now, in addition to this design tension on the Ford Taurus, there is also an element of boldness, and the particular boldness here is where I see hip hop (I heard the designer listened to music while designing). I can recognize bass lines in the hood and belt-line of the car. I love the cool hip-ness of this boldness, a beautiful derivative of urban style! And it is carried very intelligently all throughout the car.
Well lets now move onto the side of this splendid Ford Taurus! Here you can witness the intelligent continuation of the bold styling at the front. Bold, and innovative are two words that I want to just repeat over and over again in describing the side of the car. The most notable aspect in the side styling is the dead straight crease just below the windows. On the same level as the headlamps, and beginning from a chrome gill a little bit beyond the edge of the driver’s door, it spans almost exactly the width of the two doors. I love this crease; it is such a unique styling cue! I have never seen it quite this way on any car before. In addition, there is a second crease close to the underbody of the car. This ties in the first crease above, (similar to the effect of the double grille at the front) and makes for a bold artistic impression. It is so just creative! The design of the crease, being of a deep, inward cut, also lends a very sculpturesque appearance to the side of the car. Infact, as I am looking at the pictures of the Taurus, and writing my descriptive analysis, I’m recognizing that sculpturesque-ness is a theme in the Ford Taurus’s design language. Furthermore, and as aforementioned, with the upper crease being on same level as the headlamp, it pulls the eyes into the design detail of the car and visually engages you with the artistic expression that the designer is trying to make. The visual excitement captured at the front of the car is therefore tied into the whole car. This increases the non-boringness of the vehicle and makes the viewer want to see more.
