Why do cars have faces?

Have you ever looked at a car and seen a face? Well your not the only one. Car designers take advanage of how your brain works, to give you a sense of what the car is. If you look at the pictures below, you probably see some faces. Why does your brain do this? Because is the first thing our brain will notice in a person or object. Our brain likes Faces!

That helps us understand the next part, how do designers take advantage of how the brain works? Since we as humans like faces they make cars look like that, so we know what the car is just by looking at it. If you look at this old Mini Cooper or this Volkswagen Beatle with their circle headlights, gentle lines, and modest grills they communicate friendly and gentle, most like a human face. Which makes sense because they’re family cars.

If you see how a sport car is designed, they have sharp edges, flashy grills, and razor sharp lights. These cars communicate their fast, focused, and powerful. Are you beginning to see what I mean, how a designers take advantage of how the brain works?

Now luxury cars are a different story, they’re in the middle of family cars and sports cars. They’re not cute or aggressive, they’re confident, reserved, and strong, like a well tailored suit.

Large SUVs make you feel like you can drive off-road, are safer in them, and give you a commanding stance, for seeing over other cars on the road.

All of that gets us to the question, why are more cars becoming sporty looking? Well first we have to go back to when Tesla came out with their Roadster in 2008. It broke the usual car face design. It looked alien like, and didn’t have a facial expression. Other electric car brands followed suit and made cars that had razor sharp lines and aggressive design, like sports cars. When people saw these designs, they thought it looked like the future of car designs. Other car brands followed suit. Now if a car doesn’t look sporty, or have an aggressive design, people say it looks old and out of date. Look at how aggressive the Toyota Corolla has gotten over the years!

What do you think of where car design is going? Do like how aggressive everything looks, or do you want it to be more kind or cute? Leave your answer in the comments.

images from autoguide.com, iStock, Pinterest, Bored Panda, ShutterStock, Yallamoter Qatar, ILE-Perrot Toyota, cars.com, Yahoo Autos, M.G. Reviews, and US New Cars.