On Thursday 22nd November Influx went Underground.
We didn’t go alone, of course. We were joined by a flood of Influxy types, from car designers and journalists, to design students, insurance personnel and – of course – passionate motoring enthusiasts, we filled Shoreditch’s amazing Village Underground venue with an evening of style and culture.
Street artists Graffiti Kings created bespoke art in front of the crowd’s very eyes, whilst on stage Dave Vitty, the delightfully chirpy petrolhead with the voice we all know from decades of FM (and now DAB too), chatted with Sam Livingstone of Car Design Research Ltd about how an onlooker reads and identifies a vehicle.
The audience listened in captivated silence, as Sam tapped into the very core of what makes people love their cars. About how we instantly judge a vehicle’s meaning and purpose from its shape and how we delve into the more subtle details as we interpret and translate the rest of the design.
After Sam came world-renowned designer Julian Thomson, famed for his work on the original Lotus Elise, Range Rover Evoque and many more. Julian’s soft-spoken presentation took the crowd on a tour through the process of car design, a lecture any budding design student would’ve given up their Netflix for. A series of ‘lessons’ followed, reassuring everyone who ever sketched a car in the back of a geography textbook that we all started the same way.
A Q&A followed with an eager audience able to ask these pioneers of design for their thoughts on the future of design, from alternative fuels to autonomy.
With a veritable who’s who of motoring writers and enthusiasts present, plus complimentary food and drink, the event felt every inch the perfect evening for anyone interested in Influx and what it gives the world – a glimpse into a motoring culture we all crave more of.
The evening was also a chance to unleash our first Influx calendar, showcasing some of the world’s most tantalising forms in metal and carbon fibre. Keep an eye out for your chance to get hold of a calendar, plus updates in 2019 about each of the vehicles we feature, and the stories behind why they were chosen – from Alpine and Lotus to Bugatti and Ferrari.
Also on offer to those in attendance were first editions of the Forever Bikes and Forever Cars books, curating the most interesting stories of long-term vehicle ownership from across the UK.
As a whole the evening was a great success and served not only to unite a passionate network of motoring and design enthusiasts, but also to show just how passionately the Adrian Flux Insurance team are when it comes to celebrating cars, bikes, people and culture – the four pillars that make Influx what it is.
Will we do it all again?
Try and stop us.
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