Does anyone see cars' faces?

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

@Hilarity_N.Suze

Well I am glad somebody bumped this thread because just today, I saw a pink VW bug (the new bug) that had been customized with false eyelashes around its headlights.

Yep. Big old false eyelashes. That wasn’t the only interesting thing about the car, but it was the most interesting.

I was beside it so I couldn’t see if it was wearing lipstick. But it probably was.

I saw one of those here in Houston about a month ago. Probably belongs to Penelope Pitstop.

Last week I pulled into a parking space and when I looked up, after turning off the key, the pick-up in front was SCOWLING at me!

[JohnT]

@WOOKINPANUB

Considering my wacky imagination and all the weird associations I make in other areas I’m surprised that this is a thing, and even more so that it’s never been my thing. I now have an urge to go to the parking lot and look at cars.

Cars, as you probably know, are designed to have faces - this is not a coincidence, and many times the face is tailored towards the audience. Some cars have friendly faces, some cars have aggressive faces… this poor guy looks worried about something.

[ZipperJJ]

I think white Kia Souls look like Star Wars Stormtroopers.

[LegendHasit]

I do! Some car fronts look more like faces to me. Occasionally one will even be smiling.

[Boyo_Jim]

My car reminds me of Lightning McQueen. I didn’t realize it until someone pointed it out to me, and I find it somehow disturbing.

[Melbourne]

@jellyblue

Hmmm, those Harvard types might be onto something because I’m terrible with faces too. Despite the fact that I draw them really well.

That’s related. It’s a woods-and-trees thing. Being able to draw faces well means decomposing them into drawable elements. Recognising faces means composing the elements into an idea.

[Melbourne]

@JohnT

I thought you were supposed to see faces in car front ends, it being all part and parcel of the appeal and marketing.

What intrigues me is the shift from round-eyed American cars to slanty-eyed Japanese cars.

[Mijin]

@Melbourne

What intrigues me is the shift from round-eyed American cars to slanty-eyed Japanese cars.

Well I would say cars have become angrier; most luxury cars and many sports cars have headlights angled down towards the middle.

---

To the OP, this is something I’ve always seen too. It actually bothered me about the Cars movies. They give the cars eyes on their windscreen, but then my brain has this fight going on between focusing on that face and the face made using the headlights as the eyes, usually preferring the latter for reasons unknown.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Absolute

If I squint, and force my imagination into overdrive, I can visualize faces on the fronts of cars. The headlights are the eyes, the grille is the mouth, etc. They generally look goofy, happy and smiling all the time.

I’ve noticed that some recent full-size pickup truck models have a kind of bad-ass, snarling “expression” lent by large grilles that are sort of frown-shaped. Also, the headlight “eyes” are rather low-set, so the looks like a mouth wide open in anger, about to bellow something. Or maybe just roar like a beast. It seems so unmistakable that I wonder if the effect was intentional.

Other than on those trucks, I usually have to stretch my imagination to see faces on the front ends of cars. In contrast to the trucks, the front ends are usually to wide and shallow to form a good face; this quality is usually heightened by aerodynamic forms in which the grille is often all but invisible.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

I’ve noticed that some recent full-size pickup truck models have a kind of bad-ass, snarling “expression” lent by large grilles that are sort of frown-shaped. Also, the headlight “eyes” are rather low-set, so the looks like a mouth wide open in anger, about to bellow something. Or maybe just roar like a beast. It seems so unmistakable that I wonder if the effect was intentional.

Other than on those trucks, I usually have to stretch my imagination to see faces on the front ends of cars. In contrast to the trucks, the front ends are usually to wide and shallow to form a good face; this quality is usually heightened by aerodynamic forms in which the grille is often all but invisible.

Yeah, that’s what they want you to think, so the car can sneak up behind you and bite you in the ass!

Those Chevron cars are soooo cute, aren’t they? Don’t fall for it!

[Musicat]

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