Ford Outside the Oval Gallery Event

[Ford PR]

Good morning all Ford Forum members,
We wanted to alert you to an event that we will be hosting on October 4 and 5. It's called "Outside the Oval". Copied below is a media release that went out on the wire yesterday afternoon. Feel free to pass this information through to anyone you think might be interested.

FIRST PUBLIC REVEAL OF FALCON XR8 AT JDRF GALLERY EVENT

MELBOURNE, 09 Sept., 2014 – Falcon fans will be able to get up close and personal with the 2014 Falcon XR8 at its first official unveiling in Melbourne in October.

The Falcon XR8 will be the halo vehicle at a gallery event called “Outside The Oval”, an exhibition of art and design created by the employees at the Ford Design Centre, which will open to the public over the weekend of October 4 and 5.

It will be the first official appearance of the Falcon XR8 ahead of its launch later this year.

One of the signature pieces at “Outside the Oval” is a Falcon ‘body-in-white’ emblazoned with images of many of the employees who are now building the 2014 Falcon.

Called the Falcon Art Car, the piece has been a work-in-progress for artist and Senior Clay model-maker, Peter Watson, who has spent four months in his own time putting the sizeable artwork together.

Despite working primarily with full-size clay model cars, and having worked on many international concept cars in a team, Watson has created a project that allows complete freedom of expression.

“I really wanted to show the human side behind the industrial nature in the production/ manufacturing of our vehicles here at Ford,” Watson said. “There’s a lot of passion right across the company and I wanted to capture that.

“With some assistance, I collected photos of many of our manufacturing employees, many of whom are actually building the Falcon and Territory.

“Each image was individually re worked using photoshop to create a ‘pop art’ style collage, which was then printed onto vinyl and wrapped on the body of a 2014 Falcon.”

Ford Design Director, Todd Willing, said the gallery event was the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of the best-ever designed Falcon as well as support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

“It will also showcase some of the talent pool of model makers, sculptors and fabrication staff we have at Ford,” he said. “We’re very proud of the execution of the XR8 – as well as all the entire Falcon range – and we’re proud of the people that engineered and built it,” he said. “The exhibition will show another side to the Ford Design Team.”

The public debut of the Falcon XR8 showcases Ford’s global design DNA with a signature trapezoidal grille, chiseled head lamp treatment and smoother, wrap-around tail-lamps with LED technology. These features accentuate the high levels of design refinement that will appear across the refreshed Falcon range.

As a mark of distinction among the sporty XR series, the XR8 features strong exterior graphics with a distinct sporty front end treatment, as well as signature bonnet power bulge that has been enhanced for the 2014 Falcon XR8. This is complemented by a specific exhaust system tuned for the sporty V8 exhaust note.

Showcasing Design
“Outside The Oval” will showcase more than 30 artworks created by the Ford Design Team. The artworks include sculpture, 2D paintings and digital art. They have been created from a range of materials, from ceramic, foam, acrylic on canvas to clay. One artist has even created a full-size clay model of an in-line four-cylinder engine from a Model T.

In past years, the exhibition has been held internally at Ford. This is the first year the team has taken the exhibition ‘on the road’ to a wider audience.

Willing said unveiling the performance Falcon XR8 at a gallery event was something most people would not expect Ford to do.

“But we’re challenging and changing perceptions. As we enhance our vehicle portfolio over the next few years with cars like the all-new Mondeo, Mustang and Australian designed and engineered Everest; customers will appreciate the role of good design.”

Willing said several of the Design Team involved in “Outside the Oval” were graduates of the leading tertiary institutions in Victoria. “We have world-class designers in Australia, an education system that supports them and this event will show the tremendous breadth of that talent at Ford.”

Outside The Oval
“Outside The Oval” will open to the public at the 1000 Pound Gallery in Little Lonsdale St Melbourne, on Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5, enabling both Ford enthusiasts and art connoisseurs to experience a side of Ford never before seen publicly.

Willing said he expects many young and aspiring designers to take the opportunity to come and see the 2014 Falcon as well as the artworks. “Gallery entry is free, so we want to encourage students, as well as our dedicated Falcon fans and employees, to see the XR8 and the artworks,” he said.

“Ford is very pleased that the Hon. David Hodget MP, Victorian Minister for Manufacturing, will join us at the launch event on October 3 to help celebrate the unveiling of this iconic model.”

Many of the artworks will be for sale, with a portion of the proceeds supporting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

[Alan D Segal]

Thanks for this Ford PR. I for one certainly appreciate you taking the time to update us with this important information. Any news on pricing for the new XR8 yet? It would certainly solve some speculation and debate around here!

[V8 Ghia Mike]

Is there a similar event planned for South Australia? Even just a promo day at a major dealer?

[PepeLePew]

It's not that far to Melbourne, thats my theory and it's only a excuse away to get there

[Ford PR]

Hi all, we can't reveal XR8 pricing just yet. We can advise that a pricing announcement will be made in the next couple of weeks. This will be a one off event in Melbourne. We'd love to be able to take it on the road but not something we can attempt this year. We'll be able to share a website with you pretty soon which will provide you with imagery for some of the artwork.

[JPFS1]

Ford PR

Is this going to follow the same principles as past design work that was auctioned off (internally) for JDRF fundraising, and now be available for the general public to purchase some of these art pieces?

[Ford PR]

There are no current plans to follow usual practice and auction off art-pieces internally but we'll see how many pieces didn't sell and we may decide to auction off any of the remaining pieces to employees. Our design team is packing up so expect that we'll re-connect tomorrow to make that decision.