More and more cars these days are coming equipped with bigger wheels than ever before, and that can be an expensive proposition. But, if we’re talking looks, you can’t beat a car with whopping big rims. Just look at any teaser sketch released before an auto show; now THAT’S the car the designer wishes he could build! Big wheels are one of the “Secrets of Proportion” in the Design Handbook.

When you consider character lines on a car, you may be thinking of creased sheet metal — the sort of line you might draw with the single stroke of a pen when sketching on paper. But, as Jim Hall explains in the latest edition of Design Handbook, a vehicle’s “bone line” is more substantial than that. Click Play for a lesson that’s sure to stick to your ribs.

Although they’re often used interchangeably, Style and Design are not the same thing. As Jim Hall explains, there is a subtle, but important, difference between a car that has been styled, and one that has been designed. Learn more as we get into the Fundamentals section of the Handbook.

Elegant curves, perfect proportions, and a cohesive theme. All hallmarks of good design. So what do you get when you combine lines that go nowhere, a greenhouse that looks like a tumor, and plastic cladding up the wazoo? Well, you get a vehicle that looks purpose-built to steal the crown from the Pontiac Aztek for Ugliest Car of All Time. Jim Hall has a fresh new chapter for us in the Design Handbook.