9-4x student sketches
Niklas P is a design student from the Umea Institute of Design, which sits way too far north of Stockholm to be warm at almost any time of year. Despite this, Niklas and his fellow design students get the gloves off for long enough each day to do some brainstorming and some sketching.
If the profile is familiar, that’s because I’ve featured some of Niklas’ work on this site before. Most notably the Urmus, a computer mouse based on UrSaab.
Overnight, Niklas emailed me his latest sketches:
Hi Swade,
This week at Umeå Institute of Design we’ve had a sketch course. I, of course, made a Saab - the 9-4X. Its my vision of the upcoming SUV, its slightly bigger than the VW Tiguan but smaller than a BMW X3
I enjoyed them so much I thought I’d share them here, and seeing Niklas and I were in touch, I asked him if he’d mind taking on an assignment for the website. More on that later.
In the meantime, enjoy these. And if you haven’t seen UrMus yet, click through at the previous link, too. I really wish Saab Expressions would licence that one.
Click to enlarge, and I’m sure Niklas would appreciate your thoughts in comments.
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I like it!
Niklas has included and combined a lot (all?) of the Saab design cues in a new and exciting way!
Nice!
Yes!! Clever design, distinctively Saab yet works well on a pumped up SUV body.
I like:
-the rear glass door a-la 9-3SC
-the tapered glass profile and the Saab hockey stick line a-la 9-3SC and 99/900/GM900
- MY08 bonnet (hood, yankies)
- trapezoidal exhausts.
Not so keen on:
- WRX saucer spot lights
- square wheel arches
Overall really neat, hope the 9-4x lives up to half of that when it comes!!
What about a 9-6x or larger SUV as nodded at by Leftlane last week, Steve?
I’m still convinced of the need for a 6/7 seater and would be no.1 in the queue to get one
nice work. i enjoy enthusiast renderings.
hi! my idea about the front lights is that the blue thin lights are the parkinglights with LEDs, and the bigger circular ones are the driving lights. i used this combo like rolls royce uses it on the Phantom, a smaller light that looks and acts like the headlight is just there for show, while the “real” lights are bigger and looks like a foglight. this idea brings four lightspots instead of two which gives a lower and wider stance…
i also put the rear lights “under” the rear window. this allows them to glow even when the rear door is open, for safety.
i am glad you all liked it and i´d love to get more feedback!
cheers/Niklas Palm
Overall, I thought the sketch was great, especially from the rear. The thing I didn’t like however, was the front-end. I’d really hate to see the three-part grille go away which I think is an important part of the Saab-heritage, and which looks stunning on the the facelifted 9-3 and especially the Aero X.
Love it! When does it go on sale???
Nice work, Niklas!
I do, however, agree with Edonis on the three-part grille - it’s as important for Saab as the grille-kidneys are for BMW.
I really really like it. Hopefully Saab’s design is somewhat close to this.
Hy Niklas
Very cool wheel-designs (front angle sketch). Very Saabish side-view and back. Good relation to the 9-3 sc.
I also miss the typic saab-grille and one serious straight horizontal line above the lights.
The Wrap around windshield is definitely SAAB and i hope that (in spite of Skoda and Suzuki Swift) Saab turns very very fast back to that elemental design-feature.
As I’m not an SUV-Fan please draw for us all a 9-3 Coupe, a new 9-5 Station Wagon and of course the 9-1. Go 4 Gold. Good Work!
Niklas,
That work is amazing (for anyone, nevermind a student)! Keep it up! I think most here would agree that you should have swade post up a link to some more of your work. Saab/GM/anyone-with-half-a-brain-and-a-lot-of-cash would be lucky to have someone with such insight and ability on their team.
As for this drawing, I must agree on the grill. However, so much of the rest of the truck is right that I would still be proud to call one “my Saab”. The stance is a bit much, but I understand that’s how original concept drawings go. Over-all, I think it would turn into a spectacular piece of production machinery, and I’d venture to bet there aren’t many sane people around to disagree.