The Creative Unit / L'Unité Créative

L'Unité Créative inc.

The Creative Unit offers industrial design consulting services, specializing in transportation, both functional and recreational. The creative Unit is renowned for its creativity and its dedicated customer service. It offers a customized design process adapted to customer needs and allows them to rapidly visualize the result of their project through the use of both hand drawings and specialized 3D softwares. The company values are probity, passion, creativity and originality, rigour, beauty and precision.


Since 2004, The Creative Unit has collaborated with BRP, Kimpex (CKX helmets) Prévost Car, Nova Bus, Cirque du Soleil, Camoplast, TM4, Prinoth Division Canada, CCM Reebok, TPS Hockey, Arkel O.D. Mega Bloks, Corporation Scootcart, Higgins-Aubé and Ingenio on many projects.

Martin Aubé is currently CEO of the Creative Unit Inc., which he founded in June 2004.
Martin received his bachelor in Industrial Design from l’Université de Montréal (1988).
He also received a certificate in Aeronautics from the École Polytechnique (1994), a certificate in Fine Arts from Bishop’s University (2001) and will be bachelor in Art History from the UQÀM (January 2009). Martin has also taught and given presentations at the university level (SSHGD instructor in transportation equipment design, UQÀM)

Martin Aubé is a member of the Québec Industrial Designers Association (ADIQ), Sous-traitance industrielle Quebec (STIQ) and of the AMEVTS.

Martin Aubé has over 18 years of experience at Bombardier Inc. (Bombardier Recreational Products and Bombardier Aerospace). In 1998, he was promoted to the Expert industrial designer level in Advanced Concepts. Through those years, he contributed to many successful product design (snowmobiles, ATV'S, Can-Am Spyder Roadster, Embrio mono wheel concept bike.

Higgins-Aubé Inc, a young Canadian company, is proud to show early images of its latest creation, the Energya, a three-wheeled vehicle. The Energya™ three-wheeled vehicle, also now know as a motomobile, is designed as a light, high performance vehicle. Similar to a sports car where the driver and the passenger are seated side-by-side, the Energya™ motomobile has a rear engine that drives the single wheel at the back. The vehicle feels, drives and behaves mostly like an open wheels racecar. The vehicle features a distinctive, cutting-edge aggressive design that reflects its level of performance.

Mechanically, the Energya™ motomobile will be powered by a motorcycle engine having a six-speed sequential manual transmission. It will feature an aluminum frame with inboard front suspension using superposed unequal A-arms. The dampers slightly protrude through the front cowling, both as a design statement and for cooling reasons. Particular attention has been given to reduce the weight of each component in order to produce a vehicle that conveys a dynamically thrilling experience. Particular attention has been given to reduce the mass of the non-suspended components and to centralizing most of the mass closer to the vehicle center of gravity for enhancing dynamic performances. The cockpit is typical of a racecar with only the essential instruments for the road. The seats are very supportive, in pure racecar fashion. Innovatively, half-doors are provided to ease access to the cockpit while providing side-impact protection. Convenience has not been neglected with a small storage space under the front cowling.

The advantage of having only three wheels is manifold. First and foremost, a three-wheeled vehicle is considered, in many jurisdictions as a motorcycle. Since the vehicle may do without many of the mandatory systems and components required on an automobile, the motomobile may consequently be made lighter, advantageously influencing its performances. As Higgins-Aubé shares the philosophy of late Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus Cars™, reducing weight was indeed the cornerstone that led to the choice of this type of vehicle. Furthermore, a three-wheel vehicle having two wheels at the front, contrarily to having a single wheel at the front, is dynamically stable.

Performance targets are set high: achieve 0-100km/h within 4 seconds and lateral acceleration in excess of 1 G. Expect an engine in the neighborhood of 200 hp and an approximate vehicle weight of 350kg. The Energya™ motomobile is aimed at providing exotic car performance at down-to-earth prices.

Styling and design were conducted per state of the art R&D process. “We aimed at solving the main problems related to this compact architecture in sync with engineering. For example, ingress-egress ease and side impact protection were made possible by the use of a half door which also improves general styling by connecting the lower front cowling to the rear fairing with a continuous dynamic line” says Aubé.

Given appropriate financial backing, production units of the Energya™ motomobile could hit the market within 18 months.

As a future step, it is envisioned that the Energya™ motomobile will be offered as an electric vehicle. This will turn the electric-car stereotype on its head, as the same performance objectives will be maintained.

About the company
The two owners of Higgins-Aubé cumulate over 35 years of experience in industrial design, engineering, Six Sigma and in intellectual property. Of these 35 years of experience, 22 years were acquired in all divisions of a global manufacturer of transportation equipment headquartered in Canada, and most relevantly at its recreational products division designing and engineering snowmobiles, personal watercrafts, jet boats, ATVs, three-wheeled vehicles and many more. Martin Aubé is a renowned industrial designer who also holds degrees in Aeronautics and Art history. He also is the president of The Creative Unit Inc (www.creativeunit.com) who provided the design services for the Energya™ motomobile. Danny Higgins is a professional mechanical engineer with a Master of Aerospace engineering. He has designed racecars and personal watercrafts, amongst others. Both owners are motorcyclists and car enthusiasts who share a common passion and vision for outstanding, visionary and paradigm shifting motorized road vehicles.

Higgins-Aubé has given itself the mission to exhilarate the senses of its customers, both statically and dynamically, by providing them vehicles that are as exciting to look at as they are to pilot. Higgins-Aubé expects its customers to be just as passionate about nice vehicles as there are. The motto of the company perfectly reflects its philosophy:

"Combining Technology and Art to Create Objects of Passion".

Investors
Higgins-Aubé Inc. is presently looking for serious investing partners who share their passion. As free thinkers, the promoters are ready to consider different investing scenarios, even non-traditional ones or off-shore offers.

For more information, the Higgins-Aubé team maybe reached at:

info@higginsaube.com www.higginsaube.com

Given that more and more attention is given to greener vehicles and that Canada, in particular, seems to be looking for an alternative to the everyday mode of transportation, I believe the time has come to present to you a project developed by our team of industrial designers on which we have been working since 2004.

Having been an industrial designer specializing in transportation with a background in aeronautics for 20 years (16 years as a designer for Bombardier Recreational Products and aeronautics), I designed and created, with the help of my colleagues, the Hinterland 1 (borrowed from the German, meaning a place untouched by man, far from urban areas) and applied for intellectual property protection (industrial design) in Canada (119595), in the United States (US D560,554S), and in Europe (000776390-0001). Certificates were issued in 2008 for Canada and the United States.

The entire project aimed at giving a very distinctive and innovative form to a Canadian design for a long-range electric vehicle. This form is meant to stand out from current industry standards and could be adapted for individual transportation and carpooling (taxi); a hybrid form of transportation combining aspects of individual transportation and mass transit.

The basis for this thought process consists in adapting a cylindrical form, as used in aeronautics for plane fuselages, to a four-wheel passenger car body. Because this manufacturing process has been mastered in our region (by Bombardier) it could become a visual statement for “green-transportation”. A “paradigm shift” for the car industry.

This original form is also an attempt to find a characteristic image for a Canadian economy electric car that could become a recognizable national icon, rather like our distinctive and characteristic emblems (Olympic Stadium, Montréal Metro). The case of London’s and New York’s taxis are good examples of this.

By combining sources of artistic, technical and scientific expertise (recreational vehicles, electric motors and batteries, aeronautics, aluminium, plastics processing, video games, etc.), we could design, produce and sell a technically and distinctly innovative passenger vehicle, elegant in its simplicity, non-polluting, recyclable, safe and adapted to the North American climate, while providing jobs for thousands of specialists and qualified workers.

Key players: Martin Aubé, CEO, Senior designer, BDI, ADIQ, AMETVS, STIQ, SSHGD instructor in transportation equipment design, UQÀM, Alexandre Huneau BDI, Michel Paradis, P. Eng., Francis Bernier, Martin Deschambault, BDI. Danny Higgins, P. Eng., IP, Bereskin & Parr

Many designs are protected under the following design patents / pending design patent applications: United-States (US), Canada (CA), and Europe (EU)

Casque de moto et motoneige CKX TRANZ de Kimpex Inc.

En 2005, nous avons eu le mandat de créer une nouvelle identité formelle (ADN) pour la marque CKX de Kimpex. Le casque modulaire TRANZ est le premier représentant de cette nouvelle génération bien typé. Inspiré des avions furtifs F-117 Night Hawk et B-2 Spirit, les entrées d’air avant et supérieure ainsi que les lignes latérales, sont maintenant des caractéristiques visuelles importantes. L’ADN facilite l’identification de la marque. Le casque comporte une visière pare-soleil intégrée et des boutons d’ouverture à manipulation facile.

Les phases initiales standards de recherche et de développement ont été réalisées par notre studio et nous avons assisté Kimpex par un suivi partiel des phases finales de développement.

Tout au long du projet, L’Unité Créative a respecté le savoir important de Kimpex dans le domaine des produits récréatifs du marketing et de la distribution. Nous avons ajouté à cela notre expérience du design pour faire du casque CKX TRANZ une réussite commerciale.

Les quantités de productions ont quadruplé la première année due en partie au nouveau style très agressif et caractéristique.