Table of contents for No. 211 in AUTO & DESIGN

The new fourth generation Mazda MX-5 reflects the creative enthusiasm of Ikuo Maeda, today design director for the Japanese carmaker and, 25 years earlier, a member of the team working on the project for the first series. It was not an easy job, as the designers had to bring an icon among small roadsters up to date while not only retaining the appeal of its previous iterations, but also while keeping within the constraints of a platform also usable by Fiat for a spider it is developing in parallel with Mazda. “The new MX-5”, explains Maeda, “expresses our kodo design philosophy, or the soul of motion, which is in turn the contrast between immobility and movement embodied by an emotive, sexy form”. The reflections from the bodywork change depending on…

Umberto Palermo is one of the best known names in Italian design today. And he pilots emotions. The emotions that provide the impulse for his business activities and the emotions that generate particular objects, such as an essential, timeless sports car. Forty-one years old, originally from Sicily (he carries the name of his birthplace) but now settled in Turin, Umberto Palermo is an impassioned exponent of the form-function collocation. After taking his secondary school diploma at ISA in Monza, he was hired as a blue collar worker at IGV in Milan. He moved to Turin where he met the architect Ermanno Cressoni, a meeting that was decisive for his professional growth. His collaboration with the designer Marco Bonetto was also important. He soon joined I.De.A Institute, advancing in 2007 from…

A bike for the city, which folds open or closed when needed with a single movement as simple as opening an umbrella. Its compact dimensions were made possible by the spokeless wheels - an original solution which gives the whole object an essential, lightweight look. Its inventor, the engineer Gianluca Sada, together with his partner Giovanni Tonno from F.O.M.T. in Grugliasco – a company specialised in aluminium casting and machining for automotive applications – now heads Sadabike, the company founded to promote this start-up (with the aid of I3P, the innovative business incubator created by Turin Polytechnic) and to take care of every aspect of the project from production to distribution. The project is currently under development and the Sadabike looks set to become, over the next few years, one…

The Advanced Exterior Design studio located in Carlsbad, California and the Advanced User Experience Studio in Sunnyvale, California constitute the design lab of MBRDNA (Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America). The Carlsbad studio was the first Advanced Design studio abroad and was opened in the early nineties. It is responsible for both concept car design (playing an important role in the development of the Ener-G-Force as well as the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo) and Mercedes-Benz production design activities. The Carlsbad team also works together with the Advanced Design studios in Como, Italy and Sindelfingen, Germany to develop lifestyle products for the Mercedes-Benz Style sub brand. Mercedes-Benz Style products include everything from furniture to eyeglasses, helicopter luxury interiors, luggage and motorboats: “We are the Mercedes amongst the luxury consumer products,”…

The smart is a very particular brand in the Daimler universe. “It originated from an idea of mobility that was completely different from that of other cars,” says Kai Sieber. “In a way it was far ahead of its time, a fish swimming against the current. The idea was amazing, focusing on practicality around town, without cutting corners; this has created a very strong emotional value.” Sieber, the Director of Design Brands & Operations, and therefore responsible for both smart and Vans and Trucks, underlines that the new smart generation – the fortwo with two-seats and two-doors, and the forfour with four-seats and four-doors – reflects “a good balance between heart and brain, passion and reason. With a play on words we call our Design Philosophy “FUN.ctional, entertaining but practical,…

The Mitsubishi Fuso is Daimler’s Japanese commercial vehicle and bus offshoot. The story began in 2001 when DaimlerChrysler took over from Volvo as Mitsubishi’s strategic partner: following the subsequent divorce, commercial vehicles remained with Daimler which today holds 89.29 per cent of the shares. Head of design is Shuji Yamada, “inherited” by Daimler after 23 years with Mitsubishi. He leads a team of 25 designers in what is the third biggest Japanese commercial vehicle maker with 25 per cent of the market. “Our product has a different identity to Mercedes-Benz trucks, although we share many components, engines, electronics and other parts. But the platforms are completely different due, among other things, to dimensional constrictions. Generally speaking, bus drivetrains are the same as the commercial vehicles”. So the Rosa bus uses…

Setra coaches and all Mercedes-Benz buses and coaches operate under the same Evobus umbrella. Head of design for both brands is Mathias Lenz, leader of a small group of five designers working in close contact with Kai Sieber. It is functional purity that underlies his work, not the sensual purity of Mercedes-Benz cars: “the character of the surfaces should express all functions”, Lenz explains. “We want our vehicles to be simple but still noteworthy with a stand-out character. The Setra has two front lines, one running along the top like a wing, the other below linking the lighting clusters and both contributing to the character of the coach. In Mercedes-Benz, by contrast, the headlights are separated by the grille and, behind, a V-shape coordinates the air outlets. The interiors come…

The ED Group was set up in 1998 by Davide Pizzorno, offering industrial services for the automotive, transportation, and industrial design sectors, with years of experience in electrical and electronic, BIW, ext/int trim, and cost reduction engineering, and is now the largest independent Design and Engineering company in Italy. In December of 2013, Pizzorno teamed up with Michael Robinson to open ED Design, with 40 new employees, in design, feasibility, CAS, physical modeling, and prototyping, with a brand new office which in 2015 will offer 600+ engineering workstations, a new design center, an architecture studio, a state-of-the-art VR center and presentation room, plus a complete workshop, all set up to receive multiple clients simultaneously. ED has offices in Modena, Turin, Detroit, and Beijing, in order to be close to their…

The Ferrari FXX K was a serious challenge for the Ferrari Centro Stile headed by Flavio Manzoni, as there has never been anything like this car – with its V12 hybrid Hy-Kers powertrain capable of producing an incredible 1050 bhp and over 900 Nm of torque – in the Ferrari family. “For a hypercar with such extraordinary content”, says Flavio Manzoni, “it was crucial that we tailored an equally astonishing look, one which embodies its essence and conveys its incontrovertibly exceptional nature.” In the creation of each Ferrari, it is normal for the engineers, aerodynamicists and designers to be in constant dialogue: for the FXX K, this dialogue was taken to a whole new level, also bringing the GT and Motorsports divisions into play. Moreover, the FXX K is for…

With sinuous forms and an uncompromising sports character, the new McLaren 650S supercar with looks inspired by the astonishing P1 joins the McLaren line-up alongside its lesser sibling, the 12C. The name refers to the 650 horsepower of the twin turbo V8 engine, with the letter “S” standing for sport, as this is a car conceived for truly impressive performance and agility. “The 650S is an emotionally involving car to drive – explains McLaren design director Frank Stephenson – and I wanted this characteristic to be reflected in the new design. We wanted to share the design language of the McLaren P1 to create the new face of our family. To cater for the engineering demands of a car like this, we created an efficient, effective design that takes advantage…

Evolution, balance and dynamism. With these three keywords, Fiat Professional design chief Alessandro Silva sums up the project to create the new face of the Doblò. It is a vehicle with two personalities: with the Doblò Cargo on the one hand “which has to express function, toughness and professionalism through its style”, and the Doblò on the other, “a vehicle that had to be instantly recognisable as a car”, explains Silva. The first requisite for the fourth generation of this model was to define a design in harmony with the style of the new Ducato and, more generally, with the entire Fiat Professional range, including the new models that will be unveiled in the near future (with the new Scudo and Fiorino, and a 1-tonne pickup all slated for 2016).…

Following the excellent results obtained in previous editions, the Polytechnic Design School during its annual degree session again presented the thesis projects carried out as part of the Master in Transportation and Car Design 2013-2014 in cooperation with the Volkswagen Group. For the implementation of their projects, students benefited from the supervision of project leaders from the Volkswagen, Seat and Lamborghini brands, each of whom assigned a specific theme for development. Volkswagen asked students to develop an electric car targeting the young adults segment, Seat a roadster inspired by the culture and lifestyle of Milan, and Lamborghini a super car capable of generating pure driving pleasure. Three quite different briefs to test the imagination of these young designers. The ten projects submitted at the end of the year’s work came…

The Mercedes-Benz Design language has evolved from classical to modern luxury, as reflected in the design philosophy of sensual purity which is based upon the bipolarity of intelligence and emotion. At Daimler, Gorden Wagener pulls the strings for the company’s design, and apart from one or two niche areas where the Mercedes-Benz design strategy cannot be fully applied – for example smart or most of the commercial vehicles – it is defining the brand’s public image. As Wagener says: “At one time, every Mercedes car was different. Now we bundle them all into a single language, which of course, we interpret differently for each model until it has a unique character that is however definitely Mercedes. But the key to this philosophy also means giving a different profile to the…

“This is a radical development from every point of view; we are redefining the proportions of the car, we are redefining its digital technology. It takes our sensual purity concept to a whole new level, modern luxury becomes luxury in motion”. That’s how Gorden Wagener, Daimler group design chief, enthuses about the latest offspring of Advanced Design, the F 015 Luxury in Motion concept presented in January at the Las Vegas CES and hailed as “the car of the future”, a hybrid (plug-in electric fuel cell powertrain) with a monolithic structure with self-drive mode. Steffen Köhl, Director Advanced Exterior Design adds: “It is a sculpture on four wheels, of completely new proportions. It is by far our most advanced visionary project”. Advanced Design is made up of five studios: the…

Founded in 1998 the Como studio, now headed by Michele Jauch-Paganetti, works essentially on interior creations and colour and trim under the overall direction of the director of the interior design department at Sindelfingen, Hartmut Sinkwitz. With a 22-strong team Como introduces “added value”, says Paganetti, to both the inception of concepts and production. It also has an important new role to play through the Mercedes-Benz Style brand, for which Jauch-Paganetti works closely with Margarete Wies, located in Carlsbad.. “We offer our services”, he explains, “to companies interested in applying our design to give their products an automotive character.” The interior of the F 015 concept presented at the CES show in Las Vegas also came from Como. “We wanted to show our vision of the idea of autonomous driving”,…

Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles also aspire to the concept of sensual purity – the Mercedes-Benz passenger cars design philosophy. There is a glimpse of it in the new flagship of the truck range, the Actros, but it is much more obvious in the Future Truck 2025, the spectacular commercial vehicle concept – already tested and operational – which introduces autonomous driving for Europe’s congested motorways. “Trucks,” explains Gorden Wagener, “are a working tool, with their own precise language. Though for us, good design is intelligent and emotional. Therefore we transferred our successful passenger car design philosophy of sensual purity to the future of trucks. So our Future Truck 2025 is an intelligent beauty”. Kai Sieber, Director Design Brands and Operations, divides his time between the smart and commercial families, and is…

“We want to take a holistic approach in design,” says Gorden Wagener: “We do not only design cars, but brands too, and this means touching every corner of every brand, from advertising to the corporate language and the pictures that have to express all that the brand implies. For example, the new Mercedes-Benz corporate identity is black and silver on a black background, and accordingly all other Daimler brands as well as Daimler itself have their own Corporate Identity”. Diverse aspects of brand design – from logo and material aspects to event architecture, general atmosphere and animation demonstrate how the holistic brand design approach is defined. Within the design department, the person responsible for phrasing these complex rules into practice is Klaus Frenzel, Senior Manager for Corporate Design Strategy and…

Ford GT was the undeniable star of the 2015 NAIAS, and with good reason. What began as a rumour blossomed into reality as the third generation successor to the GT40 – the first car with which Ford won the fabled LeMans 24h in 1966 – was revealed. Its design was a task undertaken by a very small team – just six designers in total worked on the car. The covert operation began in the utmost secrecy in November 2013 in the basement of Ford’s Dearborn design studio. The goal? “[The GT] really needed to stand for where the brand’s headed and innovation, really look to the future and convey a feeling of lightness and efficiency at the same time,” says Todd Willing, Ford’s exterior design chief for the Americas at…

Presented by Land Rover as “the most versatile and capable compact SUV in its segment” the new Discovery Sport posed the challenge, says Gerry McGovern, “to combine premium design with exceptional versatility; two attributes which must work in harmony”. Land Rover design chief McGovern is clearly pleased with the results: “Discovery Sport’s dynamic design will resonate on an emotional level with consumers”, he explains, “and this vehicle is more versatile than any other premium compact SUV on the market”. Massimo Frascella, who was responsible for the exterior design of the car (and is now creative director for the English brand), concurs with him: “it is the result of a new philosophy, where matching design and versatility is a priority in our strategy”. Developed on the Evoque platform, but with extensive…

A car that’s just been launched but is already picking up design awards. The new Sorento hits Europe’s streets with the prestigious iF Design Award already under its belt – an accolade that the Korean brand seems to have made a habit of winning, seeing that at least one Kia model has taken this prize home every year since 2010 (among which the Venga, Sportage, Optima, Picanto, pro_cee'd and Soul). This is yet another outstanding result achieved under Peter Schreyer, President and Chief Design Officer of the Kia and Hyundai brands. The third generation Sorento was designed by Kia’s style centre in Namyang, Korea in collaboration with the brand’s studios in Frankfurt and in Irvine, California. The car has the determined, captivating expression of a wolf, and its creators were…

Proportions, surfaces, details: according to Robert Lesnik, this is the recipe for Mercedes-Benz cars, the way in which the design strategy of sensual purity comes alive. “That philosophy,” he explains, “is the template we have to work on. And we have to improve it for each model.” Lesnik is the Director for Exterior Design. His team is turning out the cars of the new generation that was launched about three years ago, starting with the A-Class, and amongst others followed by the S-Class and now the recently presented beautiful Mercedes-AMG GT sports car. “One only has to look at some older models,” he observes, “to understand that, no matter how beautiful and attractive they are, they were born in a previous age, also comparing the AMG SLS with the all…

Hubert Lee calls the Beijing studio which is the Asian hub of the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design “a Sindelfingen in miniature”. After recently taking over the position from Olivier Boulay, Lee leads a team of seven designers whose range of tasks, as he himself explains, “goes from work on the exterior to interiors for advanced design concept cars, to competing with the other design centres on production vehicles, and overseeing User Experience Design as well as colour&trim for the Chinese market where the C-Class, E-Class and GLA are already manufacturerd”. He also works with the four joint-ventures the German company has in China. The most recent design exercise undertaken by the Beijing studio is the G-Code which in Lee’s opinion, represents “an interesting journey towards the integration of sensual purity –…

All the interfaces and interaction concepts of the extraordinary F 015 Luxury in Motion were developed in Sunnyvale, California by designers and engineers of the Advanced User Experience Studio in Silicon Valley. A core team of 10 specialists who, for this concept revealing the Mercedes brand’s vision of autonomous driving in 2030, ideated and developed all interactions outside and inside the car, creating interfaces for the dashboard, the touch screens in the door panels and the display at the rear of the cabin, to complement the work done on the interior by the Como studio. “Within this luxury lounge we created novel new functions and experiences", explains Vera Schmidt, responsible for the Digital Car Team at the Advanced User Experience Design Department in Sunnyvale. “The selfdriving car of the future…

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) encompasses a number of important brands such as Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Busses (which produces America’s classic yellow school bus). Overall, DTNA captures roughly 40 percent of the North American market, and its main rivals are Kenworth-Peterbilt, International and Volvo-Mack. Its operational base is in Portland, Oregon, where a design team of 25 – working under DTNA Design Director Martin Kreidl and in collaboration with Sindelfingen – turn out a new model every two to three years. “Freightliner and Western Star”, explains Kreidl, “target two different markets, with the former catering to long distance on-highway transport and the latter for special applications, with premium specialised vehicles. Because of this, we must keep the two brands conceptually separate. There are many synergies in areas…

The BharatBenz story in India began with a joint-venture with Hero in 2008. After this partner pulled out, however, the company was completely restructured, and since 2011 it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler, with its own design centre headed by Edmund Spitz, which works in close collaboration with Kai Sieber in Sindelfingen and with Mitsubishi Fuso in Japan. “Our priority is practicality” explains Spitz. “We have to give our clients – which are more often businesses than independent customers - what they need: a safe, sturdy vehicle suitable for Indian roads and coping with intense traffic teeming with dilapidated, worn-out old trucks that are driven into the ground. So we have to give our product – and this is where our job as designers comes in -…