Roland Barthes suggested that cars were the modern day equivalent of Gothic Cathedrals, “the Supreme creation of an era. Conceived with passion by unknown artists”. That's still true to this day. While fashion designers and architects have become household names and outright superstars, car designers are little known, often lost in the cloak of their brand’s identity. Of all the names that the average non-car nerd may have heard of, three are most likely to stand out: Patrick le Quement, Chris Bangle, and J Mays. So with le Quement retiring after 22 years as head of Renault design, and Bangle recently leaving BMW under unclear circumstances, this leaves Mays as arguably the most publicly recognisable car designer in the world right now.
Calm and unassuming in person, you’d never know that Mays was responsible for the design direction of (and for the hundreds of designers behind) Ford’s various brands and nameplates. Up until recently of course, this not only included Ford, Lincoln and Mercury - but Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin too. This led Mays to describe his job as being “about a mile wide and an inch deep.” But with PAG disbanded, and Volvo about to follow Jag, LR and Aston out of the Ford stable door, Mays seems pleased that his job is becoming “an inch wide and a mile deep.”
Clearly, he’s got more time to focus on making Ford’s core products stellar once again (recent cars such as the Flex and Taurus suggest this is already happening), along with giving under-nourished Lincoln and Mercury some love too. It’s the Lincoln C concept – unveiled at Detroit’s NAIAS in January 2009 - that we were primarily in town to talk to him about. Yet while that car is well worth a closer look, it’s the bigger issues facing the car industry and the world of car design that we really wanted his views on.
The Lincoln C Concept in Ford's product development studio
So here, Mays - the man behind VW's famous Concept One and Audi's influential Avus – who now also acts as Ford’s Chief Creative Officer, gives his views on a whole host of design subjects. From why the computer is today’s hotrod, to how he believes Ford is leading the way in user research, and why the skill-set of tomorrow’s car designer might need to be quite different to that of today’s.
As Ford moves forwards with its ‘One Ford’ strategy, it’s likely that many of the things you see from the brand will have been touched by the hand of Mays. So watch the video at the top of the article, to get an insight into how the future of the blue oval might look…
Full transcript follows, link to full unedited interview at bottom of the transcript>>
Why the computer is today’s hotrod
J Mays: “I don’t know who said it, but someone said that ‘the computer is today’s hotrod’. So if you look at the way an older generation had that romantic relationship with automobiles, I think that ‘the millennials’ have that same direct relationship with the computer.”
“We’ve tried to address that – of course we still want to get people around in style, but as you move into this interior [talking about the Lincoln C], and look at the HMI, we’ve created everything on that HMI to be voice activated. This vehicle has its own personal avatar. That’s almost like a voice-activated personal assistant, which will help you plan your day, your schedule – you can voice activate email, voice activate navigation - do almost anything, and the avatar will not only listen and take in that information, but also speak back to you and help you plan your day. A little bit scary, but we think it’s a great feature of this vehicle!”
"If a vehicle is going to be that digital, in terms of its aura, when you get inside the car, we felt that the rest of the vehicle needed to look that contemporary as well.”
“As you know, over the last ten years – with iPhones, with iPods and all sorts of MP3 players, a younger generation has come to expect that although things are smaller, they’re not based on the values of sacrifice and austerity. So if you look at this vehicle (the Lincoln C), you’ll see all the luxury amenities you might find in a larger car, yet they’re packed into a vehicle that’s absolutely right – I think – for the urban landscape in which it was designed.”
On why Lincoln is ‘doing its homework’
JM: “We’ve talked about HMI already, and we think that’s going to be a major reason why people want to get in to our vehicles in the future. And over the next two years, as a lot of that technology works its way into our vehicles, a lot of the things that they’re currently doing in their living room or bedroom in terms of going on line, they’ll be able to do in our vehicle.”
“The other side of it, which doesn’t get talked about very much - but I think is a really important point to make - is that even the millennials have pride, are interested in status, and want to arrive in front of the café, or the hotel, looking good. And so, if you’re designing a vehicle that’s going to communicate to their peers that they’ve got the x-factor in terms of being able to pick the right brand, the right car, with the right technology on it - we think we’re more than doing our job in terms of shifting perception both of Lincoln here in the United States, and also Ford in both Europe and here in the United States."
Joseph Simpson: “What are your aspirations for Lincoln? I guess four-to-five years ago, you had all these brands – you had Jaguar and Land Rover and Aston Martin, and now you’ve just focused on the ‘core brands’ – is there a weight of expectation? Does Lincoln have to perform a kind of new role in terms of being the aspirational brand?”
JM: “That really gets to the heart of my job. When I was the head of global design for seven brands, I always described my job as being ‘about a mile wide and an inch deep’. And that’s completely inverted now – so although I’m only concentrating on Ford globally – ha, only! – Lincoln and Mercury, my job is about an inch wide and a mile deep now. So as we bore down into those brands and understand what we can get out of them, certainly Lincoln is going to play a completely different role to the one that it did in the portfolio five years ago, when we had a Jaguar or a Land Rover or an Aston Martin.”
“Now, if you look at what’s in the showroom now for Lincoln, it’s really a totally different line up to the one it was four to five years ago. With the number of new models we have coming over the next two years, it continues to adjust its median age for buyers downwards, and that’s exactly where we’re headed with this.”
JS: “And can you see a day when Lincoln will be sold in Europe?”
JM: “I think Lincoln, for the foreseeable future, is going to concentrate on doing what I call ‘its homework’, that is becoming a successful domestic brand. Only after Lincoln is successfully marketed with the right product and the right brand message here in the United States, would we consider them going oversees."
JS: “We’ve seen the likes of Toyota, and also BMW with Project i, talking about vehicles that are almost like a mobilised chair, and aren’t recognisably like a car, but which are coming from an automotive brand. I wondered if you had an opinion on that, and whether you could see a day when someone like Ford could persuade people into a vehicle that doesn’t look recognisably like a car?”
JM: “It’s a good question, I may have a slightly surprising answer on that. In the next three years we’re going to bring a series of hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars to market. And one of the things that I have, it’s this crazy idea, and it's that when we bring one of those cars to market, it should look like – wait for it – a car! And regardless of the type of vehicle that you’re bringing to market, people still want it to look like a car; an automobile. And that’s one of the things we’re working very hard on.”
“If you’re thinking in terms of fashion, here today, gone tomorrow – no sustainability in terms of market, I think those kind of vehicles are fine – that are wacky and off the beaten path – but they have no longevity when it comes to the automobile market. So what I’d like to do is push a vehicle into people’s hands, and say – that’s a wonderful looking piece of design – and by the way, in ten years time, it probably still will be.”
Why the process won’t change, but the skill-set will...
JM: “I will tell you that the way vehicles will be designed, won’t change in terms of process very much, over the next ten years – if we use that as a benchmark, because I find it very hard to think much further out than that – not knowing what society or our culture will look like. Because most design is a result of the prevailing mood of the culture. I think what will change is not necessarily the process, but the skill-set. The HMI is the tip of the iceberg of a different skillset, which you currently don’t find to any depth within the automobile industry. So what you’re going to find is a lot more digitally orientated designers coming into the auto industry and helping us change the model of why you buy an automobile. It’s still going to look good, it’s still going to look fast, perform well, drive great – there’s still going to be wonderful amenities on the interior, but it’s connectivity that’s going to drive the next few years.
Mark Charmer: “Today, there is no process of engagement between the kinds of people who design cities at one level, and people like you and your team. And I wonder if you think there ever could be?”
JM: “I suppose there could, I think what our concentration has been - and it’s one of the reasons we’re going through a rapid change at the moment, is that as we got more and more into the fact that we need to be dialoguing with our customer, it’s the customer almost telling us what you’re talking about – “I’d like a cleaner vehicle, I’d like a smaller vehicle, I’d like a vehicle with a lower carbon footprint.” And all of those, I’m sure if I went to the council of Peckham - or wherever - today, would be the same things they’d say. We would certainly be open to dialogue like that – we work with Governments both here in the United States, and in Britain, but could that also be better? Absolutely.”
“And I think every city you go to is different, which makes it one of the reasons we have so much difficultly in that regard.”
JS: “As designers, you often exist in a very secretive environment, and you don’t often get time to spend with your customers – and when you do, it’s often in an artificial environment. So do you perceive there’s going to be a change in the future, where designers and customers can have more, better interactions, and where I suppose you can do new types of ‘different’ research?”
JM: “I actually think we’re leading the way on that right now. With the Fiesta, it’s very easy to say ‘did you do market research?’, well, yes we did – but what we did is actually a lot more surgical. We defined who the customer was going to be. Turned out to be this fictitious woman called 'Antonella', who was a leggy Italian girl who lived in Milan with her parents – as many twenty-somethings do. We got down and dissected Antonella’s life, to understand where she want, what she did, what she liked doing, what her job was, who she hung out with. All the things that come together to form a cumulative whole to form a person’s cultural entity.”
“And once you understand that, it’s very easy to actually sit down and design a car for that person. I think a lot of the mistakes that have been made in the past with market research is to say that "it’s for a 23 year old someone, somewhere, and do you like the headlamp and tail-lamp?" That’s not the way to go about market research. We’ve gone in and dug down and done enough archeological dig now on all the customers we’re thinking about for various programs, that I think all of our designers have a much much better idea of how to work. And you’re so right – that’s not what we were taught at art college – we were taught to sit down and have an artistic expression, and say 'what’s your latest great idea?'”
“Today, design is not about that, design is a communications tool for the brand. And just as the written word may communicate something about the brand for advertising, the way we bend sheet metal – the kinds of shapes, colours, materials, textures we put on a car, communicates visually which is really today’s language – it’s a visual communication, with the potential customers we want to contact and have a dialogue with.”
“By living in London, it gives me a much better indication of not only what going's on in London, but Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo – all of these place that we sell cars – where there’s a density there that has to dealt with responsibility, in terms of the types of automobiles we sell there. And as we downsize our vehicles, not only like I’ve been describing with the Lincoln C, we’ve got to rethink ‘what is the appeal of the car?’ It can’t all just be about sacrifice, it’s got to be something that people desire and actually want to buy as well.”
“And living in London – because it is such a style-orientated city, that gives me a real breadth of perspectives, that range from Camden Town, to high street Oxford Street, you could go into Carnaby Street…
MC: “or Broadwick Street, where you are around there is pretty cool…”
JM: “… or Broadwick Street, same as well, same thing in New Bond Street. All of those are slightly different perspectives on what the consumer take is. Likewise, at least three days a week, I drive into town – I live over in Chelsea, so I drive right down the south perimeter road of the park, and through Mayfair on the way to work every morning. And that gives me a real overview of what’s going on, and who’s driving what, and what people are driving those cars and what their lifestyles look like. And I think it’s really important that designers have as much information as possible before they sit down and start thinking about a project, and that just affords me the luxury of having a really good idea of what’s going on in London.”
Posted on 12th May 2009 by Joseph Simpson
Joseph Simpson and Mark Charmer interviewed J Mays at the Ford product development centre in Dearborn, Michigan USA on the 21st April 2009.
Watch the full, unedited video with J, here, and see all our other videos at remove.blip.tv
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Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design and research work in 2009. We have an independent brief and are unbiased in our view. If you don't think it comes across that way, we want to here from you.
OK, I know this is J Mays, and he probably knows better than me...but isn't creating a ficticious individual (albeit representative of a demographic) for which a car design is tailored dangerously limiting the design scope? I would have thought this level of microscopic design focus was a symptom of spending too much time in a design studio connecting blue ray devices to your latest concept and not enough time in the reall world.
My partner and I (both in our late 30's) recently purchased a Ford Fiesta, but not J Mays' funky new one, the previous model. Both cars were great, we were prepared to pay extra for the benefits of the new model (style, resale, features), but by focusing so hard on 23 year old 'Antonella' and her handbag, the design team neglected to make the rear hatch wide enough to accomodate all but the smallest of loads. So, we purchased the more practical model. Isn't that simply bad design?
Posted by: Duane | November 12, 2009 at 12:21 AM
Ouch...hit raw nerve wth some J Mays fans? He's not the only designer guilty of subscribing to designer jargon, everyone is! I recently reviewed the work of some Industrial Design students, and found that their target customer (for the guys) an attractive 23 year old woman called Ricci or Kirin or something quirky and semi-exotic...these girls seem to buy almost everything! Is anyone's target customer an overweight mother of three who works part-time Friday afternoon's stacking shelves at the local supermarket? Never. The concept of a target customer seems to be nothing more than a justification for pitching your funky design to a CEO who dreams of producing products for attractive young people. Seems it's time to get back to basics with product design.
Posted by: Duane | November 17, 2009 at 12:02 AM
Hi Duane,
Sorry for the delay in posting your comments - been away for the past few days with very limited internet access. To a large extenet, I agree with what you say - and you can see some of my (and other Londoner's) views on the new Fiesta, and the Antonella led 'persona design' here: http://movementbureau.blogs.com/projects/2009/08/user-research-on-the-ford-fiesta-the-view-from-some-real-life-antonellas.html - a number of the comments there, square with what you're saying.
Posted by: Joe | November 17, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Ha! That's absolute gold Joe, thanks for pointing it out to me, and congrats for taking the 'personae' to the streets. Don't worry, I'm not on a personal crusade, I just thought the delay meant I was either right out of touch, or was hurling backhanded insults at an untouchable design personality (which wasn't the case, you can't but admire guys like Mays).
The first comment hit the nail right on the head, the target consumer appears to be the latest design studio buzz, and god knows I hate buzz (don't get me started on 'green' design, and how it goes out the window when your enviromentally sensitive customer sees the build cost. Grrr), especially when it leeches into the eduction of young designers as fact. Thankfully, the cult of personae didn't seem to have a great effect on the end results of any of the students work I saw, but it was a source of amusement...which I'm not against. I'm just not sure it has a place outside of an enormous studio.
No sweat Joe, comments or not, you've got a permenant reader here, I'm really enjoying your insight. Cheers, Duane
Posted by: Duane | November 17, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Cheers Duane, much appreciated.
Posted by: Joe | November 23, 2009 at 01:39 PM