Animation of “cold, lifeless metal”
When Shiro Nakamura, an international artist and musician, became Nissan’s design chief, he has pushed that the company must be “looser and more creative” with their design concepts. Nakamura saw to it that hindrances between design and development were remedied and from then, engineers and designers were collaborated, and not anymore waiting on each other.
Koji Nagano, Nissan’s project design director, notes that, “Design is very emotional stuff.†On a more personal take, Nagano feeds his creativity with art and music. He shares in particular that he has a large aquarium at home and relates that the fish help him see colors he never saw before. “It is very organic, how the colors interact with one another.”
As with Nissan, a growing number of car designers aimed their “creative fires to animate cold, lifeless metal”. With the aesthetics and design in mind, it is best to also keep the end user in mind.
(Taken from Business World Highlife magazine, Issue 31)