Unabashedly American Design

Unabashedly American Design

By Jane Nakagawa

Now that Toyota has become the second-largest selling carmaker in the U.S., it appears that the Japanese brand is on the way to becoming the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, surpassing General Motors. In every competition, there are winners and losers, and in this case, slow and steady looks set to win the race.

Toyota’s decades-long pursuit of QDR (quality, durability, and reliability), plus consistent brand building has made the company the darling of business schools as well as consumers. Yet the good news for Detroit is that there is another round to this race, and even the best of companies has an Achilles heel.

And with the 2008 Detroit auto show on the horizon this week, it’s a good time to talk about it. Because it all has to do with design.

Emotional Design

It is easy to name the most beautiful cars in the world. But where are the Japanese cars?  When is the last time a Toyota made your heart skip a beat, and not just because the odometer turned to 300,000 miles?

Cadillac asks, “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” Only American car companies are so willing to ask this essential question.

Herein is Detroit’s competitive advantage against inroads by competitive brands from Europe, Japan, Korea and even China.

Coming to America

As we walked the floor of the Los Angeles auto show last November, we cornered car designers and executives from different cultures than our own and asked for a definition of the unique design character that defines American products, from cars to architecture.

Peter Horbury, the British-born Executive Director of Design, North America for Ford Motor Company says, “Design is a direct reflection of the culture and society, and America is the most optimistic place on earth. People came here to succeed, and so there is a strong sense of bravado and openness to the designs.”

Ian Callum, Jaguar Cars Ltd.’s Scottish-born Director of Design, admits that he’s a fan of American car design, and he owns a ’32 Ford hot rod and a custom ’55 Chevy to prove it. He says, “Everything is just slightly exaggerated in America and I think it’s down to the geography of the country. I know that is something of a cliché, but I really think it is very, very true. Everything is slightly bigger and bolder, especially American cars.

“And what I’ve learned about American products, especially cars, is that there’s to be that kind of turn up in visual volume that you don’t get in European cars, where everything is tighter and more restricted. I don’t want to use the words “brash” and “vulgar” about American car design because it’s more subtle than that. American cars just have to shout a little bit louder.”

It’s All About Space and Confidence

Fredrik Arp, the Swedish-born President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation, also   sees something unique in the American aesthetic. “American design reflects the wide-open spaces,” says Arp. “I've always appreciated in the U.S. that there are a lot of good materials, a lot of thought concerning functionality. There's a lot of good thought into infrastructure and how you build and how you develop things, because there seems to be space to do it.”

The availability of space makes the difference, Arp continues, “In engineering and in construction, American design is often a bit oversized compared to what we are used to in Europe. So design has to do a little bit about what you want to show and how you want to be perceived. And I think there's a little bit of that in America -- that big is beautiful”.

Shiro Nakamura, Osaka-born Senior Vice President of Design, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., also believes that American aesthetic is about unbridled optimism and confidence. “The post-war introduction of fins and fender flares may be the best known expression of American confidence,” explains Nakamura, who graduated from Art Center College of Design in California. He notes that this sense of optimism is lacking in today’s domestic cars, yet continues, “But the spirit is still very strong in America’s culture, and it is bound to resurface”.

But Where Did the Confidence Go?

If confidence is a key to American car design, where did it go?

Franz von Holzhausen, Design Director, Mazda, an American who spent many years in Volkswagen's German studio, says, “Back after the Great Depression, there was a real emphasis on consumerism to get the country going again, so the message was buy, buy, buy. Then in the Jimmy Carter presidency, all that stopped and suddenly there was no design left. Look at the time when he was president and look at the design language that American cars had. There was nothing. You don’t recall any mid-Seventies cars as an icon, and American cars lost their confidence.”

Ian Callum believes that American designers went too far during the 1980s and 1990s in rejecting their heritage of the Harley Earl days of the 1950s when consumer confidence was soaring. “That confidence leaked away because designers wanted to be multi-national Europeans,” he says. “Because European cars were exotic and unattainable, they wanted to do their own European-style cars.”

Callum further notes that the trend to think of car design and product design hasn’t been necessarily a good thing. He says, “I think good product design is recognized worldwide, so it’s very international. When it comes to cars, cars are about character, and that’s what makes cars different from a product.”

But Von Holzhausen think things are changing. He says, “As Americans, we’re finding our way in design, and we’ll always be finding our way. But we’re a little bit more about flash and panache than the rest of the markets, except for maybe China.”   

Unabashedly American Design

Sometimes it takes an outsider looking in to see what is invisible to the insiders. The world’s top car designers and executives clearly see the optimism and confidence inherent in American designs. American design is slightly oversized with a slightly exaggerated expression, and there’s no reason to be embarrassed about it.

American carmakers seem to be rediscovering this unabashedly American car aesthetic. Susan Docherty, General Motors’ Western Region General Manager and formerly one of the principal architects of GM’s Hummer brand -- certainly an archetypal American style -- says that today GM is about, “…pride in our vehicles and something that we don't have to apologize for.”

She also notes that Bob Lutz, GM’s Vice Chairman, consistently tells GM designers, “I don't care how great your interior is, if I can't get you to stop in your tracks on the [exterior] design part of this, then we haven't done our job.”

Tell the Story

This is the message of confidence that might counter the decline in consumer optimism in the economy. And it is a message that can integrate the desire Americans have for a bold expression with their emerging appreciation for improved function and a desire for environmental responsibility.

As Ford’s Peter Horbury, who will be showing off new Lincoln designs at the Detroit show, says, “Americans need functionality. They still use trucks for hauling and trailers for towing, and unless horses get smaller, [new vehicles] are not going to be just downsizing, but more about new materials and innovations in efficiency.”   

If it’s true that design tells a story, then American design needs to tell the story of America. Being able to express an unabashedly American design aesthetic is at the heart of the competitive advantage of American carmakers.

And in the end, they should never forget that buying a car in America is one part need to two parts desire.   

Jane Nakagawa is a California-based correspondent for AutoObserver covering design topics. She formerly worked for Nissan North America.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.