New design director at Lincoln as Curic moves to Ford Performance division
In an internal shake-up, Kemal Curic has left Lincoln to head up the Ford Performance division while Christine Cheng takes Curic’s former role. The Irvine studio is also set to close design operations as Ford consolidates its design teams in Dearborn
Kemal Curic, the designer who has revitalised Lincoln’s design, is moving to a new role as global design director for Ford Performance Vehicles. The move is something of a return for Curic, who designed the sixth generation Mustang exterior and has always had a fascination for classic American muscle cars. Curic will be tasked with invigorating nameplates like the aforementioned Mustang and Ranger Raptor.
Curic took over at Lincoln in 2019 from David Woodhouse having already been heavily involved in the brand. The designer, who reportedly has one of the hottest pens in the business, leaves a strong legacy at Lincoln, evolving the US luxury brand’s “Quiet Flight” design language, which combined restrained exteriors (by US standards) with refined engines and brilliantly finished interiors.
Models like the Aviator, Navigator and Nautilus were well-received by the design community and shortlisted in the Car Design Review top ten production cars of the year. The Star and L100 concepts channeled ideas of sanctuary and ceremony, two elements that Curic had pushed across the production range and hinted at what might be possible for the brand. Alongside the reorganisation comes the news that the Irvine studio in California is set to close as Ford consolidates its design teams at its forthcoming new mega-studio in Dearborn.
That future may now be pending as Christine Cheng is set to take over at Lincoln. Cheng is a relative newcomer to Ford, having worked the majority of her career at General Motors before joining the Blue Oval as design director of the F-series in 2023. The promotion is a mark of new Ford design director Todd Willing’s faith in Cheng who will be taking the reins at the brand’s prestige marque.
This is the first major announcement regarding Ford’s design structure since Willing took over in August 2024 following the departure of Anthony Lo who went on to head up BAIC in China.
As mentioned above, it is a double whammy of announcements from the Ford group as the Irvine studio in California is set to close amid a broader consolidation of the design teams into the forthcoming Dearborn mega studio set to open in 2025. This is the end of an era for Ford design as the California studio had an enviable track record of concept car design. More on that to come.