"Visualisation translates a single design truth into multiple narratives"

Visualisation at Bentley has moved far beyond producing final imagery. According to head of UX design and design operations T. Jon Mayer, it is now a core design partner — embedded from the earliest stages and critical to preserving intent through to production. As digital tools accelerate and AI becomes more practical, the challenge is no longer capability, but how seamlessly everything connects.

Car Design News: How close are Bentley’s visualisations today to replacing physical models, and where do they still fall short?

T.Jon Mayer: As digital tools evolve, the question is no longer if visualisation can replace physical models, but where it adds the most value.

Real-time visualisation and immersive VR now allow us to evaluate proportion, stance and, increasingly, material quality with high confidence, but physical models still matter particularly for scale and surface refinement. The human perception of presence are not yet fully replicated digitally. In luxury, those details are everything. The future isn’t about replacing physical but reducing the amount in the overall process and making decisions based in a virtual world. It allows us to move faster.

CDN: What tools are you relying on most right now - Unreal Engine, VRED, or others and how are they changing the pace and quality of your output?

TJM: We operate a hybrid ecosystem. We use VRED as a daily evaluation tool. It’s important to set a consistent review environment to create a baseline – similar to how an outdoor viewing would take place. We use various tools for final press images and renderings such as Blender, VRED, and Unreal.

What’s changed the most is pace. We’ve moved from linear workflows to rapid iteration with the purpose for designers to explore and validate ideas in near real time. That doesn’t just make us faster; it leads to better decisions. Many of the designers in the team are working in the same tools, again to create that consistency throughout the development.

CDN: Are AI-driven tools (e.g. generative rendering or upscaling) genuinely embedded in your workflow yet, or still more experimental?

TJM: AI is moving from experimental to applied – but selectively. We’re using it in upscaling, noise reduction, and early-stage ideation. It expands exploration and improves efficiency. But at Bentley, where craftsmanship defines the brand, AI cannot replace intent, it must support the designer, not define the outcome.

Luxury isn’t just about choice - it’s about curation

CDN: Bentley interiors live or die by material richness – how do you ensure digital leather, wood and metal feel believable under every lighting condition?

TJM: We treat light as a material. Physically accurate material capture is essential, but it’s not enough. It’s about nuance - subtle imperfections, warmth and depth. Perfect digital surfaces often feel artificial. This is where our “phygital” philosophy comes in - the fusion of digital precision with physical craftsmanship.

CDN: How do you tailor visualisation content differently for designers, engineers and board-level decision-makers?

TJM: Each audience needs a different lens: Designers need speed and freedom; engineers need clarity and precision; leadership needs confidence and emotional resonance. Visualisation translates a single design truth into multiple narratives, without losing integrity, but no matter the forum the material must look amazing.

CDN: With increasingly sophisticated online configurators, how do you maintain Bentley’s sense of luxury and exclusivity in a fully digital environment?

TJM: Luxury isn’t just about choice - it’s about curation. We’re moving towards immersive, guided experiences where environment, lighting and storytelling create a sense of occasion. The goal is not to present options, but to elevate the experience. Digital should amplify exclusivity, not dilute it and ultimately it is about visual communication – telling a story through images and videos.

CDN: What’s the biggest bottleneck in your current visualisation pipeline and which tool or process improvement would make the biggest difference?

TJM: The biggest challenge is integration. Too much friction still exists between tools, data and teams. The opportunity is a seamless pipeline where data flows cleanly and visualisation becomes continuous, not a separate step.

The differentiator won’t be any single technology, but how well they are orchestrated

CDN: How are visualisation teams working with exterior and interior designers to protect design intent right through to final imagery?

TJM: Visualisation must be embedded from the start. This is no longer a service function – it’s a design partnership. Early alignment ensures intent is understood and preserved, reducing interpretation later and leading to more faithful outcomes. We are upskilling all of our designers to be skilled in the visualisation tools, especially VRED as it’s our daily working tool. This saves time but also allows the designers to evaluate their own work. You learn a lot simply by importing data, assigning shaders and baking lighting. This is the point that you truly see your surfaces for the first time – in “real/digital” light.

CDN: Where do you draw the line between real-time iteration and final, high-fidelity renders? Are clients and stakeholders becoming more accepting of ‘good enough’ real-time output?

TJM: Real-time has transformed iteration and internal decision-making, it’s often more than sufficient. For external communication, the bar remains higher. Launch imagery still demands absolute fidelity and the push we have to produce a natural look and feel is challenging. Photo-realism is a must. That said, the gap is closing fast. “Good enough” real-time today is often exceptional and stakeholders are increasingly comfortable making decisions earlier.

CDN: Looking ahead, what will define best-in-class automotive visualisation at Bentley in the next three to five years: tools, talent or something else entirely?

TJM: It’s not just tools or talent, it’s integration. The future lies in seamlessly combining real-time, AI, and immersive environments into a unified workflow. The differentiator won’t be any single technology, but how well they are orchestrated. At Bentley, our ambition is clear: to create a truly “phygital” design environment - where digital and physical are indistinguishable, and where visualisation becomes fundamental to how we create luxury.