Designer Interviews: Taru Lahti

Taru Lahti made a name for himself with his dramatically designed Ford Ghia Focus concept, shown in 1992. However, he was already known to the automotive design community for his thesis project at CCS, and for the earlier Ford Contour concept. Since establishing his own practice in 2001 he has focused his considerable talents on sculpture, furniture and fabrication. He spoke with us recently about his work, his design philosophy and his work at Ford.

Car Design News Could you describe your automotive design philosophy?

Taru Lahti I think it is important to recognise the classics of automotive design and their influence and combine them with new ideas, new forms and materials. No matter how new a design seems, it is important for it to look somewhat familiar. In the right balance, a timeless design can emerge.

Design themes that informed my work at the time, and now, include positive/negative space, surface-over-surface, soft forms with surface tension, clean ordered forms contrasting with (seemingly) chaotic forms or elements, engineered forms and machinery versus clean styling, and expressions of the nature of materials.

As I began my career, I looked outside the traditional realm of car design for inspiration, and I still advocate looking for new forms of inspiration to keep your work from becoming self-referential.

Sketch by Lahti dated 19 March 1990

CDN Who and what are some of your inspirations? Your work is often mentioned in conjunction with Luigi Colani’s biomorphic creations. Was he an influence?

TL I admire Colani’s work, but it wasn’t that much of an influence on me. His forms are too soft, too biomorphic – there’s not enough surface tension there for me. As a boy my grandmother gave me a book on Porsche – it was enormously influential. I am definitely influenced by the Porsche 356 and by the Porsche 917. I was also influenced by the work of Syd Mead, and the designs of the early Star Wars movies.

Lahti’s CCS project

CDN Your design aesthetic seems fully developed in your CCS thesis project. Could you explain just a bit about that project?

TL My thesis at CCS was a sports-car project that explored a lot of design themes that I admired in the Porsche 917. I love that design – a highly engineered machine covered by a thin shell body. The complexity of the machinery is glimpsed through the opening behind the cockpit, and visible from the rear of the car. My design started at the front as a smooth asymmetrical design and grew more complex and revealed as it moved toward the rear of the car, terminating in an exposed engine. I liked to play off the juxtaposition of clean design and complex engineering.

CDN When you were hired by Ford you got to work on the Ford Contour concept, what were the ideas behind its creation?

TL The Contour was meant to explore new directions in sedan design. It was a car of details – a high beltline, reassessing the greenhouse to body proportion of the time, which was roughly 50/50. The Contour was one-third greenhouse, and two-thirds body. We experimented with asymmetrical elements, a rising line along the rocker panel, and flush glass. Many of the details were very well executed, but the overall design was not as successful. Still, the Contour allowed the Focus Ghia to be developed the following year and, of course, its design influenced the redesigned Taurus a few years later.

CDN After the Contour you moved on to the Ghia Focus. What were the goals of that project?

TL The Focus continued to develop themes first shown in the Contour, but in roadster form. The design was much stronger, much more harmonious, with a strong material expression.

The exterior is a play of soft forms with surface tension, surface over surface, asymmetry and randomness, as seen in the taillights. Some of the design elements were misinterpreted as “aquatic”, but it was meant to be organic.

The interior is an expression of materials in their raw, most expressive state. Leather, steel, wood –each expressing their part in the overall interior, and contrasting with each other, and arranged in an asymmetrical composition.

This project could not have come together without a great team at Ghia. Tom Scott, Claudio Messale, and Sally Wilson were critical in the execution of the design. The craftsmen at Ghia were amazing. Their heritage goes all the way back to the Middle Ages, when their ancestors hammered out suits of armour. To see those skills executed in the construction of a modern car was very special.

Ford GT90 concept introduced ‘New Edge’ in 1995

CDN In the mid-nineties, Ford began to explore cars with a ‘New Edge’ design language. Were you a part of that movement? What is your opinion of it?

TL The New Edge design language developed during my absence from Ford, and I was not a part of that movement. The design language was influenced by stealth airplanes, with their faceted/curved shapes. For me the design language was too “edgy” – not enough soft forms.

CDN After the fabulous reception for the Ghia Focus, you took a break, toured Europe, moved to New York, and started an independent practice. Did you feel you had said everything you needed to say about car design?

TL I had never intended for my job at Ford to become a permanent one. Like my father, I wanted to work for an established company for a few years, and then strike out on my own. I also wanted to travel, and Ford wanted me to fly back to Detroit from Italy immediately. I also felt at that time I had said everything I wanted to say about car design, and as the Ghia Focus was such a success, it seemed best to leave while on top.

Ford 24/7 Coupe concept from 2000

CDN You returned to Ford in 1996 – what projects did you work on, and were you able to work in your design aesthetic?

TL It was a different design culture when I returned to Ford. The computer had replaced hand sketching. I did a lot of research when I returned. I worked on the 24/7 Concept cars. I flew out to California and worked with a team doing some of the first research on the needs of millennials – at that time, the next generation of automotive consumers. And I worked with Marc Newson, though not in a design capacity, on the 021C Concept. Marc is an amazing designer. It was a great project.

Chair by Taru Lahti, from his Detroit-based studio

CDN For the past fifteen years or so you’ve been in independent practice. How is your work different now in terms of philosophy?

TL It’s the same design philosophy, but it has evolved with the adoption of new media and the nature of current projects. These days my work deals with themes of structures and fabrication and the expressing unique nature of materials and textures.

CDN What do you think of car design now? Which car company do you think is a leader in design?

TL I don’t follow automotive design like I used to. The work that inspires me is that of the students. They seem to push the envelope further than the concept cars from the automakers. Kids, not companies, are my inspiration.

Work called Dumb Down by Lahti, steel and oil paint, 2013

CDN Do you think car design has different influences than twenty-five years ago?

TL I think car design has a wider range of influences now than back then. The designs of that time were too self-referential, something I tried to move away from in my automotive projects.

CDN What do you see as the future for car design?

TL I’m not one to predict, given my distance from current trends. But I see technology bringing new materials and structures to the automobile. I hope these will be given their own individual expression in the car of tomorrow.

Taru Lahti

Education Automotive design at CCS, 1984-1989
Career 1990-1992 Ford Motor Company Detroit studio
1992-1996 Designer of bespoke furniture in NYC
1996-2001 Ford Motor Company Ghia Studio, Turin
2001- Taru Lahti Design, Detroit, USA