Genesis' John Krsteski: "Creativity doesn't happen inside a box"

Our new LA Studio is an 80,000 square foot facility and fully dedicated to Genesis, strategically placed in Los Angeles. It’s in the El Segundo area, very close to LAX airport, and there are a lot of aerospace companies that have been around here for quite some time, but also a lot of tech startups with innovation at their forefront too. So for Genesis, it’s a great opportunity to network and collaborate with a lot of different businesses.

We operate like a nontraditional satellite studio, because beyond advanced work we also get involved in every single production programme the other global studios workon. The whole basis for the investment in this studio was to be able to carry out complete production programmes. We might start a programme designated primarily for the North American market, but we take it from start to finish, which is very non-traditional.

There are 45 people in the team here, including CAS digital modellers and clay modellers. We’ve been building our visualisation team over the last few years as well. I think it’s such an important thing to be able to ‘story-tell’, and a lot of times the ones who know the cars best are those in the design team. To be able to have the visualisation expertise in-house to create animations to help others really understand the car from all the best views and describe the concepts is something we really prioritise. After all, we’re based in LA – the entertainment capital of the world – so it makes sense to make movie like stories for our concepts.

What’s unique about our studio is that the building’s concept really embraces California. It’s that whole indoor/outdoor balance, creating as much usable outdoor space as you have indoors. The feeling is almost like a botanical garden in a lot of ways, which is cool, because we always say that creativity doesn’t happen inside a box.

You need to step outside and really put yourself out into nature. I know it sounds a little cliché, ‘oh, I’m inspired by nature’, but it’s really about the freedom and flexibility to move around that’s inspiring – not to be locked into one space. We have a viewing courtyard in the middle of the studio, which has a couple of turntables, and we also have a few more outside. We’ve got five viewing turntables in total to really look at our concepts in the most optimum conditions in regard to light, time of day, outdoor versus half indoor, and then inside the studio as well.

We’re certainly pushing colour and materials here too. It runs a lot like a laboratory. They experiment internally and try to challenge some of the suppliers they work with to really see how we can improve our carbon footprint. There are a lot of immediate goals, but also long-term aspirations. It’s not something we ignore.

I don’t think luxury should have a ceiling on ‘getting down and dirty’, when it comes to being able to experience off-roading, or performing at the highest level on the track. From our standpoint, we’re trying to push the bandwidth as far as it can go, while still staying true to being a luxury brand. We know SUVs are used by the majority of our customers for urban driving and in suburbia. But at the same time, when our SUVs do go off-road, they should be proper off-roading SUVs. It’s not just about making something that looks the part, but actually plays the part.

The challenge we set ourselves is to get our production cars to be a mirror image of what we delivered as a concept.

The gap between our concepts and production is closing. You cast out a North star, and then the goal is to get as close as possible to it. It’s not just about putting out fantasies or being content with an amazing concept car. The challenge we set ourselves is to get our production cars to be a mirror image of what we delivered as a concept.

We’re still a very young luxury brand. We’ve been separate from the Hyundai Motor Group for 10 years now, and we’ve

been able to accomplish quite a bit. A lot of the stuff we’re working on right now is still in the pipeline. I wish I could say, ‘Hey, wait for this specific car at this year’ but unfortunately, and usually, it’s too much information for now.

But if you look at the Neolun concept that debuted in New York in early 2024, the production version is a very close to what you’ve already seen. You’ll see it in 2027.

This interview was originally published in Car Design Review 12. To order your copy, please click here.