Inside the studio: General Motors Advanced Design, China

Two years on from the opening of GM China’s revamped Advanced Design Studio the first tangible result, the Proxima concept, was displayed at the Ben Se (creative essence) open day in June. CDN got an exclusive preview and tour behind the scenes.

The name Proxima comes from the Portuguese word for ‘next’ and the Buick badged concept showcases ideas of how a future flagship EV saloon car might look. Unusually the car was not only designed for Generation Z but by a design team largely made up of Gen Z.

“We’re not afraid to explore and experiment. We have these amazing young talents, they’re bold, thoughtful and also agile at the same time which is extremely important for advanced design work,” says Mia Min, Senior Design Manager, who led the work on the Proxima.

With such a young team there is the challenge to both produce and learn at the same time but Min says this helps create very good chemistry between the team members and often produces surprising results. The team encompasses members from seven countries other than China, Min herself is Korean, and overall 20% of the studio workforce is international.

“Our local designers are actually very international, they have studied abroad and these days especially for Gen Z their lifestyle and their taste is pretty much aligned with that of global Generation Z,” says Min. So in practice although the team creates a very locally orientated concept, such as with the Proxima, it can also work for a more global audience.

This neatly synchronises with the ethos of the studio. “Our role is very much in terms of measuring the pulse of the market and customer in China, looking at our global programmes and trying to provide feedback into them from a China perspective,” says Stuart Norris, head of GM China’s Design Studio.

With China at the forefront of adoption of EVs the studio plays an important role as seen with the Proxima concept. The concept broadly reinterprets not only the silhouette of a saloon but also changes the emphasis of what it means to be a flagship. No longer constrained by the necessity of housing an engine an EV design opens up far more possibilities for the designer and ultimately that reflects on an emphasis on the interior and optimising its space, thereby challenging traditional car design.

“When we look to the future Gen Z have a completely different way of thinking, they want to express themselves, they want to create their own values. Taste wise they are unisexual, they are very complex. We call this anthropy, there is this desire in Gen Z and we mix it and this will generate aesthetics in a very interesting way,” says Min.

On the Proxima the A-pillar starts at a relatively forward position so as to create a large internal space for occupants. It’s also reflected in the lighting choreography when the users approach. A gullwing door helps Gen Z look elegant when entering and egressing the interior and is also about self-expression.

Another key element of the design is the emphasis on sustainably luxury. The concept eschews materials traditionally associated with luxury car interiors, such as leather, for materials which represent new contemporary luxury. This leads to the use of 100% sustainable materials such as eco-suede, silk, and carpets made from bamboo fibres.

Although the team felt that ultimately the Proxima’s design resonated most with the Buick brand, the car is not for production. Elements however, as with concepts from other GM advanced design studios, are likely to filter down to production models and the design represents the first success since the pivot to EVs and the revamp of the design studio and capabilities.

Those capabilities have continued to grow over the last two years. Crucially the head count has grown from 29 to around 60 creative staff and the average age of the team is a very youthful 33 years old. Today the studio is one of the few fully fledged design studios in China incorporating in-house capabilities such as clay modelling and a paint shop. Since becoming vice president of Design for GM China and GM International in September 2021 Stuart Norris has overseen an expansion in the capabilities of the studio particularly with an emphasis on cutting edge technologies.

“There is a positive culture in the studio based on growth in the team and taking all these amazing facilities we put in place two years ago and putting them to work to get projects done,” says Norris. He mentions that they’re considering having to do further renovations to create more seating space.

“We want to build out the traditional strengths of sculpting and sketching but the push on innovation in the toolset is pretty exciting. Our ability to leverage immersive and Math based visualisation tools is phenomenal and we have a team of designers who are leading the work in Unreal bringing the coding and gaming world into design,” says Norris.

This hybridisation is most apparent when donning a VR/AR headset and clambering into a universal-seating buck. While the physical incarnation doesn’t look much it uses mixed reality and pucks mounted on the wooden body to build up a digital rendition of a car around the user but with physical elements like doors and armrests it can not only be seen but experienced as well.

Another area where the studio is experimenting is with the use of peelable paint on clay models. This helps to create a far more lifelike model by applying a peelable layer onto which paint can then be applied.

Since the revamped studio opened two years ago three areas have changed significantly. Firstly the large atrium area now has a digital wall which makes the space far more functional and allows it to be used for digital reviews. There is the new paint shop. Then there is the now enclosed patio with HVAC and two turntables. It allows for design reviews of models and full-sized vehicles in natural light and viewing from a distance while away from prying eyes.

“We’re on a journey and we’re really heading in the right direction as we build out our capability. The Proxima is an excellent proof point of that, it’s an accomplished piece of design work, it’s pretty complete from an exterior, interior styling point of view, there’s a CMF story to it and a UX element, it’s got engineering fidelity,” says Norris.