Q&A with Joel Piaskowski, Ford of Europe’s director of design

During the IAA in Frankfurt, we caught up with Joel Piaskowski to see how he’s settling into his new role as director of design at Ford of Europe. Piaskowski joined Ford in 2010 as its exterior design director for the Americas, replacing Moray Callum who is now Ford’s design vice president, and to whom Piaskowski now reports.

…and later with second-gen Hyundai Genesis coupe

Piaskowski started his career in 1990 with GM, then joined Hyundai and Kia North America as chief designer in 2003, where he stayed for six years. In January 2009 he was headhunted to take over from Gorden Wagener at the Mercedes-Benz advanced studio in Carlsbad, California, but it proved a brief episode, as he joined Ford just 14 months later – ironically, former Ford colleague Stefan Lamm has now just taken over that same position. In 2013 he became Ford’s director of design for the Asia Pacific region, before superseding Martin Smith at Ford of Europe, when Smith retired in July 2014.

With studios in Merkenich, Germany, and Dunton in England, plus a new studio in Istanbul to support production of the Transit van range in Turkey, he keeps up a busy schedule.

Car Design News You’ve been at Ford in Cologne for a year now?

Joel Piaskowski Just over a year, settled in now. It’s a vibrant place to work and live. So many cultures, going from one country to the next, cars look so different: different terrains, different sizes, scales, different environments, how they’re used – it’s really enriching to have this opportunity.

CDN This is your first time to work in Europe?

JP No, it’s the second actually! I spent a year in 1995-96 in Opel, Rüsselsheim, lived in Wiesbaden. It was part of my GM era.

Focus facelift is a key car for Ford in Europe

CDN What’s the biggest culture difference within the studios at Merkenich and Dunton compared to Dearborn?

JP Ford of Europe is a much smaller scale than the mothership. That has pluses and minuses. The pluses are it’s more nimble, we can do things faster. The minuses are that you sometimes don’t have all the resources that you have in Dearborn. But with the nimbleness you can compensate.

CDN You’ve replaced some big names in your time. Gordon Wagener at Daimler, Moray Callum, now Martin Smith. Does that have its difficulties at times?

JP I don’t think it does. It’s an honour to hold this position, I don’t underestimate the significance of it. I’m thankful for this opportunity, Moray is relying on me to run the European operation so I carry lot of weight on my shoulders. At the same time, design is fun. If you let this business get to you, you’ll lose the vision of what we’re contributing to the company. In many cases Ford of Europe has a big opportunity to contribute to the overall global scheme of Ford. We’re working on a number of projects that will have that level of contribution, not just design but also from a Ford strategic standpoint. So still a very significant role in the global picture of Ford and Ford design.

Latest Ford Edge represents SUV focus of Ford in Europe

CDN When was the last time Ford had an American design boss in Europe? There’s been a number of design bosses going the other way such as Moray Callum, Chris Svensson, Amko Leenarts or David Woodhouse. Is this time to rebalance the situation?

JP You’d need to go back a number of years I guess. I’m not sure how it’s seen internally here by the designers. I look at it as an opportunity to bring cultures together and internally there are a number of cultures here anyway. You’ve got Eastern Europeans, Spanish, Italian, Turkish and Dutch designers, in addition to the Germans and British.

What we do is place people around the world to give global experience, so we all get stronger. We all have the opportunity to explore different countries, cultures and have that global experience. We have a big studio in Melbourne too, which is in growth mode now to support Asia Pacific. In the end it helps to grow that person.

CDN How is work split between Merkenich and Dunton? On a project basis or based around available skills?

JP Currently Dunton is exterior based and commercial vehicles. That doesn’t mean it’ll be that way forever though. We’re looking at other projects for it. Dunton has done everything over time – cradle to grave – to now commercial vehicles. At Merkenich we’re working with exterior, interior and colour and materials. Dunton also has its own colour and materials facility and they’re supporting not only commercial vehicles but also paint development. We’re upgrading our facilities at Merkenich, getting more technology into the place, to better respond. We’ve got a lot of programmes on our plate right now.

Piaskowski was design director and led the team for the 2015 Ford Mustang project

CDN How do you split your time between the two studios?

JP I’m based in Merkenich but I’m in Dunton once a month. We also have reviews over [web conferencing platform] WebEx, sometimes they’ll bring work over to Merkenich.

CDN Can Ford successfully engage with those larger segments again, like the Scorpio or Mondeo? They were big markets for Ford in the past…

JP Ford focuses on the customer, we do constant research into understanding what their needs are. We evolve with the customer’s needs. Of course we have to do a bit of futuring too. But there are certain mega trends. For example, millennials – 17-34 years old at the moment. They want SUVs, so what does that mean for the large segments? I’m not exactly sure right now but if you see this mega event moving towards SUVs and crossovers we’ve got a great portfolio at moment to support that need.

CDN What are your design priorities right now?

JP What’s really affecting the industry right now is C02 and CAFE. How can cars become more efficient. There are a few ways to do that, most obviously the technology of the powertrain and EVs. Or designing the vehicle to cheat the wind.

Previous explorations of aerodynamics by Ford that date back to the 1980s

CDN So, a resurgence of interest in aerodynamics, just like the early ’80s?

JP It’s even more extreme right now. We’re looking at production cars with 0.25Cd. Those were unimaginable back then in the ’80s and ’90s but are now becoming reality. It’s how you manage the airflow and the frontal area of the vehicle. That SUV/CUV genre of vehicles present a large frontal area and we have to look at how we might reduce that. Active aerodynamics comes in at a high cost. Some brands are doing that, of course. Or passive aero with clean underbodies and edges on the corners of the vehicle to trip the air as it passes over the body. It’s a challenge but also an opportunity. In the end it helps us to evolve and redefine our design language in many cases. Being able to incorporate those aero elements into a signature design language – especially the front and rear of the car – that’s the real challenge.