At the recent Car Design Event in Munich, James McLachlan brought together a mix of designers to discuss brand transformation and, inevitably, what AI means for the next generation of designers. As it happens, many of them were sitting in the room and were happy to get involved in the discussion. 

There are worse places to host a fireside chat than in the library of the Munich Drivers’ Club, surrounded by motoring art and some of the comfier leather seats going. CDN was spoilt for choice when selecting the members of a panel discussion, but eventually settled on the following experts for a broad discussion around brand transformation, being bold and what the designer of the future should look like.

David Hilton, David Hilton Design

Felix Kilbertus, chief creative officer, Pininfarina

Jo Stenuit, design director, Mazda Motor Europe

John Krsteski, chief designer, Genesis North America

Below is a lightly edited excerpt of the conversation. 

James McLachlan: John, we have spoken about this idea of reaching new audiences and new markets. Genesis is an aspiring luxury brand with very well resolved cars, but is not as storied as other brands. How do you conjure that story?

John Krsteski: Story development is a big part of everything you do – what’s the story behind what you’re doing, what’s the story behind your concept, and so on. Although a lot of the ’designer story’ is oftentimes different to the ’public story’ from a marketing perspective, internally, we’ve actually evolved quite a bit to tell a story through visualisation and animation, which has become so fast now that in a matter of a couple of days, a designer can single handedly build their own model, animate it, compose music with it, and pitch it. You’re literally sitting there like you’re in a Hollywood studio watching this film – it’s pretty amazing. 

JM: It does sound incredible, albeit a little intimidating! And I do wonder what the role of technological change is playing in all this. 

JK: I mean, the tools we have available to us today are empowering, for sure. You can