Wrap up: IAA Mobility Design show

By 8am, there was a car submerged in the lake directly opposite the main hall. As it turns out, this may not have been the ideal stage for an environmental protest given the resident population of fish and ducks. Save for a few onlookers, this spectacle would not prove too disruptive to proceedings at the 2023 IAA in Munich, an event that, ironically, has reshaped itself to address urban transportation challenges, improve air quality and boost road safety.

The IAA Mobility Design Conference was a three-way partnership between Car Design News, Konzepthaus and the organisers of the IAA itself. Drawing in more than 400 attendees, the day of discussions and workshops served as a honeypot for designers, attracting some of the biggest names not only in Europe but further afield in Asia and North America.

The underlining theme was around ‘designing the future of mobility’ which believe it or not has far more substance to it than those buzzwords might suggest. Designers are at the forefront of the automotive evolution, with electric powertrains, autonomous driving, digital cockpits and new ownership models all changing how cars are built and used. With speakers from big-name OEMs, promising start-ups, major suppliers and consultancies, as well as independent design veterans, we were in good hands to investigate.

The first session of the day asked how car designers could learn from the tech industry, be it the underlying mindset or the use of specific technologies. Both, it turns out, with an almost unanimous view that Big Tech is one of if not the biggest disruptors for car design today. “We have never been in closer competition with the consumer electronics space than we are today,” noted Christian Eckert of Icon Group.

Benoit Jacobs, former head of design at BMW i and Byton (among others) added that although technology trends are influencing car design today, policy could also play a bigger role moving forward. “Think about weight or size limits on cars entering big cities,” he suggested. “With all the additional hardware entering modern vehicles, you might need to make some compromises in terms of functionality to achieve that weight saving.”

Discussions also focussed on the design process itself, with a series of separate workshops running in parallel to the main stage. On the digital tools front, many of the day’s speakers praised the advances in software that have enabled teams to work faster and more cost effectively than ever before. But speed is not everything, and some cautioned against the idea of ever-shorter development cycles – unless a drop in quality and creativity is seen as an acceptable trade-off. (Spoiler alert, it is not.)

“I don’t think digital tools will ever be able to replace clay,” noted Nick McKinley, operations director at the Lotus Tech Creative Centre. Elaborating, he explained that although digital tools are indeed exceptionally useful, they can in fact require more work in certain areas, such as achieving product sign-off. “We found that VR models need staggering maturity in order to work in that respect,” McKinley said.

Elsewhere, and deep discussions were had on the role of CMF in the design process. Again, there was a chorus of agreement throughout the day: materials are playing a bigger role in the development process than ever before. Panellists included former JLR materiality director Amy Frascella. “In my 20 years in CMF, so much has changed in terms of the leadership and level of space it is given to operate within the wider business,” she observed. “That’s why it is so great to talk with industry professionals about this discipline which is having such an influence on the car.”

In another panel discussion, which investigated the emergence of new typologies and aesthetics, a key takeaway was the impact of geography. “When you go to the streets of Beijing you can see there is more of a style – a local style,” observed Changan’s Oliver Samson. Polestar’s Max Missoni added that there have been other interesting shifts in Chinese car design.

“The biggest surprise I’ve seen is the focus on adding content. What was perceived as luxury in Europe has made its way into the middle market in China, so we’ve seen a real shift there.” Over in India, and brands like Ola are seeing an emotional response to sustainable design. “This means a lot of our customers,” said head of design Wayne Burgess. “We even have the hashtag ‘End the ICE Age’, so our CEO is clearly very committed to this.”

Offering a broader perspective, Citroen design boss Pierre Leclercq highlighted that regardless of segment, region or intended customer, “what you’re designing should be a good-looking car,” but added that beauty was no longer enough on it’s own. Leclerq explained how designers need to be thinking about modularity and how we can decarbonise the design process and CMF needed to play a greater role.

Changan’s Sampson proposed the idea of “imperfect” aesthetics in a bid to shake up the status quo. “When you’re hired as a director, your bosses want something new, something fresh. But we’re at a point where we’ve seen so many perfect proportions that we might have to turn to something else.”

The discussion of a new aesthetic results partly due to the progression of autonomous driving, which although in its infancy has already led to new cars being fitted with external radar, camera and LiDAR sensors.

Approaches vary, but Polestar’s Missoni suggested that these features can be celebrated in the luxury segment as a symbol of wealth.“In Europe, we are working with tech as a means of aesthetics – transporting the object to the surface in a graphical way of celebration,” he said. “The price of a radar is much higher than just a strip of chrome, after all.”

In the holistic design panel, newly minted head of design at Volvo Cars, Jeremy Offer, shared his insight as an experienced industrial and product designer. “Both of these fields of design can be layered into more traditional areas of car design like exterior and interior. It is about folding in the emotional values of car design with some of the more technologically driven areas of product design.” Speaking to CDN at the sidelines of the show, he later quoted Dieter Rams: “Reduce to the maximum, but don’t eliminate the poetry.”

Danila Giordano, CMF innovation manager at Stellantis, implored both the panel and the wider audience to embrace the various changes afoot in car design, not only for the sake of the environment but to find new, better solutions. “This is our moment to be disruptive, creative and to change the status quo,” she emphasised.

Amko Leenarts of Ford noted that the new generation of designers coming through are less intent on the traditional ideals of car design – and are indeed more holistic in their thinking: “This new breed of designer can bring something different, which we are seeing can result in more of an experience-first product.”

Speaking of the next generation, what skillsets do budding car designers need to succeed? In the view of Lucid’s Derek Jenkins, storytelling is a core component. “You need to be able to inspire the engineering group to embrace a new idea,” he explained. “That is one of our strongest assets, and especially in a world where AI plays a greater role. For now, it’s up to us to decipher the story and tell that.”

In a way, it boils down to people skills. “Designers must be able to collaborate,” Jenkins continued. “If you can’t work with your counterparts in finance, marketing, or any other department, you won’t get to the key stage of addressing things like cost and production feasibility.”

Attentions turned to the demands of senior management as they build the team of their dreams. This usually results in a mix of backgrounds, skills and personalities, and getting everyone to work toward a shared goal and in harmony is not always straightforward.

Holger Hampf, president of BMW Designworks, said the aim is to “provide a work environment that is inspiring, and to give the right tools to those they hire.” Anecdotally, he suggested that leadership was “more of a one-way street” in the early stages of his career, but has since morphed into more of a two-way dialogue “with respect on both sides.”

Mahindra’s Pratap Bose has very recent experience of building out a design team in the UK and India. In both cases, the aim was to promote “diversity in culture and inclusion of thought” he explained. “When you have a designer from Canada doing a pickup for Australia; or someone from Iran designing the Thar Electric for the global market, it creates unexpected solutions. That’s the kind of culture we’ve tried to set up. It’s about global solutions with local flavours.”

Lutz Fügener, who runs the Design & Mobility BA at Hof University, has tried to foster a culture where students are able to discuss their designers in a constructive manner, effectively prepping them for ‘real world’ solutions at a proper studio. “It is about saying, “Sure, I like this part of the design, but I have an idea about how we could do it a little differently,” he said. “It’s about moving forward, and at the end you should be able to say: Our new solution is much better than our previous one.”

In the afternoon session, the pillars of design leadership were investigated in further detail. Martin Groschwald of Konzepthaus explained that, at a basic level, it is about hiring somebody who is suited to the role but also matching the individual with the culture. “Companies have to support the mindset of their designers,” he said. “For example, if the culture is overly corporate, that might be a disaster for a hyper creative.”

Carl Gotham, advanced design director at SAIC London, highlighted that many design teams today are based in a different country – or even continent – to the main organisational mothership (as he is at the satellite studio in the UK.) It comes down to the underlying corporate culture to ensure that remote studios do not feel isolated or autocratic. “We are of course supported by the wider organisation back in Shanghai, but we’re also kept at a distance. That allows us the freedom to explore a bit more,” Gotham explained. On the subject of his own journey into leading a studio, Gotham revealed he had initially turned down the offer of a promotion because

Andrew Lewis, head of people experience at Volvo Cars, vocalised a thought that perhaps many share but rarely speak. “We need leaders who understand that, at the end of the day, this is a product we intend to sell and profit from. We of course need highly skilled people, but not one-dimensional people who are obsessed only with just the poetry of design. We are not an art museum, we are an organisation and we need to sell products.”

Toyota Boshoku’s chief branding officer Richard Chung, one of those rare designers who has made into the boardroom, spoke about his first break into a leadership position. Having a support structure is crucial, Chung pointed out, as is a desire to understand all aspects of the business. “What designers can offer the boardroom are our acute observational skills. We can see the bigger picture, identify an issue and solve it.”

All that being said, questions were raised by the audience as to why there remains such a gender imbalance in car design, which is heavily weighted in favour of men. As is often the case, there was not a conclusive answer to why more women are not making it into car design and, importantly, why there are not more women in high-ranking design roles. The CDN team was glad to hear this issue being raised; one of the most challenging aspects of hosting a conference is convincing brands to put forward more diverse speakers. The point served as a reminder that there is much work to do – in all aspects of automotive design.