Car Design News: Anthony, really interesting discussion earlier. One topic that came up was this idea of design strategy and how you adhere to one when everything is moving so quickly. Maybe share some more thoughts on that particular conundrum.
Anthony Lo: I think design strategy needs to create bandwidth from the very beginning that designers and the rest of the company can follow, but not so restrictive that you are limiting the creativity of designers. Design strategy is about the type of products that you want to incorporate in the future portfolio that you are able to use that strategy to guide you. For example, even if the market situation is changing, there’s a certain North Star that you can follow to stay on course while creating something meaningful.
I think Klaus [Zycoria] mentioned something about this earlier. You want something meaningful, but also a good story that people can understand, and something unique that your brand can tell. In the past, design strategy was useful for the design team at the start of a new project because you don’t just go randomly searching for something new.
Sometimes a brief could come in and say, hey, this product is doing very well, why don’t we do something like that? But we want to make sure that there are certain guidelines that designers and the rest of the company can follow; everybody shares the same goal, understanding that this is eventually the kind of brand we want to build. And that from there, the products will somehow follow that path.
Even small details can make a big difference
CDN: That’s a really interesting position to put yourself in because, by adhering to a set of principles that the whole company can buy into, it does place design in a leadership position within the OEM structure.
AL: This is in fact our goal. I think design plays different roles within different OEMs. But at the same time, I feel that design can definitely play a leading role because it should be more holistic to include not only products but all customer touch points. We need to think about how your products appear in front of customers, for example, and whether this is virtual or physical. This is the power of design, our ability to visualise the future and this is just a part of my job.
The other thing is that we have created different colour palettes for each of our brands and are using those as a guideline to differentiate brands and you can see that at the Shanghai Auto Show. This is very, very simple way, but it works and even these very small details can make a big difference.
CDN: Thank you so much for your time today.
AL: James – lovely to see you, and see you at the next event.
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