Raphael Bretecher on design mavericks and concepts

Car Design News: We spoke a little earlier about this idea of the maverick designer — the creative force within the studio — and how important it is to have these characters who might provoke a little. Can you tell us a bit more about the thinking behind that?

Raphael Bretecher: I think in car design, you have to find fresh ideas. It’s very important that young designers show character, be a bit of a maverick, and provoke things. It may work—or it may not—but at least it’s something fresh. That’s much more important than having people who are just following the format, doing exactly what is expected. That’s nice, but everybody does that. To have disruptive ideas, I think, is the future. It’s what we need to move forward.

CDN: I think that’s really interesting. But the trouble sometimes is corporate culture. CoRBorations have to follow formats and processes if they’re going to function. So, design almost needs to be treated as a special case, where its role is to poke the bear a little.

RB: Absolutely. I really think the role of leaders is to promote these kinds of characters. At the end of the day, what you want is to create reactions, emotions. If things are too strict or too framed, it’s very difficult to get something fresh and forward-looking.

For me, what’s really important is that I always encourage young designers to explore ideas people haven’t thought about. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t successful at first—it might take two or three iterations. Sometimes ideas that seem crazy today won’t seem crazy in three years. I push designers to have a vision—not just for the next two months, but for the next five years, for example.

CDN: In that spirit, you’ve brought an interesting concept car here today. Can you tell us a bit about the thinking behind it? It has a very distinctive form language, as well as a fascinating interior HMI.

RB: Oh, yes. That was a fantastic project to work on. Last year, we created two very notable show cars at Hyundai. We had done the “InstaRead” and are now continuing that legacy with Concept 3. This is a very important car for us because the show car hints at what we’ll bring to production later on. Of course, the production car won’t look exactly like the show car, but it establishes the foundation for what we’re trying to achieve.

Both the exterior and interior reflect the design philosophy we aim to implement in production cars. For the interior, we focus on furnished spaces, curves in the upholstery—topics we are developing further for production. We’re pushing these ideas even more in this type of concept car.

The little widgets around the steering wheel illustrate our philosophy as well. Personally, I don’t believe in massive screens in cars. I think the direction will be toward smaller, customizable displays. You can have three, four, none, or just plug in your phone. I believe that’s the future.

So, this concept car shows where we’re heading. Of course, a production car won’t be exactly like this, but it’s a clear signal of our design direction.