Scout on channeling the 'heartland' in its interior design 

James McLachlan: Dwayne, you were on a panel discussion today called The Road Trip Revisited, hosted ably by Donald Osborne. What were the main takeaways from that discussion? What came out to you as particularly interesting themes?

Dwayne Jackson: Well, that all of us designers actually think alike. We have very similar approaches, even though we come up with unique things for our vehicles and our brands. It’s great to see that when we have these types of discussions that we're all like-minded, but also pushing the limits in different ways and that we can come together, talk about what we're doing, and still go our separate ways and find different paths and ways of executing design.

JM: Your brand Scout speaks to this kind of big skies, big country theme. The harvester idea, all this iconography of the scale of America. How do you manifest that in some of your interior design work?

DJ: That's a good question. A lot of the heritage of Scout is born in the International Harvester, right? Its roots are in agriculture so the heartland is a part of its heritage. That was displayed in the vehicle in terms of colour and materials, and we've carried that on in a more modern way. We've done it with texture in many different ways and forms, so that's one of the ways that we've depicted that from our heritage.

JM: When you look at the interior of those show cars and when you sit in them, the switchgear feels very substantial, and there are strong architectural forms. That runs counter to what we've seen before with a lot of functionality placed in screens, removed or hidden in certain layers of technology. It feels like a conscious decision for your interior design to sort of move away from that.

DJ: Absolutely. We wanted our vehicle to be a connection machine, and that wording manifests itself in different ways through the UI/UX in terms of how we're able to connect with the user only when needed.

You can share it with your front passenger, for example, with the screen that moves side to side. But also in the way that we interact with the vehicle and the controls. We don't want to fiddle around or look down when we are driving the vehicle – and if you're off-road. I challenged my team to come up with ways of making it look rugged, and to think of the cockpit of a helicopter or a plane.

JM: That is inspiring, and I think that really speaks to this idea of perceived quality. The sound of the click, the clunk. Is it trial and error to get all that right?

DJ: It's iteration, but it's also connecting with our own team and the UX leader to make sure that we get that correct. If it's digital, we want to make sure that it sounds a little bit more analogue. If it's mechanical, we want to make sure that you hear that click. And a lot of that is because we've actually gone back to that heritage of harvesting and the farmland. We've gone to grain silos, got the sound from the old vehicle or from an old harvester in the field. We try to connect all of that from a design standpoint.

JM: I think that is interesting because you are effectively designing emotion in some ways.

DJ: Yeah. It's not just designing the aesthetic and what it feels like from a colour and material standpoint, or what it sounds like, or what the screen looks like. It's an experience. And that's what we are here to do, to provide the customer with a vehicle that encompasses all of that.

JM: What about your own career history – how have you arrived at this spot you find yourself?

DJ: I'm not that old, but it's a long story. I started out loving cars from an early age. Chris Benjamin [Scout head of design] and I went to a high school where we learned design and how to develop design together as young adults. I graduated school and wanted to focus more on product design, even though I started out doing show cars in my first year or two. I started working at Peterbilt and then went over to Motorola doing consumer electronics.

JM: Oh my gosh.

DJ: From there I went to consumer goods working with Domino Sugar bottles, for example. After that, working with agriculture, which is interesting because there’s that connection again with Scout. It’s an interesting one. I understand agriculture and tractors and combines and sugarcane harvesters and how farmers have to use them.

JM: You're really designing something that has to be ultimately super functional because this is people's day jobs. It's got to work.

DJ: Exactly, but they also spend a lot of money and spend a lot of time in these vehicles. So it's got to be comfortable and ergonomically correct, but they also like a nice cabin, right? You’re spending half a million dollars on a combine, you're spending half of your day, 10 to 12 hours in it. When I touch something, it should feel like quality but also look great.

JM: How has this informed some of your work at Scout? And what have you taken from all these quite different experiences?

DJ: After agriculture, I actually worked at Stellantis. My goal moving there was to help everyone – designers, engineers – understand that designers don't think just about aesthetics, we think about function as well, and we've got to take it into production. My career has taught me a lot about things like different plastics, different ways of manufacturing, and how to take things from concept to production.

JM: Marrying creativity with execution.

DJ: Yes.

JM: So although you are doing show cars to start with, you're hoping they'll reach production in some way close to what you've already done.

DJ: Absolutely. Our goal is not just to sell an aesthetic vision.

JM: Chris has built a really strong team at Scout. How are you working with someone like Aileen Barraza on CMF? Are you challenging each other, pushing each other? Is it just a harmonious, happy family? Tell me about life in the studio.

DJ: It's very good, we do push each other and yes it does get tense, but we understand that it's not about us at the end of the day. It's the end goal. Our team is diverse which is great because you get people from different cultures coming together with different ways of influencing the vehicle. So that's also a great thing. Diversity to me is a very important part of development.

JM: Hand in hand with that, I suppose you have to be open-minded to new experiences, new ideas. How do you reconcile that with the need to make decisions quickly?

DJ: That's where it comes down to communication within the team, understanding that we're going to look at everything fairly and have that open discussion. It's just open communication. Feelings are feelings and designers are very passionate, but everyone understands the end goal.

JM: If people understand the rationality behind an argument, you're halfway there towards a harmonious working relationship. And with all those egos smashing around the studio.

DJ: Yeah, I have to put my own ego to the side sometimes, but it works.

JM: Dwayne, always a pleasure to catch up with you and be in Michigan. And we look forward to seeing the real-life production cars at some point.

DJ: Can't wait to take you guys around it.