Amko has been with Ford since 2012 , after a 12 age term of enlistment of duty with France ’s Peugeot - Citroen motor ship’s company . The Netherlands - turn out graphic designer oversees the upcountry design teams working on Ford and Lincoln vehicle that will be come out in the next several years .
Check out our consultation below , and come back to Gizmodo at 1PM Eastern Standard Time today , when we ’ll be host a commenter Q&A seance with Amko .
Gizmodo : When you ’re doing interior styling , how closely are you following trends ? Are you sample to make something that looks new powerful now or are you trying to predict what will appear adept down the railway line ?
Amko Leenarts : The distance of development that we do in elevator car is one of the long in the world of industrial design . It varies from three to five years . So we are obliged to watch the meta - trend , but we do n’t necessarily have to be hyper - stylish with the latest trend , because usually they go apace back out of fashion as well . And retrieve , our car keep being on the road for quite awhile , so we do n’t want them to be completely out of fashion within a class ’s metre . However , there are some of what we call meta - trends that happen in terms of cultural surroundings , sure custom in the world , obviously that leads us to certain material trends . So the materials that we add to the designing have to have some sorting of relevance in where the car is sell .
Gizmodo : How do you differentiate a elevator car for the U.S. market place versus one that ’s built for Europe or China ?
Amko : That is in spades one of the challenges that I would say in my experience is a little chip unique to Ford Motor Company , since we do make theoretical account that are deal all over the world with the same structure and a similar coming into court . The challenge that we have as a design organization is to make certain that the purpose is as flexible as potential so it can handle dissimilar stuff executions . That could mean that we have a variability in the size of the cupholders — they need to be bigger in the U.S. than they need to be in Europe , while the cupholder in China take to be more deep but somewhat smaller diameter . So apart from materials we also have operational differentiation between the unlike neighborhood that is by all odds a grown challenge . And the pattern that can handle that variance the good are the one that we select for further development .
you could see it very distinctly , there are enceinte differences between Europe , America and China , they inquire for different stuff because their tastes , the ethnical reference that multitude have with materials , are different . So to give you an example , in America we have more difficulties to have the American client take woodwind without any lacquer , they want the Grant Wood trim really shiny . While in Europe [ dull wood without lacquer ] is think as a more high - death solution . So it ’s that kind of flexibility that we talk about .
Gizmodo : What do you do other than when you ’re design the interior for a $ 15,000 saving car versus , say , a $ 70,000 sumptuosity SUV ?
Amko : You would be surprised that not everybody desire to ride a luxury railcar or a very jazzy motorcar . There are many , many different types of client and I think that we ’ve defined about 100 to 150 different archetypes of customers that are really look for dissimilar thing , they prise thing quite differently . So not everybody require to drive luxury . However you do desire to make trusted that your design looks more expensive than it actually is . So no matter which bracket out your project falls in : If you expend $ 15,ooo on the automobile , you want it to calculate like it ’s an $ 18,000 car or a $ 20,000 railroad car . If you spend $ 40,000 you want it to look like a $ 50,000 car . But there are brackets that we pilot in that works pretty well . If you go too far out , it ’s not satisfactory either . So a client that buys a value cable car might be more than happy to not have the leather lease ’s say , but what he does require is smartphone connectivity .
Gizmodo : So how do you make that $ 15,000 car look like an $ 18,000 car ?
Amko : That ’s a Ford secret ( laugh ) . In terms of pattern , you’re able to make thing count more expensive . We can be smart about how we design the surfaces so they look more expensive , they can catch more light or we retrieve way to shoot several dissimilar finish into the same mould , so we try as hard as possible to make it look expensive . There are some standard paradigms , like leather is more expensive , but there are sure textile that actually await more expensive than leather , and still are a muckle cheesy .
Gizmodo : With all the engineering science showing up in car , like touch screen , pilotage systems , smartphone integrating , is there a mode to supply those features without increase driver distraction ?
Amko : On the interior we have a lot of regulations and Torah that we have to work around or with , distraction regularisation . So engineering science has to be developed in a way that we can keep on doing that . We ’ve invested quite intemperately in vocalization control , we have the touch screen , but we need to put them in a path that they ’re not taking your eyes off the road too long . For representative , one of the ordinance that is coming in more and more is that there is a sealed , we call it the down - look angle within the interior , how far down do you have to take care to see a primary control , like clime control for example . That can not be lower than a certain degree of your angle any longer . So what you see is a meta - trend where all of the mastery are being prompt up in the vehicle . It ’s quite an interesting piece of the teaser and I certainly love that form of problem - lick challenge . Because these regulations might not in fact be necessarily very positive on ergonomics , on physical ergonomics like reach . So we always have to find ways to make some really interesting figure ideas .
Gizmodo : Are you ever tempted to do something really outlandish for an interior ?
Amko : That ’s really what we are always equilibrate in between : On one hand , you want something unique that fits the brand , and on the other hand you do n’t need to have something so unequalled that only 10 percent of the great unwashed like it . So apart from regulation that have got to do with beguilement or drive at night , there are a couple of other restraint that are just as difficult . For example , can you fabricate it in the mill ? The size of a dashboard is find out by the opening of the door , because the dashboard is go in through the side door [ during forum ] . So if exterior design and interior conception together design a door that is relatively small , then my dashboard has to be small as well because otherwise the robot can not get the dashboard in .
Gizmodo : Is there one signature feature that you like to admit in your future designs ?
Amko : I recollect the biggest difference of opinion in the future is that we wo n’t only have one or two features , but a serial of features that are create in the end an worked up connectedness with the customer . So if you compare it with euphony , or you compare it with poetry , or you liken it with a painting or a book , it ’s got different layers that create extra value in how you get that book , or movie , or composition of verse . And I think when we attain that , it ’s much more valuable than only one or two features .
Gizmodo : Where do you get inspiration for your design ?
Amko : We get it from everywhere . I in person get it a lot from interior architecture , I get it a lot from furniture , from industrial design . But the curious thing with automotive intention is that it can only look like it ’s a car . If a car looks like something else other than a car it wo n’t be acceptable as a car . On an Interior Department it ’s the same thing . I once designed an interior where the console somehow looked like an animal ’s nose . If people distinguish it as an creature ’s olfactory organ , they do n’t like it anymore , because they do n’t want to be reminded of that . It ’s get to do with create a design language that is sufficiently unique for your brand , that does n’t look like anything else , but still has the neutrality that you need to in guild to have it accepted . There is a certain neutrality demanded in auto design that hold it bet like a railcar , so your inspiration is much more philosophic than literal .
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