Recently, with the opportunity of the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, we had the privilege of interviewing Ford Motor Company design director Joel Piaskowski at the Ford Design Center in Detroit. The following is the details of this interview. 
Reporter: Hello, Mr. Joel Piaskowski, first of all to ask, under the big concept of the Ford family, the sales of new cars is already a concept of globalization, so Ford is not targeting only one region but the global The market also asks you to talk to us about the current design strategy of Ford's new car, or how you design a new car. In addition, can we explain in detail the current Ford's new car design language.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Thank you for coming. First of all, when designing a new car, Ford must follow the "Ford One Ford" family concept given by our CEO Mr. Alan Mulally. All new Ford cars must follow this concept. Inside our design team, under this concept, six design pillars have been derived, including “silhouette innovation and appearance innovationâ€, which means that the outline of the car should be innovated, and “permissible efficiency efficiency identification†means that from the outside It is seen that it is a highly efficient and environmentally friendly vehicle, and then there is "refined surface language surface language refinement," which means that the vehicle's surface lines must be beautiful, "technical graphics vivid technical characteristics" refers to the vehicle The appearance features, such as headlights, air intake grille, taillights, etc., are elements that can be observed by the eye. The vivid technical features allow you to feel the modern appearance of the vehicle, as well as the new face. Of ford" is Ford's new family Facebook, the last design branch Column is "visually premium visual luxury."
These six design pillars help our global design team design vehicles, so we have a common goal to meet the requirements of these six design pillars. And understanding customers is a top priority. With this premise, these six design pillars can be embodied in the design of new cars.
Through these six design pillars, we can begin to design new models for Ford. At the same time, as I just mentioned, understanding customers is very important. Who is the target customer group, what is the target customer's demand for the vehicle, and whether the customer base is more assertive or more traditional. Once you understand the customer base, you can make a very targeted design style for the customer's needs. This is how we design our vehicles. Combining an understanding of the customer with the six design pillars will help build Ford's brand image and make our car look like a Ford.
Before Alan Mulally took office, the design centers in different regions of the world each had different design styles for the local regional markets. Therefore, the European design center designed vehicles for the European market, the North American center designed vehicles for the North American market, and the Australian center Designed vehicles for Australia. But now these design centers in different regions have the opportunity to work together in the same project. For example, the new Mondeo design is produced through the global team design competition. All teams in different regions will come up with a plan. Everyone meets at the same location to bid. The leaders of each design center will also meet regularly, about three times a year. Each meeting place rotates between the seats of the design center.
Reporter: So far, Ford has several design centers around the world. Does it contain a Chinese design center?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Let me first talk about what design centers are in the world. There are certainly more than three. One of our two major design centers is Dearborn in North America, one in Cologne, Germany. There is also the design center of camacari Kamassari in Melbourne, Australia. In addition, Irvine, Irvine, Calif., Dunton, UK, and Dunton, UK, specialize in the commercial vehicle market, such as trucks and trucks. Irvine, Irvine, Calif., is an avant-garde design center. London and Shanghai also have two digital design centers. For the new Mondeo, all design centers around the world will join the model design competition. But in the end, there is only one design center that will have full responsibility for project development in terms of engineering and design. In the end, Dearborn's design center gained the authority to develop the project. All the conceptual models were sent to us and the final prototype was completed in North America.
Reporter: Ford Mondeo you mentioned earlier, many Chinese consumers will jokingly call it Mondeo Martin, of course, this is just a joke, but it also indirectly shows that Mondeo's front face and once Ford's Aston Martin's family Facebook has a high degree of similarity. So what do you think of the new generation of Ford family faces?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: The first thing I want to know is whether this nickname is positive or negative. Positive, good. This concept is very interesting, in fact I have heard Aston Martin's evaluation of the new Mondeo. If you put an Aston Martin and Mondeo together, the shape of the front grille is completely different. The new Mondeo is the first model to use the Ford family's front face, but if you look at the lines, it's totally different from Aston Martin.
Reporter: Most Chinese consumers like this front face.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: That's good news for us.
Reporter: Because it gives people a more luxurious feeling.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: This is the result of the sixth design pillar “visually premium visual luxuryâ€. It is indeed a very luxurious look. You also asked a design center specifically for China. I just mentioned that we have a small digital design center in Shanghai, but at the same time our design center in Melbourne, Australia, belongs to the entire Asia-Pacific product R&D team, so the Melbourne Design Center also For models that are only available for the Chinese market, models targeting the Chinese market will be available for sale in the coming years.
Reporter: Will it integrate into Chinese elements?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Of course. We have done a lot of research on Chinese consumers and investigated which type of car they like. So we really want to understand Chinese consumers and their needs. Because the demand in the Chinese market is very different from that in Germany and the United States, it is said that it echoes the first point that I just emphasized.
Reporter: Family design can be said to be the trend of automotive design. Some people say that family design is a face. How do you view family design? The same style of the public, as well as the ever-changing Toyota, you think you are better or worse? why?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Ford's direction is to have a global design language, that is, “ONE FORDâ€. It is very important for us to have a uniform appearance for models sold in the global market. For luxury brands such as BMW, Aston Martin, Bentley, and so on, the models in all regions of the world appear to be the same because they do not necessarily change the appearance of the local market. But if a model is sold for a single area, like the Ford F-150 Pickup or Mustang, they can have slightly different design languages. From the perspective of the overall product line, 80% of our products are sold on the global market, so these products need to have a highly unified Ford family DNA, as the remaining 20% ​​of the products can have a slightly different appearance. Because Toyota is a large company, regional differences are their corporate strategy. As I mentioned before, we are developing models that are only available for the Chinese market. Although they will have Ford DNA, they will also have some factors favored by Chinese consumers because we listen and learn in the process of investigating Chinese consumers. A lot of opinions and suggestions. These specific elements will not appear on products for other regions.
Reporter: So say you listened to the opinions of Chinese consumers?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Yes. What we found interesting is that many Chinese consumers actually like to sit in the back row, which means that the owner prefers to ride instead of driving. In our western countries, the owner is always the driver himself, but the situation in China is very different. Therefore, we specially improved the interior design for the rear car owners. For example, radio control and air conditioning control are integrated on the rear central armrest, and the front seat is equipped with a screen on the back, etc. In addition, the material grades and assembly techniques of the rear seats are specially upgraded.
Reporter: In addition, there is the ability to control the position of the front seats.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Yes, the rear seat can control the front seat forward.
Reporter: At present, Ford only has two brands, one Ford and one Lincoln, Lincoln is a luxury brand, but so far it has not officially sold in China. How does Lincoln's design philosophy affect consumer acceptance in China? What do you think about the popularity of design concepts in the consumer groups in different cultural fields?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: I think the fact that Lincoln is a luxury brand should be naturally accepted by Chinese consumers because Lincoln represents luxury and Chinese consumers can understand luxury cars in particular. So, introducing Lincoln into China will not happen. How difficult it is to meet, and I wonder if it answered your question. However, Lincoln's design will not particularly relocate with the Chinese market. Lincoln and Bentley have the same unique personality. Therefore, there is no difference between Lincoln sold in the United States and Lincoln sold in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Reporter: But in the luxury cars like China's BMW Audi Mercedes, their style is relatively introverted, but American brands such as Lincoln or Cadillac will be more extroverted. Chinese consumers are still more introverted, you are How do you see the problem?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: I agree with this statement. I think that Lincoln’s future design should tend to be low-key and reserved, but it is still very high-level, very luxurious, and the features of the online bar will not be so prominent. Like all limousines, Lincoln's focus will be on refinement and expressiveness, and how the car's texture and assembly process will show a sense of luxury. In terms of the aesthetics of the car, the shape of the sheet metal, the chrome trim and the interior material are all very important for a luxury car. So Lincoln will provide both ordinary interior and custom interior levels. The customized interior of the luxury series will be called the Black Label. The interiors ordered by the customer will be more luxurious and more advanced than the ordinary interior, and the price It will be more expensive.
Reporter: In the future, the design direction of the entire Ford is whether North American design will be closer to global design, or whether the two sides of the design are still different?
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Ford's global design language will appear on at least 80% of products, including North America. The only exceptions are those that are sold only for special markets, such as the F-150 and Mustang. We call this model a special regional model. Basically they are only sold in North America, so they do not need to use all Ford DNA. . But at the end of the day, they are still Ford's products. For the F-150, it is one of the best-selling models we sold. In North America, more than 750,000 vehicles were sold last year.
Reporter: Chinese consumers like it very much.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: Is that correct? Actually there is no North American unique design statement. Any design belongs to Ford, so Ford's design DNA applies to all models. Even if it is a special area model, you should have seen the new Ford Mustang at the auto show. Although it is a Ford product, it definitely has the style characteristics of Mustang. So having a Mustang style is the most important thing.
Reporter: In the end, thank you very much for accepting our visit.
Mr. Joel Piaskowski: You're welcome.