In this era when appearance is productivity, appearance may definitely make your first impression of a car, and even determine whether you will choose it. Don't mention what intrinsic product power, many people look at the low value of the direct PASS, where is the opportunity to understand the inner? For a car brand, a good designer is very important, today we will take stock of the designers of major independent car brands.
Design Director of Changan Passenger Vehicle
Former Chief Designer of Mazda: Atsuhiko Yamada
This year, Changan Automobile is expected to climb the sales champion of its own brand, and high value is definitely a major killer of Changan Automobile in recent years. The previous Changan Automobile has always been rough in terms of design, but since the emergence of Changan CS75 PLUS, The appearance of Changan Automobile has suddenly improved by leaps and bounds, all of which is inseparable from one person, that is, the former Chief Designer of Mazda: Atsuhiko Yamada.
The CS75 PLUS is Yamada Atsuhiko's first work after joining Changan Automobile, although it is only involved in the later optimization, but the UNI series models are Yamada Atsuhiko's solid works. Atsuhiko Yamada can be said to be a big name in the design circle, Mazda's "flow" design concept pioneer (SENKU), Taiki (TAIKI) two concepts, Mazda's "soul" design concept, Mazda's many mass production cars are his works, Mazda models can be said to be zero bad reviews, enough to see his design skills.
Vice President of Global Design at Geely
Former Bentley Brand Design Director Steven Silaf
Geely's two design directors are not small, the previous design director is Peter Hobley, who served as the design director of Volvo for 11 years, and he is responsible for the development and design of S40, S60, S80, C30 and other models. He then designed brands such as Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Lincoln. His successor, Stephen Silaf, has worked in the design of well-known automobile groups such as Audi, Daimler and Volkswagen. In 2015, he became The Brand Design Director at Bentley.
"The most beautiful Chinese car" of Bo Rui is Peter Hobley's masterpiece, using the "Hui" shape of the water wave ripple shape front grille, Yu Ruyi, West Lake broken bridge, terraces and other quite a lot of Chinese elements. Lynk & Co's design concept of "urban opposition aesthetics" is also his work.
Vice President of Styling at Great Wall Haval Design Center
Former Land Rover Design Director: Phil Simmons
Pierre. Pierre Leclerq is the former design director of the Great Wall, who served as the chief designer of BMW, responsible for the design of the SHAPE of bmw X5 and X6, and after coming to the Great Wall, the design language of H2S, the second generation H6 and weY brands was completed by Pierre.
After Pierre left in 2014-2017, in 2018, the Great Wall hired former Land Rover design director - Phil Simmons, who has designed the Land Rover Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Star, Discovery and other models. After Phil Simmons joined the Great Wall, he led the design of Haval H6, Tank 300, Haval Big Dog and other products, and the performance of these models after the listing has obtained very good market sales.
The Great Wall also has a designer from the former Porsche- Eamon Delta, responsible for the design of Euler and other models, you can understand, Euler's good cat and lightning cat, why is it so similar to Porsche?
Design Director of BYD
Former Audi design director – Wolfgang Joseph Egger
Once BYD, in the face value, was widely complained about, but with the addition of Egger, BYD's face value design has improved by leaps and bounds. He has worked for Brands such as Alpha Romeo, Seat and Audi, and was responsible for the design of two brands, Audi and Lamborghini, during his tenure at Audi. The Audi A6, Q7, R8 and Audi quattro concept cars are all his work, and after joining BYD, the "Dragon Face" design language is the work it brings.
BYD's "Dragon Face" design language, in the BYD Dynasty series can be seen, BYD in the replacement of the new design language, the value of the face has been greatly improved, and the launch of DM-i hybrid, but also let BYD's sales began to blowout, the value does not drag back, the product force can keep up, the market sales are naturally a natural thing.
Chery Design Director
Former SAIC-GM-Wuling design director – Steve Aim
The appearance of Chery models is definitely the most complained about among independent brands, relatively speaking, the design director of Chery models is also the smallest among several independent brands.
Chery actually had a big name designer before, that is, Kevin Rice, Who was responsible for the exterior design of BMW's 1 Series, 3 Series (2011), 4 Series (2013) and 3GT (2013) models. As Mazda's European design director, he was involved in the design of Mazda MX5, CX3, Koeru, RX Vision and MX5-RF, but I don't know why, after joining Chery, his design skills seem to have declined, and in just 16 months, Kevin Rice resigned.
Kevin Rice was succeeded by Steve Aim, a Korean-American who served as assistant chief designer for GM and design director for SAIC-GM-Wuling, responsible for the design of the Baojun brand. His resume is obviously not as polished as that of other big-name designers, but his determination is not small, saying that "my task at Chery is to help Chery raise its design level to an international level." But it is clear that the Korean-American has reneged on his promise, the "tiger-style" front face and the star of the Tiggo 8 are his works, and after he joined Chery, the design of Chery models has not been qualitatively improved, but has recently begun to take a shortcut to imitate and learn.
Global Design Director of Hongqi
Former Rolls-Royce Design Director – Giles Taylor
The design director of Hongqi Motors is definitely the biggest, and it also explains very well why the design of Hongqi's high-end models in recent years is so similar to Rolls-Royce, because its designer is the design director of Rolls-Royce before, and the design of Phantom, Shadow, and the first SUV Cullinan, are all completed by him. In 2018, Giles Taylor joined Hongqi, and the Hongqi L-Concept car unveiled at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show is his first work to complete the leading design, with a high appearance and a strong aura.
However, it should be noted that the Hongqi H9, which is known as the "domestic Rolls-Royce", is not designed by Giles Taylor, but by Ding Yangfeng, a local designer in China.
Global Design Director, SAIC Passenger Vehicles
Local designer - Shao Jingfeng
As an outstanding representative of local designers, you may not have heard his name, but you must have seen his design of the car, Shao Jingfeng worked at SAIC Volkswagen from 1999 to 2011, designed the Passat New Collar, Langyi and other classic localization models, known as the "father of Langyi", now you understand why Roewe's model design has the shadow of Volkswagen.
Since October 2011, Shao Jingfeng has been the deputy chief designer and global design director of the technical center of SAIC Passenger Vehicle Company, responsible for the styling design of roewe and MG brands. The first model he brought is the Roewe RX5, although the product strength of this car is not top-notch, but the design is a hit, the appearance is quite outstanding, became the explosive model of the year, and then roewe i6, MG 6, MG ZS, MG HS and other models listed, have achieved good market heat.
Design Director of PASSENGER CARS at GAC Motor
Local designer - Zhang Fan
When did GAC's own brand models rise? Everything must come from Trumpchi GS4 and GS8, at that time the Chinese people were more surprised, the original domestic cars can also be designed so good-looking, and their designer, is Zhang Fan.
Zhang Fan worked as a designer of the Mercedes-Benz R&D Center at the age of 28, participated in the design of classic Mercedes-Benz models such as Mercedes-Benz SL and A CLASS, and was hired by the headquarters of the German Mercedes-Benz Company as a lifelong car stylist. In 2011, Zhang Fan left Germany to join GAC as the design director of the Concept and Styling Design Center of GAC Automotive Engineering Research Institute.
Before Zhang Fan joined, Trumpchi's car captain was like this, and the design language was somewhat similar to that of BYD before, in short, it was definitely not a high value.
After Zhang Fan joined, Trumpchi's car captain was like this, which was enough to see how important a good designer was. Zhang Fan's first work is GS4, although the shape design is still very tough, but in many details, it also shows a unique sense of design, he brought the GAC Light and Shadow Sculpture 2.0 concept, the sense of design is very strong, and the originality is very high, which is very rare.
GS4 achieved sales of 200,000 vehicles in 2017, and GS8 sales also exceeded 100,000 vehicles, and the value of the face is absolutely indispensable.
The above is the inventory of the eight major designers of domestic cars, of which there are many big-name designers and many capable designers, but the most controversial may be Chery. After so many years, Chery still has not formed a design language that impresses us, and I hope that Chery will work hard to catch up in terms of appearance.