On the occasion of the global launch of the new Lexus LBX, we interviewed the head of Toyota and Lexus design, Simon Humphries, who reflects on the future challenges of automotive design and on the uniqueness of the Japanese identity.
What are your interests or influences when deciding on a design strategy to follow for the future?
Maybe I disappoint you a little with my answer, but most of the time what I do is follow my instincts, what comes out of the “guts”. 10 or 20 years ago, the way to reach a goal was to draw a straight line from A to B, but that is over, now you have to jump, try to ‘guess’ the future and what will come. And for that there are two ways: one is through instinct and intuition. The other is by listening, learning and observing what is happening around you. It is necessary to listen to the people, what they like and what frustrates them, the markets, the news, capture the energy of the moment; all that gives you clues of what can happen. There are no secrets, it’s about being open-minded… It’s the only way to do it in this day and age.
Today, with so many regulations, restrictions and regulations (safety, efficiency, etc.), how do you manage to translate original, essential ideas into a real product? Is it possible to be really creative and free designing?
You’d be surprised how much freedom we designers actually have. I like to think positive in relation to the limitations we have. It is true that they are challenges but, in reality, we as designers are “solvers” of problems. A designer or an engineer are employees hired to solve challenges. Sometimes it is better to have some limitation or constraint to stimulate the imagination. It is easier to adjust or adapt to certain limitations or impositions than starting from a completely blank sheet to focus on what is important.
You affirm that success does not come from the past or from heredity. Don’t you think that if a brand does not respect the aesthetic essence or tradition, it runs the risk of not being recognizable from a design point of view?
Heritage and history is really important but if you rely too much on that, or only that, you can be a victim of your own success. And that is a dilemma for all brands. We must seek authenticity in change and continuous evolution. If people see it with the perspective of time, they can also appreciate that there is something that is maintained and that it grows and evolves. It is important for Lexus to realize that our strength is in offering another way of looking at things.
What aspects do you think characterize Japanese design?
I am a foreigner there, although I have lived 34 years in Japan, but I think they should be more proud of their heritage and their way of doing things, especially in the car industry, like Italian or German brands are. Japanese society is incredibly strong and has an amazing ability to reinvent itself. They like change, the challenge of trying new things, and that’s a strength, as long as you do it in a way that doesn’t lose the essence. If we are all the same, it is not interesting.
From a more personal point of view, what would you like to design if you didn’t work in this industry?
I would love to restore houses. The house that my wife -who is Japanese- inherited from her parents is 100 years old. It is a small construction with a wooden structure, obviously, and it does not have a single nail, everything is made with joints. When you look at the simplicity and attention to detail it is truly amazing. It is incredible to think that it has survived a century, earthquakes and typhoons, and is still standing there. I love working with wood, carpentry, furniture, since I was little I like to use my hands.
Do you get to feel comfortable with your creations or are you always analyzing and trying to improve your designs through a permanent critical eye, thinking how could it be better, more authentic, more useful?
One of the most difficult things for a designer is knowing when to finish a design. Sometimes too much of something spoils it. That’s why it’s good to have an end point, a moment to stop, because otherwise you would always continue… Another fundamental element is knowing how to renounce what you’ve done in the past. We designers spend a year or a year and a half of our lives literally thinking and imagining a product, and then two, three or four years later someone tells you that you need to update, change, modernize and improve it. So, everything you have thought and designed has to change and therefore we also have to work on the ability to reimagine and rethink something until we find a better way to do it.
Is there something you miss from the past when designing? Perhaps so much technology makes it more difficult to transfer the essence, the emotions… is it so?
It’s the opposite, in my opinion. For 4, 5, or 6 years we are in the most interesting time for automotive design, because there is a revolution happening right now. I think that in 20 or 30 years we will look back and realize that this era was the one that changed everything, not only because of the available technologies. We have spent 100 years with a single technology, an engine, and in the last 10 or 15 we have 4 or 5 different propulsion technologies to experiment with (electric, hybrid, plug-in…). In the same way, before we were isolated in the car, now we are connected. Or the materials; before there was only steel, now there are composite materials and all kinds of options and opportunities. Even with steel what can be done now is unimaginable in terms of stamping depth, shapes and volumes… The possibilities are enormous today and there is more freedom, more challenges. Maybe I am an eternal optimist but there is still so much to do.
What is the field of design in which there is still more to explore?
There are challenges that have not changed. One of them is the air; we must go through it, through it, yes or yes. That is why aerodynamics is one of the aspects on which we must work more as designers so that the solutions are not the same for everyone, because for electric cars it is incredibly important.
In the past, was it easier to get an iconic design? Do you think it is increasingly difficult to come up with a model, a silhouette or a design that in 30 or 40 years will be remembered for its shapes, for its aesthetic personality?
It is true that in the golden age of automobile design, in the 50s or 60s -not so much the 70s or 80s- there was an intention to create “pieces” of art, or “sculptural” works that were like a declaration of intentions of power Of the brand. However, perhaps as a product they weren’t as good or as great. As a designer I don’t think it’s appropriate to consider myself a style creator, every designer – even a car designer – is first an industrial designer and their ultimate goal is not just to make something iconic or emotional, but also something beautiful, functional and easy to use.
