"Why," I wondered out loud to Nissan and Infiniti designer Shiro Nakamura, "aren't cars elegant anymore? Why do designers revel in complexity?"
"Complexity?" he asked, grabbing my pencil and pad from my hands. "For some people, maybe, but not us.
"The key element is the face of the car. Can you draw a face that is recognisable on every model in three or four lines?
"If so, that is simple, successful design. You can add more - but if you look at those few lines and know what car it is, then the design is working."
Thirty seconds later he'd drawn the two faces of his brands, signed my notepad and proved me very wrong.
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Original Ford Ka
Lots of people complaining about design
But if you say to them: "Don't like your Mercedes C-Class coupe? Buy a Renault Laguna Coupe, or Peugeot RCZ"
Oh but it'll break down, and the switchgear makes the wrong sound, and it'll have abysmal depreciation and...
People say they want stylish and elegant cars but what they buy are the same old conservatively styled black and silver models and the companies that make such cars keep on making them because people are buying them.
You want stylish cars then you have to give style a higher priority in your buying decisions. If most people are buying on 'quality' rather than style then you're going to end up with nondescript styling that offends the least number of people because that allows the company to maximise it's profits.
Its this sort of nonsense