Pinoy designer Wini Camacho and his road to Mercedes-Benz
WINIFREDO “Wini” Camacho has penetrated, and flourished within, the inner sanctum of MercedesBenz, one of the world’s hallowed automobile brands. But he is averse to taking all the credit for such an undoubtedly immense achievement.
Speaking at the recent “Masters of Design Executive Talks” sponsored by First Pacific Leadership Academy and held at the Meralco Theater in Pasig City, Camacho cited Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book Outliers to help explain how he bucked the odds.
“Outliers are successful people who do things out of the ordinary, and outside of the normal experience,” he declared to the audience, largely composed college students from various universities. “(Gladwell) hypothesized that talent and hard work alone are not enough to achieve access. Being born in a particular year, and being in the right place and time are just as important. In this particular sense, I can be considered an outlier.” Camacho points to a specific world event in 1989, the Tiananmen Square protests in China, as having an “indirect impact” on his own career arc.
Born in 1965, one could say Wini’s path to the Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker began at a very early age. At around seven or eight, he was already doing impressive sketches of airplanes and spaceships, and “occasionally, dream cars… but back then I more interested in planes than cars.” Camacho revealed, “I knew even when I was a little kid that I would be pursuing some kind of design career.”
After finishing primary and secondary education at the Victoria School Foundation in Cubao, Quezon City, he took up Industrial Design at the University of Santo Tomas. Camacho furthered his innate skills there, which culminated in a design for a compact folding bike as his thesis. “It was a challenging and complex project,” he recalled.
Before finishing university, Wini attended a design seminar held at the National Museum during summer break, and was riveted by the presentation of the guest speaker, “a prominent industrial designer from Germany… who showed images of this remarkable southern city where he was based.” That city was Stuttgart. From thence, Camacho, admittedly a “chronic and obsessive dreamer,” fixated on being able to live and work there at some point in the future.
A slew of odd jobs followed his graduation from UST, first with a furniture firm as designer, then a junior industrial designer for a graphic and product design company. Then Camacho tried his luck on starting his own practice along with two former classmates. Among their clients as Procter & Gamble, for which they designed a packaging for its famous Tide detergent product.
On the side, Camacho “dabbled in product design like a Walkman cassette player… and early attempts at transportation design: such as a reimagination of the Mitsubishi Lancer. But a rapidly changing global status quo indeed had ramifications on his life.
The Tiananmen Square protests, which later degenerated into a massacre of democracy-seekers, had a chilling effect on many Hong Kong residents. “(It) was still a British protectorate due to be handed back to Chinese rule in 1997. After this incident, thousands of terrified HK residents feared for their future and left the territory,” narrated Camacho. “It created a void of skilled professionals. Because of this I got an opportunity to work there.”
He described his first place of residence there as a “shoebox,” a oneand-a-half-by-three-meter room without a window at Causeway Bay. Camacho soldiered on and worked for a merchandising company, then a toy maker. It was the first time he had a chance to work with a digital modelling software called Alias – designing preschool toys and remote-controlled vehicles. “I was probably one of the first in Asia to use that,” he averred.
Despite the large shadow then of China looming over Hong Kong, Camacho has fond memories of that time. “Hong Kong is such a dynamic and vibrant place that opened my eyes to endless possibilities of what I can do and what I can be.”
Following the discovery of his intense passion for car design, Wini applied for and was accepted to the prestigious Art Center Europe, nestled in beautiful Vevey in Vaud, Switzerland. He entered the transportation design program where, among other projects, Camacho submitted an impressive, modernday interpretation of the iconic Vespa scooter. His stint in the school would crystallize the designer’s preference for “pure, absolute, and distinctive shapes.”
In 1996, Wini moved to Pasadena, California campus of the Art Center as the Swiss facility was shuttered due to the lack of funds. Despite initially missing the serenity of Vevey, Camacho was eventually enamored by “the endless sunny days and live-for-the-moment attitude.” In the US, he continued to flex and hone his design muscles at the institution that is the first in the world to offer a course in transportation design and understandably “supplies a sizeable chunk of car designers worldwide.”
Two issues vexed him there, though. First was a lack of funds – which his mother addressed; and the prospect of getting a job after graduation.
Shared Camacho, “During that time, only the top 20 to 30 percent of the graduates would get a car design job. There were simply a lot more car design students than available jobs. Competition was really fierce.”
But the stars aligned with the talents of the self-confessed outlier “I was one of the lucky few. After interviewing with several companies, my dream finally came true. I got hired by Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Irvine, California.” Camacho said that one of the job clinchers was his proposed design for a Callaway GT racecar to run at the historic 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This is the part where things get more familiar and famous. Wini Camacho cultivated his reputation and renown in the Stuttgart company, and he acquired experience and expertise from postings in Sindelfingen, Germany; Turin, Italy; Yokohama, Japan; and Beijing, China. Now Germany-based again with his wife and daughter, Wini is currently a senior exterior designer. In his portfolio with Mercedes-Benz are work on the BDNT Denza and the MB G-Code, along with the X-Class pickup concept and C-Class.
Through it all, Camacho never forgets how lucky he is, and even more importantly, where he comes from.
“Ako po si (I am) Wini Camacho, and I’m very, very proud to be a Filipino,” he closed to thunderous applause.