Less Is More
What makes a design truly great? Mazda’s head of design Ikuo Maeda talks about Japanese aesthetics, cars as art, and the road ahead for the brand.
Any discussion about Mazda design must sooner or later lead to one person: Ikuo Maeda. Few people have shaped Mazda’s more recent design evolution quite as much as the “father” of Kodo design. When he became Mazda’s global head of design in 2009, with more than 20 years of Mazda experience under his belt, he took the brand in a bold new direction while simultaneously reconnecting it with its Japanese roots.
What does design me to you?
For me, it is about creating a beautiful shape that moves the hearts and enriches the minds of those who see it.
What is your definition of good design?
I see good design as something that is refined down to minute details to offer a beautiful, emotional shape while perfectly embodying its creator’s inspiration and message.
What is your wish for t future of car design in general, d Mazda in particular?
Today the automotive industry is standing at a major crossroads. Car values are changing, and so are car designs. In the midst of such transformation, I do not want to witness the beauty of cars and the golden rule cultivated through cars’ long history being lost along the way. I want us to be a member of a group that aspires to support the advancement of car design culture through innovation, in a way that complies with the aesthetics standard.
A dern Mazda car lo s quite different from its predecessors. What do you see as a mark of contiity in Mazda design through t years?
Putting significant effort into creating form, and our special way of creating designs by hand.
What makes a design a Jap ese design?
Less is more. First and foremost, Japanese design must be simple and pure. Then, it must provide a feeling of depth within its simplicity. Making such a design requires meticulous calculation and preparation, followed by extensive time spent on refinement and polishing to finally create the ultimate shape. Japanese aesthetics has a way of offering depth and richness through processes that take a great amount of time and tend not to be directly visible at first sight. Good examples of this are Japanese dashi (soup stock), multiple-layer Japanese lacquer crawork, and the traditional procedure followed in Japanese tea ceremonies.
Today, Mazda has acclaimed design througut its entire line-up. You follow a “car as art” concept – c you explain your metd to achieve this?
We have an annual process of creating art pieces in house, where each member can choose to work on any assignment of their liking. Known as “exploratory preparation”, it can be done alone, in collaboration with other artisans of Japanese traditional cras, or in collaboration with a non-automotive design team. There are no restrictions as to what method is used to create an art piece. I believe that mingling with different artists and being exposed to a variety of ideas may spark a sort of chemical reaction, which can give us ideas for new design shapes. We also spend a generous amount of time carefully translating these ideas into something we can use for car design. I believe that a design’s success or failure is already decided before any work on the actual product design begins.
Tell us w you pl to evolve Kodo design in t future.
The theme of Kodo design is to breathe life into forms. Grounded in this theme, we are taking on the challenge of portraying Japanese aesthetics in physical designs, and bridging the gap between universal and advanced designs while aiming to establish a new style of expression that represents Japan.
What are your favourite designs outside of t auto tive world?
Architectural masterpieces that were built over years and years of construction work. Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece in Barcelona, the Sagrada Família, is one example.