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The 25 most influential people working car designers today.
1 WALTER SILVA 59, Italian leader in the design, key Volkswagen Group cars Audi R8 and A5, VW Scirocco 2009 and 2012 Jetta.
While other major design leaders were poured Ed Welburn brands General Motors and J Mays at Ford, Silva as top designer within the VW acquisitive group has been busy adding them, the last being Porsche This brings his total to eight consumer brands Audi Bentley Bugatti Lamborghini Porsche Seat, Skoda and VW representing some 6 3 million sales in 2009.
Silva made his name with Alfa Romeo 156 sedan and Sportwagon and beautifully proportioned late 1990s, with their simple curves and rear door handles hidden switch VW Group in 1999, he added the excitement of Spanish brand Seat with Salsa and Tango concepts and Leon production and Altea before putting Audi more curves, more complete and emotional design volumes gapey grilled from 2002 TT power, A5, A6 and R8 are his work, and all were critical and commercial success.
As head of design of the VW Group since 2007, Silva turned his attention to the redesign of the VW brand and replace its rather clumsy, chrome-faced, large screens with thinner, more subtle, embodied by the new Jetta and Scirocco which is not sold in the States the only blip in his list was the low retro 2006 Lamborghini Miura concept homage that aside, scale drawings, brands, segments, consistent sales and internal and external influence was astonishing as auto analyst Max Warburton said, investors are increasingly trying to determine which company will be the most consistent in the provision of in successful products Silva, the VW group found its success machine.
2 SHIRO NAKAMURA 60, Japanese Senior Vice President and Creative Director of design, Nissan Cube car keys and 350Z, Infiniti FX45 and Essence.
Nakamura is the man who put the Japanese car design on the map after decades of copycat designs foreseen under the radar Isuzu in 1999, he oversaw the onslaught of radical concepts and high production cars sold under the Nissan Revival Plan Carlos Ghosn included in the list are Nissan Cube, the 350Z, Murano, Juke, and in Europe, various Micras and Qashqai, and the FX45 and the Essence concept Infiniti key to its success is not only its ability and work ethic he would often work twelve hours a day from a GT-R with drivers, but also his ability and willingness to communicate his views internal and external relevance and global experience, he studied at the art Center in the United States and worked in Europe and Japan Bonus fun fact Nakamura was a jazz bassist before starting his career in the automotive industry.
3 Van Hooydonk 46 ADRIAN, director of Dutch Design, BMW Group car keys 2004 BMW 6 Series X6 Vision EfficientDynamics.
A BMW man through and through, van Hooydonk joined the company in 1992 and was completely involved with Chris Bangle and his very controversial, but also a great influence, siding linguistic conception busier and more complex flame surfacing has arose in the automotive industry for their work became and remains prevalent today, he followed in the footsteps of Bangle to become director of BMW design in 2004 and became responsible for the group design, including Mini and Rolls-Royce when his mentor resigned in 2009 cars beyond, van Hooydonk gets the bigger picture of the design, he was Director of the BMW product advice, DesignworksUSA in California for three years models of current mainstream cars BMW have been watered down under his watch, but this brand and designer a very bright future and are still able to produce stunning cars like the Z4 and the concep Does Vision EfficientDynamics.
56 4 J Mays, vice president of the US global design and creative director, Ford keys Audi Avus, VW Concept 1, 2005 Ford Mustang.
It was ten years ago, Mays was responsible for eight brands Aston Martin Ford, Jaguar Lincoln Mazda Mercury Land Rover and Volvo With the sale of Volvo to Geely earlier this year and the demise of Mercury, the only marks left are Ford and Lincoln, these two brands account for about 4 to 5 million vehicles a year, and the world Ford is in better overall shape of the design that's for decades, in large part due to in the direction of Mays and implementation of the one Ford global policy of the famous entry of European Fiesta to the US market is just one example Add his inheritance 1991 of successful concepts Audi Avus led to the TT and the concept VW 1994, 1 the new VW Beetle capacity of its feed and poach design talent to work with Martin Smith, Freeman Thomas, Peter Horbury, Laurens van den Acker, more designs producing thoroughbred cars like the Land R over LR3 and the Aston Martin DB9 and you have a man who wields even heavyweight.
4 ED WELBURN 59, US Vice President of Global Design, General Motors GM car keys Autonomy, 2010 Chevrolet Camaro.
Welburn is only the sixth person to serve as head of design in GM's history, and in 2005 he became the first to occupy the newly created position of global design VP Five years later, he oversees ten design centers in eight countries and a staff of some 1,500 people GM brand portfolio may be reduced in 2009, but Welburn marshaled significant changes in aesthetics and quality for brands that are left in America, with Buick Enclave, LaCrosse, Cadillac CTS, Chevrolet Malibu, Camaro, and even GMC Granite concept, as well as other worldwide Before all this, he also directed the excellent fuel cell project GM Autonomy and Hy son as advanced design director Big employment, relatively low profile.
6 LORENZO RAMACIOTTI 62, director of Italian design, the key cars Fiat Ferrari 456GT and Enzo, Peugeot 406 coupe.
Ramaciotti was coaxed out of retirement to take on the newly created role of head of Fiat Group design in 2007, including the responsibility of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Abarth and Maserati From 1973 to 2005 he was with Pininfarina, where he was responsible for numerous vehicle projects that included standout Ferraris as the 456GT, Enzo, 550 Maranello, 360 Modena and as well as the Maserati Quattroporte and GranTurismo and more affordable cars like the Alfa GTV 1995 and the beautiful Peugeot 406 coupe, it has a pedigree -filled experience, but its influence on Fiat has not yet been fully felt.
Giugiaro is the legend behind more than 200 vehicles, with production figures in the world which is equivalent to 60 million cars, the Everyman Fiat Panda and latest Grande Punto in supercars like the Lotus and Maserati Bora It made this list courtesy of Volkswagen s recent purchase of his company, which should ensure its future and could still return the septuagenarian honored.
8 WOLFGANG EGGER 47, German leader in the design, cars Audi Group Key 2002 Seat Ibiza, Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
The most Italian German you'll ever meet, Egger studied in Milan and contributed to the Walter Silva Italian now VW Group design boss bring emotion to the Alfa Romeo 156, 166, 147, and 8C he attended Silva for Seat, Audi then again as a group design chief responsible for the Audi and Lamborghini accordingly, Tones Audi chief designer Stefan Sielaff brand influence a good egg .
MARTIN SMITH 9 61 Executive Director of the British design, Ford Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa car keys Audi Avus 2006 Opel Corsa, Ford Fiesta and 2009 Iosis.
Smith's career has been central to many key design trends of the last thirty plus years at Audi of late 70s to 90s, he helped develop the clean lines of the mark on the 4000 Audi, 5000 Avus concept and TT with J Mays European operations of GM from 1997 to 2004, Smith has influenced the future of Opel Vauxhall Insignia with the concept in 2003, he then moved to Ford of Europe, where he played a role in its dynamic kinetic design think Fiesta and focus, which is now key to Ford global politics in 2006, he added the Asia Pacific and Africa to his professional responsibilities of business most influential, with game sales success.
FREEMAN 10 53 THOMAS, US director of strategic design, Ford cars and bike key New Beetle 2000 Audi TT Dodge Tomahawk, Ford Start.
A little-known legend and longtime collaborator J Mays, Thomas was behind a large variety of cars, concepts Audi TT and VW Beetle to the nut-job wonderfully 500 horsepower Dodge Tomahawk bike show, the Chrysler 300C and the future face 2010 Ford Start concept visionary.
11 JEAN-PIERRE Ploue 47, design director of the French group PSA Peugeot Citroen Argos key Renault, Citroen C4 Picasso.
Ploue began at Renault Twingo on the original acclaimed Patrick Quément as the chief designer and the TT Argos Renault 1994 In eight years as Director of Citroën's design, he added a C2 key, current C3, C4, C4 Picasso and C6 where once there was despair Xsara, Xantia, etc. It s in overall charge of Peugeot and Citroën since 2008 French design future looks promising.
12 LOWIE VERMEERSCH 36, director of the Belgian design, keys Pininfarina Nido cars, Maserati Birdcage 75th, Ferrari 458 Italia.
Meeting the director of design house revered Italian in 2007 at only 33, Vermeersch was involved in the magnificent production Ferraris, impressive concepts Nido, Sintesi, 2uettottanta, classic cars for emerging brands Brilliance, Chery and Tata, and the work confidential for automakers established as Vermeersch said, it acts as a sparring partner to provide new ideas and an outside view of civil status.
13 LAURENS VAN DEN ACKER 45 Dutch corporate VP Design Renault car keys 2001 Ford Escape Mazda Nagare and Ryuga.
Having acquired an overall experience of a series of stunning concepts for Mazda and Ford, van den Acker had some big shoes to fill in 2009 when he took over for Patrick le Quément, who had been at Renault for twenty-two years directly related the officer chief operating Patrick Pelata, van den Acker is now in charge of Renault and Dacia brands and a distribution 460 employees on three continents, he has been charged by Pelata to make great cars Improve the current dull Renaults shouldn t be difficult, but being allowed to vent his full design creativity in a sales business need Surefire success could be.
14 NOBUKI EBISAWA 57, Japanese Chief automotive design, Honda car key 1984 Honda Civic and Accord in 1998.
Ebisawa didnt play the role of flamboyant designer, it is whiter coat, shirt and tie, he is also the General Director of R & D but since 2009 he's had overall responsibility for the appearance of almost four million Hondas each year After joining the company in 1977, he worked in the maximum early humans 80s Honda minimum design phase of post-2000 machine, the company has added a more emotional dimension, as evidenced Fit the minibus beautifully packaged, the radical European civic tailgate, the FCX Clarity aerodynamic vehicle fuel cell and the CR-Z wedgy in all, it is behind more independent motive, the functional design and dynamics it is sometimes given credit.
As some musicians, there are car designers who have only one or two styles in Callum is not one of them, with a variety and range of brands and great cars of hot superminis to luxury sedans and He supercars Jag to relevant again.
16 PETER SCHREYER 57, German chief design officer, Kia car keys Audi A6 1995 2000 TT, Kia Kee and 2011 Optima.
Schreyer made his name at Audi in the 90s on the less-is-more first-generation A6, A4 Avant, A3 and TT, which are much admired and since copied After working for VW in the early 00s, its passage Kia head design in 2006 shocked many, but the once unloved brand is already gaining the sales flair and Schreyer design is much more influential than its Korean counterpart Hyundai Oh Suk-Geun.
After short stints at VW, Opel and Mazda, Wagener became a man of Mercedes career since 1997 has been involved in almost all key brand cars since she was appointed head of the design in 2008, he's defended the SLS with the F800 and shooting disruptive concepts, which are all examples of a more fluid future direction should ban the brutal angularity of some of the current range opponents may argue that Mercedes hasn t recaptured its mojo since the departure of Bruno Sacco, but its design influence is still huge.
18 47 ROBERTO GIOLITO, director of Italian design, Fiat Multipla car keys 1998 and 2008 Fiat 500.
Giolito's new 500 made the world love Fiat again and was instrumental in its profits and brand equity, it was also responsible for the first modern day Multipla A people mover that was more difficult love from the outside, but also the fantastic interior package.
19 37 GILLES VIDAL, Director French style, key Peugeot cars Citroen C-Metisse and GT, Peugeot BB1.
It is the top job in January 2010, but Vidal had already changed the game when he was head of the concepts in 2009, with the scooter BB1 concept-car set for the production and before that, a crowd of Citroën concepts and production cars One watch.
Donckerwolke speaks seven languages including Swahili, has a penchant for the design of weapons that his father was a hunter and made Lamborghini great again before joining Seat Ibiza 2005 Current shows a new approach, and there are many more in the pipeline dangerously A good designer.
Uchiyamada that is relatively unknown in car design circles because he is an engineer who is also the head of Toyota's design operations His big break BECOME chief engineer of the first generation Prius one really ugly picture left, and, according to his resume, it's big on reducing NVH headlines aside of engineering competence, can it really have the vision to stimulate the creation of beautiful cars relevant Uchiyamada made this list because " it has the power to influence how some nine million vehicles annually appearance Toyota used to have de facto boss design, Wahei Hirai, but didn t directly replace his position when he left in 2009 sake .
IKUO MAEDA 22 51 Japanese general manager, Design Division Mazda Mazda car keys Mazda RX-8 and 2007 2.
Maeda was a man Mazda since 1982 other than a brief stint with Ford in 1999 is appropriate because his last name is just one letter away with Mazda RX-8 production, it has suicide doors all security in fashion, and it became global design boss in 2009.
23 40 RALPH GILLES, American Senior Vice President of Design, Chrysler Group car key 2005 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum.
Gilles Brit Trevor Creed replaced in fall 2008 to oversee nearly two million annual Chryslers, Jeeps and Dodge Expect quality and greatly enhanced style with the Grand Cherokee 2011 as first taste also president of the Dodge brand, Gilles relates directly to Sergio Marchionne, so there will be no Fiat filter design.
24 48 KLAUS BISCHOFF, German Head of Design, Volkswagen Polo car keys and VW Up.
A veteran of the Volkswagen design since 1989, Bischoff worked his way to the interior designer at the head of the VW brand design in 2007, he had his legs in most major badged VW projects during this period, and the interior of the Bugatti Veyron consistent.
The industry insiders can discuss how Reichman has achieved since taking charge at Aston Martin in 2005 a critic accused the fast to be only a long wheelbase DB9 but management of the sports car of the most beautiful world brand is not easy for proof, just compare the Rapide to the Porsche Panamera.
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