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Area of Design is an organization
that showcases established and emerging artists,
designers, commercial firms, and non profit groups
based in the United States.
Our mission is to provide a forum for artists to
express themselves and inspire others by encouraging,
educating, and nurturing creative talent. |
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December
1, 2008
Freshly Added
In
the Spotlight
Peter Horbury,
Executive Director of Design for Ford Motor Company
Creative
Impulse
Top five links for inspiration
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November
17, 2008
Freshly Added
Featured
Artist
Jerry Dreesen,
artist |
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November
7, 2008
Freshly Added
American
Icon
Everett Shinn
painter
Creative
Impulse
Top five links for inspiration |
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October
1, 2008
Freshly Added
In
the Spotlight
Scott Hooten,
interactive designer
Featured
Artist
Laura Caffrey,
artist |
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| "He was the youngest
member of the group of modernist painters
who explored the depiction of real life.
He is most famous for his numerous paintings
of New York and the theater and of various
aspects of luxury and modern life inspired
by his home in New York City."
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| December 2008:
Top five links for inspiration. |
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Peter
Callesen |
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Cous Cous Kid |
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Maria Hinze |
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Another Magazine |
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Bar Code Art |
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December
2008 |
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AOD:
How did you get into the realm of design?
PETER HORBURY:
At the age of seven, that’s what
I wanted to do. Around my mid-teens,
I wrote to car companies and asked how
to go about it. Because career advice
in England in those days was rather
thin – you either joined the Navy
or the Army or insurance or banking.
Beyond that, the imagination had run
out. So, I had to do it myself. I discovered
that I had to go to art school and design
school and followed the advice that
I was given. And presto! Became a fully-fledged
designer in 1974. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang. |
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AOD:
What school did you attend?
PETER HORBURY:
I first went to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
College of Art and Industrial Design,
in the northeast of England, and received
my undergraduate degree in 1972; then
to the Royal
College of Art in London, where
I received my Master’s degree
in Automotive Design in 1974. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang: Customers who select the
Premium interior package will harness
the power of the 2010 Mustang through
a leather-wrapped steering wheel that
features genuine aluminum spokes, which
along with the audio controls have been
ergonomically designed. The new 2010
Mustang pony design in the badge on
the steering wheel is stamped aluminum.
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AOD:
How did you get your start at Ford Motor
Company?
PETER HORBURY:
In 1991, I was head of design for Volvo.
I was brought in to change Volvo’s
identity to something safe and exciting.
So, having done that, when Ford bought
Volvo, they asked me to come over to
America and help out by doing a similar
exercise in Ford,
Lincoln,
and Mercury. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang. |
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AOD:
How many people in your team? How does
the design process work within the team?
Do they each have an area of responsibility?
PETER HORBURY:
The creative team makes up of a chief
designer, a manager exterior, a manager
interior, and each of them will probably
have two or three designers to help
them. There are color materials, of
course, which is another two people.
So the creative team is around eight
to ten designers. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang: A more-aggressive, more
muscular Mustang hits the road for the
2010 model year. The 2010 Mustang builds
off a proud, 45-year heritage with modern
execution. |
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AOD:
When designing the 2010 Mustang, were
you given a blank canvas or were you
given set guidelines and design criteria
to follow? What was the approval process?
How long was this project? When did
it start/end?
PETER
HORBURY:
I think in my entire career –
spanning over 34 years – I have
yet to see a clean sheet of paper. And
a whole vehicle is a rarity because
often you’re basing it on something
like the previous model or something
from another model. What we call a ‘platform’
may be common but the ‘top hat’,
in other words everything you see –
the body and the interior – would
be new. But it’s all based on
known entities. So there are certain
dimensions that are given.
In the case of the Mustang, we carried
over the roof and the windshield, but
the rest was new. Albeit based on internal
sheet metal. In other words, the inner
sheet metal was an outside ‘A’
surface and there’s an inside
‘B’ surface. And much of
the ‘B’ surface is carried
on from the previous model. So again,
it’s a great challenge to make
something look quite different based
on what was there before. 85% or 90%
of what you see on the outside is new.
And 100% of the inside – the visible
items – are new. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang: speedometer and tachometer. |
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AOD:
How do you decide what to keep and what
to change?
PETER HORBURY:
It's a business decision, definitely.
But within that, the design department
has a big say because we are the judges
of what is necessary to move from the
current model to make sure it looks
new. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang: A leather-wrapped shift
knob part of the Premium interior package
for the 2010 Mustang. As an added example
of the attention to detail found inside
and outside of the 2010 Mustang, the
trunk release and traction control buttons
have graphics of a Mustang rather than
a generic car icon. |
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AOD:
How do you know when the design is completed
and ready to market?
PETER HORBURY:
We do a lot of research and, to be honest,
the timetable is very rigid. It’s
so disciplined that we are working to
such strong constraints based on timing
– it’s a three-year program.
Week-by-week is calculated as to what
should be done when and when we should
be finished with one part and the next
part. And all the time narrowing down
the design options to one – eventually
– where we’re sure this
is what the customer is going to want
– three or fours years from now.
It’s really a combined decision
from a number of different disciplines
– manufacturing, marketing, design,
engineering, and finance. It’s
a very, very complex thing. The number
of parts, for example, of an interior
– the visible parts – we
will calculate somewhere around 400
separate items which need to be designed,
engineered, tested. Re-engineered, re-tested.
And then sourced to our manufacturers
and then tools made to manufacture them
– and eventually put together
in a confined space of a car interior
in a factory.
I don’t think there’s anything
in the consumer market, and that includes
buildings, I have to say. Houses are
not such a complex piece of design work,
in my mind. And that’s just the
interior. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang: World-class craftsmanship
and attention to detail are immediately
apparent in the 2010 Mustang gauge cluster.
The speedometer and tachometer are fully
encircled in chrome rings precisely
inset to the real aluminum instrument
panel. The cluster lenses are circular
cones capped off with a silver hub,
echoing Mustang design heritage. |
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AOD:
The design for the 2010 Mustang has
a lot of masculine, sport-racing influences?
What type of buyer were you designing
for?
PETER HORBURY:
We almost identify a customer by name,
age, and then we look at their likes
and dislikes. We then interview them.
We do invite a number of this customer
type to discuss their desires and their
thoughts on automobiles and design.
We find how they live, what they finish
their homes with, how they dress, etc.
So you build up a picture of this customer,
who you then design more specifically
for and then check with on the way.
And sometimes it’s a man and sometimes
it’s a women. We know there are
a lot of women who love their Mustangs.
Convertibles are a very popular purchase
with many women. The macho image of
the Mustang is only one part of it.
Free living, free spirit is also a major
part of Mustang and we know there are
a huge number of women purchasing it. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang reveal at 2008 LA Auto
Show. |
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AOD:
How did you decide on the color offerings?
PETER HORBURY:
Our color experts do have their finger
on the pulse of trends throughout all
industries such as fashion, furniture,
and house interiors. So there’s
a definite trend in each area for color.
Reds one year will be a yellow type
red or more orangey red. Then it gradually
may change to a bluish red. And sometimes
both are popular. So we do have a trend
analysis running all the time.
The development of a color will take
about two or three years to get the
paint absolutely right for our paint
system. We make sure all the pigments
are right. There needs to be consistency,
of course. You don’t want the
color to start to vary through the life
span of a vehicle. So, that in itself
is highly complex. But we do have color
reviews, rather like fall fashion review,
each year with dealers. We narrow it
down to say four new colors a year for
a particular model.
It’s not by chance. There is some
gut feel, I suppose, when it comes to
design itself, but with colors especially.
But, a professional approach is, by
far, the best because we will come up
with a color for two to three years
from now which many people today may
think is hideous – we can’t
do that. But by preserving and keeping
it going, it’s absolutely right
for the moment it’s launched...whenever
that might be. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang at 2008 LA Auto Show. |
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AOD:
Will Ford produce a Hybrid Mustang in
the future?
PETER HORBURY:
That’s not in the plans. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang Convertible at 2008 LA
Auto Show. |
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AOD:
Do you have a future project you are
working on that you can share with us?
PETER HORBURY:
No. I have lots of future projects I’m
working on. We’re always busy
– working years in advance, of
course. In fact, we have a lot of new
products coming out; 45% of our product
range will be new or freshened. |
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| 2010
Ford Mustang at 2008 LA Auto Show. |
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| Want to be featured
on the AOD site? Submit
your portfolio here. |
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