Mazda has turned to motoring journalists for inspiration for its new compact SUV. Paddy Comynwent to Amsterdam, armed with a pencil and eraser to lend his 'expertise'
WE ALWAYS figured that Mazda designers were a clever lot. They have scored some really outstanding successes over the years. The 323F of the late 1980s might have been dubbed the "hairdresser's Porsche", but it transformed the very dull small family car segment at the time. The MX-5 is a modern-day classic, now in its third-generation and the RX-7 and RX-8 sports cars are beautiful pieces of design. Mazda consistently wins awards for its design studies, if not for its painfully annoying theme tunes as well as the rest. The Furai concept unveiled at this year's North American Motor Show shows just how talented Mazda's various design teams can be.
But this time, they really showed how shrewd they can be. In a warehouse on the outskirts of Amsterdam, they assembled, clearly, some of the world's finest motoring scribes for what would rank as the most important consultation they would ever undertake.
Mazda asked us to help them design its next SUV, which will be unveiled later this year at the Moscow Motor Show. I used to think that car design took a long time, but with time running out before the big unveiling it seemed that Mazda was keen to ensure the critics liked the new car. And what better way to do that than getting them to design it themselves?
Car designers tend to come from a certain, well, type. And the team that presented themselves to us in the odd-looking warehouse didn't disappoint. Peter Birtwhistle, chief designer at Mazda Research and Development Europe, has been at Porsche, Audi and Vauxhall and he was joined onstage by Dutchman Laurens Van Den Acker, general manager of the design division, Mazda Corporation. Also present was Atsuhiko Yamada, chief designer, Mazda advanced design group, design division, Yokohama.
There were lots of interesting haircuts, designer spectacles, "casual" suits and of course, vastly expensive watches. You were certain that they had Apple iPhones in their pockets and collected expensive chairs, too.
I, on the other hand, didn't fit any of the above criteria and also have one small handicap. I can't draw. At all. Luckily, I didn't have to. After some brief words of encouragement, we were split up into groups and sent off to the various modules.
Every manufacturer has its own design DNA and these are various themes that emerge across the range. With Mazda there are traits such as the 5-point grille, v-shaped bonnet, bold wheel arches and strong rear shoulder.
The development of the Mazda design DNA is ongoing and it is shifting the "zoom-zoom" philosophy even further. This new theme, Nagare - or flow - aims to make even stationary cars look like they are moving. It is based on how things such as wind and water move in nature.
This made it all the more silly that I was sitting in on a brainstorming session, with an incredibly enthusiastic American designer called Jordan Meadows, who explained how an interior is designed.
The initial process begins with a brainstorm like ours and this is where ideas are bandied about and either adopted or shelved. "The interior is incredibly important, it can make up 70 per cent of the purchase logic," explained Meadows, who was joined by Luciana Silves, designer for colour and materials and Troy Trihn, who would turn our mutterings into a real design on screen.
After the feeling of being at your first day at school passed (I even put my hand up) the ideas came surprisingly quickly. How about a handle that closes the door and locks it, like in a patio door? How about floor mats that look like tyres? How about a clear perspex panel in the floor to allow you to see the ground when you are off-road?
All the while, the sketching began with Troy tracing over a sketch into Photoshop on a tablet and the final design appeared, as if by magic, on screen. However, I was starting to get the feeling that we had been had. Despite our suggestions, perhaps the interior was always going to look like this?
Next up was the exterior design. Here, we met Hasip Girgin, who is Turkish, but was educated in Germany and studied and now lectures at the Pforzheim Design University. He was responsible for the Mazda 3 and is joined at the computer by Italian Luca Zollino.
All car design begins with design sketches, and this usually starts as a "one-point" perspective, basically a flat drawing using a pencil. Rather than embarrass us too much, they had prepared a few sketches for us and we could elect one and tinker with it slightly.
This being a concept, it will be aimed at creating an impact at a motor show, in this case at Moscow.
As general manager Van Der Acker explained: "The show car seduces you in 10 seconds, you need to live with a production car for 10 years."
We chose a three-door design, with a shortened rear end and very much a crossover design - part coupé, part SUV. Our chosen design was then shaded, masterfully, in Photoshop by Luca, who appeared to have got more than a little excited about our extra side window.
In the real world, all this material is digitised and turned into photo-realistic renderings and animations before the clay models are made.
While years ago, there were many clay models made, now cars are increasingly created within the computer (or transferred there from the initial 2-D sketches) using digital design software.
This software allows 3-D mathematical form data to be created from a 3-D drawing. This information is combined with technical information, such as the existing components including the chassis and drive system - known as the "hard points" - to create a "realistic model" before a time-consuming clay model needs to be cut. The data can be exported to a multi-axis milling machine which can produce a life-size model of the vehicle down to the tiniest detail.
At the end of the process, the groups were reassembled and we were shown our creations. They all looked a little similar, but of course Design C, aided and abetted by yours truly, was by far the superior design. I am expecting the royalty cheque to be substantial. I also get the feeling that they might have something prepared already though.
I quite liked the car designers. They were like eight-year-old boys with expensive crayons and they looked so happy. As job satisfaction goes, drawing cars has got to be right up there.