Considering you rejected the design clichés, are you surprised at the plaudits that Slate’s looks have garnered from the male-dominated auto design world?
Photograph: Courtesy of Slate
I’ll give you a little bit of behind-the-scenes. We started with some assumptions that you would find any design group considering, like putting precious materials in the front area; and this is where we’ll put the name mark, the DNA, and it is placed there beautifully, never to be touched, just to be admired. That’s what goes on in a design studio.
As we were looking at designs and testing internally, we could see what people were attracted to. But as a design group, we kept saying, “This isn’t right yet.” Then finally we realized the problem: We were using the exact playbook that has been handed down from generation to generation. We literally said, “This is all wrong. We cannot do this.”
So we literally threw out that playbook and said, if this is Slate’s DNA, then we’re going to put a plate right there between those two headlamps that has exposed fasteners. Yes, it holds the main brand mark, but we designed it in such a way that it’s easy to remove, easy to replace. Yes, we offer some different designs, but we’re saying this is easy enough for you, as the owner, to 3D-print something to put here if you want to. Now, that’s outrageous. That is different.
Absolutely we wanted to forge a new path. We just did not know that it would be recognized. We didn’t think it would be. We weren’t considering it being appreciated so quickly and by so many. That’s been an honor for us as a team.
EV development has been hijacked by tech-bro posturing. Ludicrous acceleration; giant screens. Is stripping away unnecessary tech bloat fundamentally an exercise in empathetic, less ego-driven design? And how do you take the ego out of auto design when it seems to be impossible at almost every other car brand?