AT the Detroit auto show in January, Adrian van Hooydonk, the director of BMW Group Design, had a gender-bending surprise for reporters examining the new BMW Z4 with a retractable hardtop.
Nadya Arnaout, left, designed the new BMW Z4's interior; Juliane Basi is credited with the exterior. More Photos »
They told him, he recalls, that the redesigned car looked “more sporty, more dynamic, more aggressive and more masculine.”
Mr. van Hooydonk would listen politely, tell them they were exactly right, and offer to introduce them to the designers. Then he would bring out the women most responsible for the car’s masculine swagger: Juliane Blasi, 32, the exterior designer, and Nadya Arnaout, 37, who did the interior.
He says the reporters were surprised. “I guess still a lot of people think that women can only design round shapes and soft shapes and fluffy stuff,” he said. “And I know that’s not true.”
The 2009 Z4 will be one of BMW’s attractions at the New York auto show, which holds media previews this week at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center before opening to the public on Friday.
To pick the designers for the Z4 project, the automaker held a competition. Designers from both BMW studios — at the headquarters in Munich and at Designworks USA in Newbury Park, Calif. — submitted sketches and eventually full-size clay models. To ensure that personalities were not a factor in the judging, the creators remained anonymous.
No one was more surprised by the outcome than the two German women: Ms. Blasi because it was the first full-size clay model she had done since she was hired at the Munich studio in 2003, and Ms. Arnaout because she had just switched to interior auto design at DesignworksUSA. Previously, as a product designer since 2000 at the California studio — which also does designs under contract for other companies — she had worked on things like vacuum cleaners and sports equipment.
Although Ms. Blasi ordinarily works in Munich, at the time she was in California on an exchange program.
“Of course, you know the designers who don’t win are not happy,” she said of the internal competition, known in the studios as a “bakeoff.” She knows, she said, because, “We have experienced that situation a lot of times, also.”
But not this time. And, although some people are surprised that the Z4’s designers are women, Ms. Blasi and Ms. Arnaout said being women didn’t mean they were locked into a feminine style. “If you look at the car you should not be able to see whether it was designed by a woman or a man,” Ms. Blasi said.
Ms. Arnaout added: “A designer just has to be able to communicate with a form language that fits the concept. I love roadsters and I’ve owned them before. I think that made it easy for me to get into this project and come up with concepts and ideas for it.”
Ms. Arnaout focused on making the interior driver-oriented, not gender-oriented. And Ms. Blasi said she didn’t try to make the exterior look masculine. “I tried to make it look fierce and strong, and some people would probably relate it to the male.”
But, the designers agreed, that’s just because people are programmed to think that way.
Their boss, Mr. van Hooydonk, noted that in design, it’s the creativity that matters. “One could have thought maybe we shouldn’t let two women design this car because so many male customers are going to buy it, and it should be seen as sporty.
“We could have influenced the sketch competition, if we had wanted to let male designers win. But we didn’t because we are absolutely convinced that the most important thing for the company is to get the best possible design.”
The new roadster replaces both the previous Z4 roadster and coupe. Its solid retractable top posed two big major challenges for Ms. Blasi. One was keeping the look as coupelike as possible when the top was up. The other was keeping the long-hood, short-deck proportion of a roadster.
“Normally, it’s hard to hide a retractable hardtop in the trunk and still have the roadster proportions, because it takes up more space than a fabric top,” she said. “It’s important to give a sports car width from the rear. So that was my main emphasis, to make it look as wide as possible. I kept it all very horizontal — and the rear light, I kept it superhorizontal and wide.”
One problem for Ms. Arnaout was finding a way to incorporate her idea for an asymmetrical center console — angled toward the driver — into a car built with both left- and right-hand drive.
source: nytimes
The console was important, she said, because it emphasizes the driver orientation of the cockpit. Her solution was to make the console symmetrical, but then add a piece of extra trim on one side or the other, depending on the market, making it appear asymmetrical.
The project, which began with sketches in 2005, still doesn’t seem real, Ms. Arnaout said. “It still feels like a project as it stands here,” she said. “Once we see it driving on the street it’s going to hit us. I think the true excitement comes at that point.”
Nadya Arnaout, left, designed the new BMW Z4's interior; Juliane Basi is credited with the exterior. More Photos »
They told him, he recalls, that the redesigned car looked “more sporty, more dynamic, more aggressive and more masculine.”
Mr. van Hooydonk would listen politely, tell them they were exactly right, and offer to introduce them to the designers. Then he would bring out the women most responsible for the car’s masculine swagger: Juliane Blasi, 32, the exterior designer, and Nadya Arnaout, 37, who did the interior.
He says the reporters were surprised. “I guess still a lot of people think that women can only design round shapes and soft shapes and fluffy stuff,” he said. “And I know that’s not true.”
The 2009 Z4 will be one of BMW’s attractions at the New York auto show, which holds media previews this week at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center before opening to the public on Friday.
To pick the designers for the Z4 project, the automaker held a competition. Designers from both BMW studios — at the headquarters in Munich and at Designworks USA in Newbury Park, Calif. — submitted sketches and eventually full-size clay models. To ensure that personalities were not a factor in the judging, the creators remained anonymous.
No one was more surprised by the outcome than the two German women: Ms. Blasi because it was the first full-size clay model she had done since she was hired at the Munich studio in 2003, and Ms. Arnaout because she had just switched to interior auto design at DesignworksUSA. Previously, as a product designer since 2000 at the California studio — which also does designs under contract for other companies — she had worked on things like vacuum cleaners and sports equipment.
Although Ms. Blasi ordinarily works in Munich, at the time she was in California on an exchange program.
“Of course, you know the designers who don’t win are not happy,” she said of the internal competition, known in the studios as a “bakeoff.” She knows, she said, because, “We have experienced that situation a lot of times, also.”
But not this time. And, although some people are surprised that the Z4’s designers are women, Ms. Blasi and Ms. Arnaout said being women didn’t mean they were locked into a feminine style. “If you look at the car you should not be able to see whether it was designed by a woman or a man,” Ms. Blasi said.
Ms. Arnaout added: “A designer just has to be able to communicate with a form language that fits the concept. I love roadsters and I’ve owned them before. I think that made it easy for me to get into this project and come up with concepts and ideas for it.”
Ms. Arnaout focused on making the interior driver-oriented, not gender-oriented. And Ms. Blasi said she didn’t try to make the exterior look masculine. “I tried to make it look fierce and strong, and some people would probably relate it to the male.”
But, the designers agreed, that’s just because people are programmed to think that way.
Their boss, Mr. van Hooydonk, noted that in design, it’s the creativity that matters. “One could have thought maybe we shouldn’t let two women design this car because so many male customers are going to buy it, and it should be seen as sporty.
“We could have influenced the sketch competition, if we had wanted to let male designers win. But we didn’t because we are absolutely convinced that the most important thing for the company is to get the best possible design.”
The new roadster replaces both the previous Z4 roadster and coupe. Its solid retractable top posed two big major challenges for Ms. Blasi. One was keeping the look as coupelike as possible when the top was up. The other was keeping the long-hood, short-deck proportion of a roadster.
“Normally, it’s hard to hide a retractable hardtop in the trunk and still have the roadster proportions, because it takes up more space than a fabric top,” she said. “It’s important to give a sports car width from the rear. So that was my main emphasis, to make it look as wide as possible. I kept it all very horizontal — and the rear light, I kept it superhorizontal and wide.”
One problem for Ms. Arnaout was finding a way to incorporate her idea for an asymmetrical center console — angled toward the driver — into a car built with both left- and right-hand drive.
source: nytimes
The console was important, she said, because it emphasizes the driver orientation of the cockpit. Her solution was to make the console symmetrical, but then add a piece of extra trim on one side or the other, depending on the market, making it appear asymmetrical.
The project, which began with sketches in 2005, still doesn’t seem real, Ms. Arnaout said. “It still feels like a project as it stands here,” she said. “Once we see it driving on the street it’s going to hit us. I think the true excitement comes at that point.”
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