Open Road Podcast releases episode #022
23 June 2007 11:19 Filed in: Podcast
Open Road Podcast
Episode #022, Freeman Thomas Interview, Part 3
I’m Mr Black and I’m here with Mr Blonde in our virtual studio editing the interview carried out yesterday with Freeman Thomas, the head of Advanced Design at Ford. In the period when I worked in Detroit, I got to attend quite a few clay reviews. And boy, you can sure tell whether or not a car is worth building. It takes just a few moments to see if somehow the car takes hold. Now, you might not understand it, but a good design makes you feel a bit unsettled. Mr Blonde, you’ve had babies. Must be like that feeling when you see your kid pop out and you’re in a state of wonder, but also your stomach is clenched up with worry that you roll the kid over and he’s got a tail!
As we go through this, you’ll hear me blurt out something about a Ferrari going by. Well, a Ferrari 430 Modena passed by outside the design center.
This next part deals with how you redesign an icon, particularly something like the current Mustang, which feeds heavily off the late Sixties past of the Mustang. And then we take a journey into abstract thinking about how designers function, talking about Kelly Johnson, the man who designed so many great American jet aircraft, to Burt Rutan, who designed SpaceShip One, and Freeman even reaches to Andy Warhol.
|