Auto123: When creating a brand new design, does it begin with you, or is it more of a team tossing ideas back and forth?
Albaisa: “It’s a cross-functional process, depending on the project, if it’s the next Altima or Maxima, we have a sense of who loves us, and we want to retain that, but we want to bring people in, and reflect the changing of our culture as well. And then, there’s the other kind, where we’re mapping out, over the whole world, what the areas are where we’re not present… and honestly, designers can’t do that on their own. We’re very good at dreaming and giving shape… but we need that context from planning and engineering… and all the hunches and intuitions that come from everybody. So, getting together, mapping things out… that’s really how Juke came about. It’s about the young guy, refusing to let go of his motorsports obsession, you know, rally cars and motorcycles… who might not be in the Nissan family, and then Juke comes and he thinks, oh my god – this is what I was dreaming about. There’s a great pleasure in that, because you meet or exceed the needs of someone who wasn’t even thinking about you.”
The design process has evolved over the years beyond the simple drawing board to complex vector programs, 3D imaging and computer-aided processors that generate perfectly tooled prototype parts, somewhat like a CNC mill, but out of plastic resin.
And yet, Albaisa’s creations begin with the simplest of tools: the ballpoint pen.
“Almost everyone uses a pen, when I first came into the business, I thought a ballpoint pen was almost like an accountant… I thought we’d be using chalk, or conté crayon, but no– the ballpoint pen rolls nice and you get into the groove, doing 20, 30 free sketches. From there I use photoshop. I don’t create models of my own, but the technology allows a sharing between members of the team, we dump all of our files into a folder and we have a wonderful relationship where we can all overlay our work on top of each other’s. In a creative organization, if you don’t have a lot of “what ifs” you’re not pushing the envelope, you have the limits of one person, and might not discover greatness. And that would be a shame”.
Albaisa: “It’s a cross-functional process, depending on the project, if it’s the next Altima or Maxima, we have a sense of who loves us, and we want to retain that, but we want to bring people in, and reflect the changing of our culture as well. And then, there’s the other kind, where we’re mapping out, over the whole world, what the areas are where we’re not present… and honestly, designers can’t do that on their own. We’re very good at dreaming and giving shape… but we need that context from planning and engineering… and all the hunches and intuitions that come from everybody. So, getting together, mapping things out… that’s really how Juke came about. It’s about the young guy, refusing to let go of his motorsports obsession, you know, rally cars and motorcycles… who might not be in the Nissan family, and then Juke comes and he thinks, oh my god – this is what I was dreaming about. There’s a great pleasure in that, because you meet or exceed the needs of someone who wasn’t even thinking about you.”
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| Photo: Michael Wong |
The design process has evolved over the years beyond the simple drawing board to complex vector programs, 3D imaging and computer-aided processors that generate perfectly tooled prototype parts, somewhat like a CNC mill, but out of plastic resin.
And yet, Albaisa’s creations begin with the simplest of tools: the ballpoint pen.
“Almost everyone uses a pen, when I first came into the business, I thought a ballpoint pen was almost like an accountant… I thought we’d be using chalk, or conté crayon, but no– the ballpoint pen rolls nice and you get into the groove, doing 20, 30 free sketches. From there I use photoshop. I don’t create models of my own, but the technology allows a sharing between members of the team, we dump all of our files into a folder and we have a wonderful relationship where we can all overlay our work on top of each other’s. In a creative organization, if you don’t have a lot of “what ifs” you’re not pushing the envelope, you have the limits of one person, and might not discover greatness. And that would be a shame”.
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