Ford Motor Company opens Ingeni studio in London

That is how J Mays, Ford Motor Company’s vice president of Design, views the company’s new design house, which creates everything from automobiles and lifestyle merchandise for the company’s eight brands to non-automotive consumer products running the gamut from sunglasses to furniture.

“We took a long, hard look at the traditional role of design in the auto industry and found the need for change,” says Mays. “What we came up with is a venture that reflects the cumulative mindset of the talented team members who support every brand at Ford Motor Company’s global network of design centres.”

Named Ingeni, the new venture is a creative centre where automotive and other product designers alike can flex their creative muscles, explore new ways to connect with consumers and share insights with international experts from the worlds of fashion, commercial arts, advertising, marketing as well as furniture design.

Together, the Ingeni team will be able to create cars and trucks for Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Mazda as well as luxury goods for the company’s Premier Automotive Group and merchandise for non-automotive clients.

Ingeni will design everything from cellphones to football shoes, and lessons learned from this work can be put back into our automotive products," said J Mays. "For example, in the process of designing products such as intricate wrist watches, we can learn a lot which can be then applied in our automotive interior design."

Ingeni will spend equally one-third of its time and resources designing automobiles for Ford Motor Company’s eight brands; creating luxury goods that are licensed and distributed through Beanstalk, a Ford subsidiary; and creating products for outside clients.

“Ingeni allows us to teach our team how to execute designs with European quality, understand the principles of rapid design and manufacturing and, at the same time, learn from experts in other disciplines of design,” says Henrik Fisker, Ingeni’s creative director.

"We recently designed a directors chair for the 'Bill Amberg' brand. This sort of project has a very quick turnover, perhaps two months from start of the project to a final product. Exploring some of the unique ways leather is used in furniture teaches us a lot that can influence our automotive products."

Ford already is realising the benefits Ingeni brings in developing lifestyle products to support its brands, Mays said. “Every time we hire a company to make products such as sunglasses to support one of our brands, they need to invest significant time and resources in understanding the brand and making sure they use appropriate materials and designs when creating the finished product,” he said. “With Ingeni, all of that knowledge about our brands’ DNA remains in-house. We won’t have to pay to create that expertise every time we try to bring a new consumer product to market.”

Plus, Ingeni will help Ford keep its automotive design team fresh. Some of Ingeni’s 30 employees may rotate to assignments supporting Ford’s numerous product programs around the globe, while those working on company vehicle programs may take on jobs at Ingeni.

“Change is good for creativity,” Fisker says. “Fresh minds bring new innovations.” At the same time, being part of Ford’s network of global resources helps Ingeni maximize productivity and keep down overhead costs.

"In our automotive design work for the Ford Motor Company brands, we can look very early in the process at how to share ideas between the brands, looking at all the brands at once, to maximise the opportunities for innovation when developing designs based on a shared platform," Fisker says. "We don't see ourselves as just an 'advanced' studio - our goal is to get innovative ideas into production."

Ingeni is linked to Ford’s global computer network and other technologies in the company’s 12 other design studios around the world – much like Volvo’s state-of-the-art virtual studio in Barcelona, Spain. For instance, an Ingeni designer working on a new car design at her work station in Soho can send the data from her design to be milled into a clay model at a Land Rover studio in nearby Gaydon, Ford’s advanced studio in California or Volvo’s studio in Sweden

The Ingeni studio doesn’t have a milling machine, or clay, or doorways and elevators large enough to squeeze in a car. “It doesn’t need any of the conventional trappings of a traditional design studio, because Ingeni is anything but a typical studio,” says J Mays.

The international team of approximately 30 designers and business managers leverages technology to create the vision and products clients demand. In addition to state-of-the-art software and a tie into one of the world’s most powerful computer networks that help the team quickly capture quality designs, Ingeni relies on a global network of other resources to create finished products.

“The technology we use at Ingeni sets us apart, but that’s not all,” Fisker says. “What really makes us unique is our philosophy. We’re not here to just create products. Ingeni is here to create products that improve people’s quality of life – by creating an emotional world for them that is communicated through design.

“How Ingeni does all of that is different. Where we do it is special and so is our team.”