EDIT: 10/8/08 * COMMENTS ARE WORKING AGAIN! Bring it on…hate, love, whatever. Its all about freedom of speech here.*

There has been a bit of a debate about what design is on this blog recently. Recently I got excited about two builds I’m working on for SEMA and it launched a mini-debate on what design means.

Design can mean multiple things when dealing with something as complex as a car. The designer can be one who makes graphics (mana-p), the designer can be the person who makes the shape of the aero parts by sketching it (smoky Nagata), the designer can be the person who makes the parts (the factory smoky uses), the designer can be the person who makes the tooling for the mold (another factory that makes the molds for the aero parts factory), the designer can be the person who makes the chemicals which are used to assemble the mold…there are many levels of design and depth.

Where do I fit into the mix? In essence, I’m a remixer and an image maker. Those are my best skills in this area. What does that mean?

My best ability is to listen to the needs and goals of a project (consulting) and then to create/design the vision of the vehicle’s image. I’m good at working with a lot of different parts, partners and influences to create one cohesive and singular vision. In the case of these SEMA cars I’m doing, I came up with two very different images, one for each car. I’ve then been working hard to fine tune them and to implement them so that what is in my head for the overall design is relected on the cars at SEMA.

My process works like this:

1. Determine the vision for the car - what are the goals of how it will function, how it will look, how it will be represented.

2. Match the vision of the car with the goals of the client - What does the owner of the car want and how can I deliver it to them in the purest, most undiluted form?

3. Selecting the best partners to work with to reach the goals and vision - who makes the best parts for this purpose, how will the parts integrate together, etc. This is choosing my paint pallet for the painting if you will.

4. Re-design: Although I am not a manufacturer, I am a little bit of a designer much the way Smoky or my other friends conceptualize a car before making it and then add subtle details along the way. On the S2000 I re-designed the rear bumper of the widebody, the side skirts, and the hardtop window amongst other things. I didnt make them from scratch, but I found ways I felt would improve on them and add to the overall vision of the car while still respecting the original companies who outlayed the R&D to make the parts in the first place. On these GT-Rs I’m keeping it more classic/simple and just doing subtle designs rather than full reworkings. The goals are different this time around as people will soon see. Its all about hitting my goals for the vision and purity of the car to represent what I feel to be the best in JDM. The two cars I’m “designing” represent two separate images of the ultimate Japanese tuned GT-Rs.

5. Project management: After choosing the best partners, revising the image and the plan numerous times, now I go into project management mode to ensure that everything gets executed with the results needed to meet the vision of the car. This means being steady in my vision and never sacrificing the integrity of the project under any circumstances. In this mode it is not unusual for me to go through many revisions and re-workings in an effort to reach the maximum potential of the project. Knowing the design intention, the concept and the vision is key here, otherwise it will be lost.

So I’d like to clarify what I am and what I’m not for anyone who I’ve confused with the earlier/deleted post. I am the vision of my projects. I am not the mechanic for my projects. I do choose the pallet for my paintings, but I do not lay down the brush strokes (much like my idol Takashi Murakami does the same process of having a factory paint his works that he conceptualizes/designs). I make the final decisions for the parts used, I do not manufacture the parts. I’m confident that I’m good at what I do, but I’m a designer/conceptualizer…not a manufacturer, and I’m happy with that because I know my strengths and I know my shortcomings.

In short I am a consultant, who creates the vision of the car and ensures that it meets the image and function I’ve laid out for it. I am careful and diligent in selecting my partners whom I work with. I am not a mechanic, a painter, a body man, an ecu tuner, etc. My expertise is designing the high level perspective of the project, and also being obsessive about the details in every step…I do have a great deal of interaction with my partners who do the majority of the physical labor, and they I would wholeheartedly agree are are far better than I at what they do, which is entirely why I get out of the way and let them do their thing.

A principal I believe in is that when someone is better than I am, I let them do their thing and get out of the way. This is the nature of business as well, delegating and partnering up with specialists to improve quality and performance. I’m proud of the decisions I make. If I loose respect from anyone because I’m conceptualizing a car rather than turning a wrench, so be it…all I care about are the cars I do reaching their highest potential.

PS: I wrote this piece because admittedly late last night in the heat of the moment I rushed out a blog post about how excited I am about these two SEMA cars. I did not write it with the same time and thought that I often write my posts…so today after reviewing the comments and how my post was poorly written, I deleted and wrote a more focused response about what my role in these cars are and what design means to me, since thats where the comments took last nights post.