(NY Auto Show) PSFK Talks With Walter de’Silva, Volkswagen Head Of Design

Walter de’Silva’s career has been frequently marked with the task of reviving the vehicle design of automotive brands that lost their way. In the 90′s he led the design renewal at Alfa-Romeo, which was modern but revived Alfa’s history. de’Silva moved on to Audi where he served as the Head of Design for the Audi brand group. His work at Audi was centered around bringing more emotion to the design language. The full height front grille on every Audi model currently was his signature design development.

de’Silva is now Head of Design for the entire Volkswagen Group and responsible for the overall strategic direction of all VW brands encompassing Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda. We spoke with him at the NY debut of the new Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid.

How difficult is it to evolve a brand like Volkswagen which has historically been known for strong design?

Creativity is not freedom. Creativity is based on the design criteria. In our job creativity is based on the limit, to have a very strong point. For my team there is a lot of creativity and I have to set a limit, that is a must. Volkswagen design is changing, from the Golf, Polo, and now the new Touareg. What does that mean? It means we want to design new cars that are based on three strong elements, less time, not complicated, and unique. That is our philosophy, our manifesto.
Because Volkswagen for a long time is a quality car, with a lot of performance, and useful practicality. But with this type of new direction in the design we want to combine the performance and the quality with an elegant and uncomplicated design. The new Touareg, the second edition is a demonstration of this, like the new Polo and Golf.
The age of decoration, of over design and over styling is finished. (Walter reaches for his iPhone) Steve Jobs design this piece of art for me and the contents are nice and the performance is nice and in the end everyone can understand this design. This isn’t really inspiration, but let me say that I have the same feeling about the products I design with my team. Closer to the customer, more easy to understand, not complicated, not over designed.

What inspires you?

Inspiration is reality, it is to work ten or twelve hours every day with my team. To have discussions especially with young people and young designers. It may be that they don’t have the experience that I have of course, but they have a fresh vision of the new direction. We use drawings like a common language, because my in team, I have people that come from different countries, South America, North America, Europe, Asia and South Africa. The common language is the sketch and this is the inspiration. Everyday we discuss and comment and have a relationship based around the project. I’m not a design manager, I’m a designer. I like to stay onstage like a film director, like an orchestra director. In the end my team is like a jazz band, everybody plays like they want with the result being one song, one music, one direction.
Yesterday I was in Santa Monica at the Audi and Volkswagen studio and I was looking at projects in development for the United States market as well as the China and India markets. And again in the discussion I feel that the inspiration starts with the possibilities between the project and the culture of the people.

The internal combustion engine has dictated to a certain degree how vehicles look. Do you see the new methods under development of powering vehicle with electricity, hydrogen, solar opening the door to new design opportunities?

With every car you have architecture, you can have a sedan, small car, medium car, or an suv. And within this architecture you have components. If you change the components, you can do a lot of innovation. Why is an iPhone innovative? Because it is a micro-design. So it is very important for the suppliers to research and innovate the components. So then the designers are able to combine the compact components with a new package and interior space, and you change completely the volume and the architecture. This is the great opportunity we have. We need more creativity and ideas with batteries. At the same time I am still convinced that the car is one of the products that is more iconic in the minds of the people. You cannot think in the future that a car is like a washing machine. More environmental responsibility in the design is needed, I fully agree but at the same time we can’t forget about the iconic elements like the steering wheel, instrument panel, the face which is the lights and the grille. It is a sort of cultural, historical quality that you cannot separate from the car.
I’m sure everybody has photos of their family. When you look through these photos you will probably see one with a car in the picture.  People treat their cars as part of the family.

photos[ pierre m , porsche ]

Which cars have been favorites of yours from a design point of view?

The Citroen DS. It is a masterpiece. Fantastic. But the car you can drive every day? The Porsche 911.

Volkswagen