Abstract: The Art of Design (2017–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Ralph Gilles: Automotive Design - full transcript

I like to sketch the front
of the car first.

The eyes are very important to me.

A vehicle can have
a happy face, or a mask.

It has to impart a soul.

Why am I looking at this car?
It's looking back at me.

It stirs something in me.

People say, "I fell in love with my car.
It projects my personality so perfectly."

That connection with the vehicle,

it's extremely powerful.

He knows I'll kick his ass, so...

It's a friendly rev.



He only has 485 horse.

I mean,
what are you gonna do with that?

Everything should be art.

It's not just designing for Chrysler.
We're designing for car designers, right?

So we should up each other's game.

It should look good.
It should sit on the road

and represent not only the brand well,
but be an attractive craft from Detroit.

Ralph got a job as a designer,

and within a few years, this guy
is leading the design at Chrysler.

I don't know of anybody, ever,
younger than Ralph

who's been Head of Global Design.

Chrysler is a very, very scrappy,
innovative company.

It's always been the third largest,
you know, in the US auto industry.

And that's okay.



It's always had to innovate its way
to be noticed.

It takes a lot of work
to maintain a brand.

A lot of brands have died
in the last six years because of that.

The Chrysler brand
is better than it gets credit for.

Every brand, I don't care who it is,
has had a dodgy product in their past

that has sullied the brand
a little bit, unfortunately.

But I'm a romantic that way. I believe
you can design your way out.

You can create a product
that reinvigorates, revitalizes the brand,

and that's through engineering and design.

Right now, we're designing
the concept car, the SM-1.

It's a family vehicle that's
fully electric and autonomous capable.

- Wow! It's really different.
- Yeah.

We really tried to play
with giving the car more stance,

make it feel slender and more Airstream.

It has an athletic...

Even though it's not meant to be
a sports car, it has an athletic stance.

I think that's what creates
a unique proportion as well, you know?

Do you think the horizon line
will actually behave that way?

Do you intend the line to be that crisp,
or are you gonna soften it off a little?

Are you counting on paint to do this,
or are you gonna make a crisp line?

Crisp line.

I think the initial idea
was to soften it up,

- not so soft that there's not a break...
- Yeah.

But soft enough that, you know,
all of these radiuses kind of...

- You mind if I put a piece of tape on it?
- Yeah, go for it.

See if it kind of holds
all the way around the car.

Test it out.

Most designs have a theme line
that holds the design together.

The tape is one of those lines.

If you don't get the bones right,

you're never gonna have a good design,
no matter how hard you try.

I remember in school,
times we talked about,

"Can you sketch this car in three lines?"
You know?

"Is it distinctive enough to capture it?"
And I think you could.

I hate to break it to you,
I'm not feeling the wheels.

Those are just placeholders?

Well... That's where we're headed.

- However, we have time to change...
- I've seen the wheels...

You know I hate directional wheels, right?
You understand this as...

- I know now.
- They're too much.

We can work on it, right?

No, I think it's a great design.
I'm really proud of you guys.

Good.

If you ask someone at Ford or GM,
they could care less about Chrysler,

they think Chrysler
is already a dead brand.

So this concept car
is a huge investment for Chrysler.

We don't want to just build
a fanciful concept car.

That's easy to do.

Wow, there's a lot of work here.

This thing holds a lot of other
innovations that will be useful to us

in a myriad of vehicles.

It still has a portal
that represents eyes.

It celebrates the brand beautifully,
but it's like nothing else out there.

For the next few months, we're designing
everything your eye can see,

the safety items, the infotainment...

The design has to be so powerful
that it blows through all the paradigms

and stands for something.

We already own this minivan space,
but can we amplify it

and have it mean something
to a whole bunch of people?

Fleet companies, the whole autonomous car,

there's so many ways we can take this,
so it's pretty big.

So the fate of the SM1 is riding on
a meeting we're having a month from now

with the CEO of the company.

If he likes it, it'll go to production,
perhaps, or at least as a concept car.

If he doesn't like it, the whole thing
will pretty much just be scrapped.

The real genius is Ralph is charged
with designing a vehicle

that millions of people
would want to buy, and like,

as opposed to
a couple of hundred wealthy people,

who want something outrageous.

And when you talk to car designers,

you realize they're taking a styling cue
from something that was designed in 1938,

some obscure car,

but they remember that,
and they've integrated that into the...

You need all the information to do it now.

Oh, look at this.

This is another gorgeous, gorgeous Ferrari
with these beautiful double-cockpit looks.

This vehicle only has one door,
and then there's no seam.

They really didn't want
to waste the weight of the hinges

or create any more aerodynamic drag,
so everything is seamless.

Now that's for future reference!

One of the reasons I went to Mille Miglia

is to really dive into the most known race
in Italy,

the most known event of the country
and be in it, to get it, to feel it.

That inspires me.

- How you doing, Larry?
- Good morning!

Morning, man!

So this is Carina. I named her Carina
because it means "sweet woman" in Italian.

She's a 1957 Super Sport Zagato...
Alfa Romeo, Zagato.

What's cool about this car
is it's called the double bubble roof.

If you can imagine, it didn't have that,

it would be a very tall,
unattractive-looking roof.

So designers had to figure out
a way to get the required clearance,

but keep the vehicle as low,

and punch the smallest hole
through the wind, as possible.

And it's funny 'cause, actually,
our current Viper, and a lot of cars,

have adopted this feature
in various forms.

It's special.

I mean, there's maybe a dozen
that have the double bubble, so...

No. No, imagine how ugly
it would look.

If you fill that in, it would be here.

It would look terrible.
So I think that's cool.

- Oh, I get it, so that was aesthetic.
- It's always about aesthetics.

It's awesome.

I have no idea what that car was,
but I'm going to find out.

That's the other thing that's hitting me.

I was born in 1970, so many of these cars
are twice my age.

My love affair with cars came
from just walking around

and seeing how ugly cars were.

I grew up in Montreal, Quebec,
in the late '70s and early '80s.

I remember thinking to myself, "Ugh."

And then one day,
I saw a Porsche 911 Turbo.

I think I was maybe nine years old.

And it struck me as being,

"Why is that car more attractive
than the one next to it?"

And then I started noticing
more beautiful cars.

I would watch Smokey and the Bandit,
the Trans Am, even Tom Selleck.

I couldn't care less about Tom Selleck,
I'd watch the Ferrari.

And, of course, Dukes of Hazzard.
I used to watch it religiously.

I had to negotiate with my parents
my homework time

and Dukes of Hazzard time.

So that's who I am, really simply.

Someone who just woke up one day
and started noticing this machine.

So I'm the product
of proud Haitian immigrants, you know.

And my father had very high expectations
for me from the beginning.

Extremely critical. I mean,
we didn't even have time to play.

Part of the problem with my dad and I

was he wanted me to be an engineer.
I wanted to be an artist.

And he didn't know what to do with me.

So I just stayed in my room
and drew a lot.

My brother,
he started with stick figures of cars

and then eventually, they became...
they actually started looking like cars.

I think it was just
an innate gift that he had.

Okay.

But I guess the gnawing sensation
in the back of my mind was:

"I can't let Dad down.

I'm not going to let him down.
I'll find a way to figure this out."

I call this my folder of innocence.

Wow, this is really old.
A Jeep Cherokee my dad had.

Chrysler, their image,
it's not the greatest.

They are the smallest
of the three automakers.

They don't have strong brand images
the way Toyota or Honda or BMW do,

so they've really gotta fight
to get people to buy their cars,

and design has to be spot-on
for them to be successful.

Hey, Ralph.

Hi, guys. Sorry I'm late.

In our company, we have 21 nameplates
just on this side of the pond,

and in Europe we have another 25 or so,

so we have a lot of different cars
and we have multiple brands.

We've added some things.
You can actually swipe songs now.

I love that.

There's something more
to this than just designing.

You have to manage talent,
'cause it takes an army.

This is a little bit too fine. I think
that could use a little more beef.

This is nice.

I always try and imagine the future.

The feng shui piece of the screen
bothers me.

Like, the fact that the screen
will be there all the time.

Maybe it flips and then it adjusts?

- We can do that.
- It has to be all James Bond.

You're designing
for five years in the future,

then you have to think about the car
living in market three to six years.

So you're looking at
a nine-year window of time

that you have to consider
when you're creating these vehicles,

and that's...

It's daunting.

Jeep is in good shape,
RAM is doing extremely well,

Dodge has found its way,

but Chrysler's the one that has
the least amount of new nameplates.

People must be wondering,
"What is Chrysler doing?

They only have three nameplates.
They used to have eight or nine."

So this concept car's important to say,
"Hey, we're investing in this brand,

but we're changing the direction
of what the brand means."

Last, but not least... All those
wanting to know your feelings on SM-1.

A comment
on the fabrication side, Ralph.

The roof glass
is probably going to have to be acrylic.

I don't know exactly how to produce those,

they're probably going to have to be
poured, machine polished.

- Sounds expensive.
- Well, I don't know yet.

We have to be finished with the car
two to four weeks ahead of time

just to give the fabricator the time
to work out the bugs.

I trust you guys, but let me know
if you come to...

You're going to come to multiple forks
in the road.

Just, you know,
I'd like to at least know.

Yeah, okay.

The CEO is going to review the car
on the 8th.

July 8th, so...

No, we gotta make that count.
That's a big show.

Either way, that's going to be
a very juicy week, so... strap in.

If this goes over properly,

the bigger picture is that people
might change their perspective

of what this company's all about,
where we're headed.

You trust your gut instinct
that it's gonna work,

and eventually it'll become
a trendsetting design.

I think the best designs
are emotional forever.

You see an older 300,
it's almost 11 years old now,

and somehow they still look kind of cool,

because that emotion was there
from the beginning.

I was Chief of the Studio at the time
when this program was being developed.

The grill became a big part
of the car's theme.

But really, it harkened back
to the Virgil Exner

of '50s cars with aggressive,
oversized hoods.

Holding that DNA strand
is so critical to me.

We kept making the grill
bigger and bigger and bigger,

until it felt right.

It was a sensation.
And when it came out,

it was unlike anything we had seen
from an American car company in years.

The 300 was one
of Ralph's great designs

because it has almost an African-American,
urban presence to it.

It's got street cred, it looks cool.

He gave it these sleek windows,
a long hood and a short trunk,

and that gives it an impression of speed,
even when it's stopped.

It just had kind of a badass look to it,

and a lot of people who really
didn't pay attention to Chrysler

would know, "Oh! That's the 300."

The hip-hop crowd
took it under its wing.

The vehicle looks great
and it was affordable.

It was a pretty big deal for us.

We create a vehicle that someone
will not just own, but will cherish,

will create a community around,

and it's amazing.

I have an inner racer inside of me.

I've been watching racing
since I was a kid.

I went to four different driving schools
in a span of six years

and briefly competed.

But the part that speaks to me,
even to this day,

and why I go out of my way to do it...

is the escape.

When I'm driving a car,
literally, the world melts away.

You and the machine melt together.

Everything kind of goes in slow motion
and you're dancing with the car.

I come alive in a way.

The Viper is a big part
of what turned me on about Chrysler.

At the time the Viper came out,
it had double the horsepower of a Mustang.

It was the fastest car you could buy.

Insanely large engine,
a V10 that was eight liters,

I mean, just enormous.

And you could buy that car
for less than $50,000 when it came out.

So it was unheard of.

One of my favorite parts of this car
is not even the car itself,

it's actually something
that happened when I picked it up.

So this is the very first ACR
to come off the line at Conner,

where they make all the Vipers.

And a lot of the people here
are very special.

They love this plant, you know,
it's kind of a second home for them.

So when I went to pick up my car,
they started signing the car.

I think they knew in their mind
this car would be used as intended.

Dave Bailey, he was Head of Engineer
for SRT for a very long time.

And here's Rustard Daselli,
he just retired,

he ran SRT with me
for the last four and a half years,

so, great people.

I can't even... This is priceless.

I will never sell this car
because of this, so...

The acronym for SRT means
Street & Racing Technology.

It's music, it's music.

SRT was always about the Viper,

and then we started to fan out
its personality on the 300.

So we lowered the suspension,
made it look really sporty.

We showed it to management,
and they couldn't deny it. They're like,

"There's something cool about that,"
then one thing led to another,

and all of a sudden,
the SRT started going nuts.

We went from having two SRTs to ten.

America's always been about
value for the dollar.

You get Lamborghini, Ferrari performance

in a car that the average American
could aspire to.

I mean, it's the American success story.

The non-spoken part
of the SRT phenomenon

is the owners become kindred spirits.

They see each other
on the road, they wave at each other,

they go to car club events together,
they become friends because of the car.

Some people buy the SRTs
to be part of the community.

Hey, John! Nice driving.

That was outstanding, by the way.

That's a powerful thing.

I mean, it transcends much more
than what we do as designers.

It becomes popular culture.

And I think that's pretty cool.

- Ready, honey?
- Uh-oh, it's time. All right.

Man, you make me work hard.

Let's go.

- All right.
- You ready?

Yep. Okay...

Gonna wave the flag
for Alfa Romeo today

and moms all over the world.

Way back when, I used to sit there
with a stopwatch and a pad of paper

and have to, like, record every lap
and all his lap times.

You're doing good.

Just a touch of brake here...

And now that the kids are older,
we're looking for stuff to do together.

Let's call this
your acceleration point.

So from here, every time I want you
to hit it full throttle

all the way to the braking zone.

Ralph is intense.

Like when he was teaching me
how to drive a stick,

like, if I get all flustered and I'm like,
"That's it, I'm done for today,"

he'll be like, "You get back in there."

Partial acceleration now,

and full right now.

Go. Full throttle, full throttle.

But you know, he pushes me
and challenges me, so it's all good.

Makes me cry every once in a while,
but that's okay.

It's probably the toughest time
to be a designer in this industry,

because everyone's
hired each other by now.

Some of my best designers are working
for Korean companies now.

Have you noticed
the KIAs look pretty good lately?

The only thing I would say,
the feeling of the structure...

It feels like a giant nipple.
Like you're toying with a teat.

Yeah.

If there's a way
to somehow put a cup in there to...

- To kind of...
- Guide you.

You're not going to roll it, right?

The interiors have become
the new battleground for car design.

We design every square inch
of that interior to control the message,

make sure it's holistic.

To make it beautiful, functional.

We're thinking of a whole new way
of not just transporting your family,

but living in your car,
third-space solutions,

where you take what you love
about your home

into your transportation solution.

So, our interior design team,
who can speak to the third-space idea?

The promise of autonomy,

a different way to interact
with your vehicle.

You're no longer controlling it,
you're more living in it.

So you have a cabin, which looks like
Daniel Boone would live there,

and then you have something
that Iron Man would live in.

I mean, glancing at them,
I don't know if I see coziness.

Yeah.

'Cause we've all been
to high-end hotels.

You go in the room, it's like,
I don't know, not cozy.

It's cool, but it's not cozy, you know?

I'd rather be...

But I love these,
they're very inspirational.

We're living in exciting times.

I love the fact that there's
all this change, all this futurism.

Once a vehicle becomes autonomous,
the driver also becomes the passenger.

It's exciting to talk
about autonomous cars.

But when you think of autonomous cars,
you don't necessarily think of Detroit.

Right?

And that kind of makes me mad.

We're gonna catch up in a big way.
If anything, we need to lead.

There's a push now

to have a national test center
for autonomous vehicles

here in Michigan.

Detroit is going to play a big, big role

in how autonomous vehicles
become part of our lives.

The beauty of this vehicle
being level four autonomous,

it allows the steering wheel device

to be able to tuck away
and come out towards you.

It creates drama and theater
when the car is turned on or turned off.

You can feel like
you're witnessing something special.

You're changing the discussion,
we're all changing the discussion

of can a car be a place
you look forward to being in.

Not something you just sit in
and you get there,

but it's actually a... it truly is
an extension of your home.

I'm hugely conflicted
by this autonomous car movement.

As a leader of design
for a major corporation,

I have to step outside of my own body

and understand what the story
of autonomous cars is.

You would get it on the freeway,

then, once it's cruising,
the interior should reconfigure itself.

We have to respond to that.

But, the romantic car lover in me wonders
if one day, if everything is automated,

do people care about the car anymore,
or is it just another device?

Just like a train or something,

or some other device
to get to work or whatever.

But there's still
this solid base of people

that just love the freedom
and making their own decisions.

I just hope we always have that choice

versus it being mandated to us,
what we're supposed to drive or not drive.

My father loved cool cars,
so inherently we just liked cars,

but we didn't have the privilege of having
all of these cool cars in our driveway.

Who made these cars so low?

Again, you have to remember,
my dad was old school, you know.

Doctor, engineer, lawyer,
that's the only thing.

He knew I was mechanical.

I enjoyed the mechanical side
of the automobile as well,

but the artistic side really appealed
to me much more.

The idea of taste making.

So my aunt, who was a teacher herself,

saw something in that and wanted me
to cultivate the artistic side.

She was big on that.

And she most aggressively said,
"Hey, what are you going to do

with this thing you like to do?"

At the time, Lee lacocca was
making those famous commercials:

"If you can find a better car, buy it."

My aunt goes, "Lee lacocca,
that guy on TV,

write him a letter
and show him your drawings,

'cause you should work
for that car company."

It seemed so improbable.

Why this little kid from Montreal
would be of any significance to them.

But it felt like, "Hey, why not?"

They actually wrote back to me.

"Dear Ralph, Mr. Iacocca has asked
that I answer your letter for him.

I looked over your portfolio

and believe that you have the potential
to have a career in automotive design."

They recommended a few schools,

design schools that were in Michigan,
in Cleveland, and California.

"Center for Creative Studies...

I hope I've been of some help to you.

Your portfolio does show
significant promise.

Regards, Neil Walling."

Does it move you,
when you read that?

Mm-hmm.

Because of that letter,

I felt a certain draw and loyalty
to Chrysler.

So we've been working on this idea
in terms of a solution

for millennial vehicles
for about two years.

We've been going out
to speak to millennials,

just traveling across the country,
literally in their living rooms.

They often describe their issues,
their problems they're trying to solve.

As designers, we kind of listen in
really carefully to the problem

and say,
"Okay, today there isn't a vehicle

that solves two of those problems
at the same time."

We're trying to create products
that solve multiple problems,

and in so doing, you create
a white space,

meaning there's nothing there.
It's a canvas.

It's wide open
for you to develop the answer.

What do you guys think about
scrunching down the bumper pad?

Or the...

It would look so much better
with a little more breathing room.

The bumper...

Hey, Dunford,
I think you're going to like it.

If you like it, I like it.

Stop!

When I grow up, I want to be a yes-man.
Just...

Any comments from anyone else?

Everything is pretty symmetrical,
but yet the wheel isn't.

Glad you said that.

- Let's go look at it.
- All right.

I mean, the easy fix is
to stretch the wheel base.

- Now. Not...
- Yeah.

A year from now, it will very hard.

One area I keep staring at
is the radius on especially the rear door,

as it transitions.

And I think now,
if you move that wheel back...

- Can you...
- Let it breathe?

Let it breathe. It feels like it's forcing
its way around the wheel.

You can actually see
the highlight crashing with that.

The front one is perfect. Let's do that.

Let's call it 40 mils,
I think 40 mils is perfect.

- You can go too far quick, you know?
- Oh, yeah. You can. Yeah.

It'll come alive.
No, nice job. What can I say?

- Good stuff.
- Thank you.

- Good stuff.
- Sounds good.

Good stuff, John. No, no, you get a hug.

If you think about
family formation

and the way
people have transported families,

you had the station wagon,
then you had the minivan.

And all of a sudden,

you had a vehicle that was
80% people space, 20% mechanical space

in terms of volume.

People recognize that right away.

And from 1984 onwards,
it has been a success story.

They've always been
sort of boom or bust.

The K-car.
Oh, we did a million jokes about that.

Cars A through J, how bad were they
if this is the K-car?

The irony is they took
the base of the K-car,

and they put a big roof on it
and turned it into the minivan.

Boom!
They're rolling in dough again.

They're making a ton of dough,

but you've got to reinvent yourself
every single year

in the automobile business.

1987, the Portofino
concept car came out.

I remember seeing that concept car

and going, "Whoa, here are
the people that make the Caravan."

And it floored me.

The '90s.

That's when the company was healthy.

The Concord came out, the LHS,

the Chronos concept,

the 300 concept...

to try to remind the world
that we had that in us.

It's funny how it kind of goes...

Like, you're flying high,
then you hit a wall,

you hit an economic something
and then you're low again,

and then you always try
to get back to that.

That happy place.

We think the house is steady right now,

so it's time again to do a vehicle that
tells the world where we want to be going.

Taste making takes time.

I believe what we do as designers
is create taste.

Hello!

All right, where am I going to be,
right here?

Sometimes we're a little bit ahead
of culture, or ahead of the times

and we challenge it
and we hear that noise.

It happens all the time
on a creative vehicle

that is either loved or very much hated.

The way it's laid out on the table,
it's cozy, earthy and then...

- Yes.
- Technical.

- There are stories behind that.
- There are stories behind that.

So the perfect example
is the Jeep Cherokee,

very controversial vehicle.

We came at it with a different objective:
to shock people, almost.

It has a very unique face,
but it's still a Jeep.

But with the Jeep brand it's different,

because you have a brand
that's as recognized

as Disney and Coca-Cola,

and people tend to watch what you do,
so if you get it wrong,

you get it really wrong.

Jeep is
the most important brand Chrysler has.

And you want to talk about pressure,

doing a new vehicle from scratch
is about a billion-dollar investment.

So you've got to know
what consumers are going to want

even before consumers
know what they want.

The main show car
that represents the future wants to be...

That's kind of where my...
just my instincts.

- Sounds good.
- What do you guys think?

- We were more...
- You're there.

Yeah.

I can barely sleep when we're
in the throes of those projects.

It's like, "Oh, my gosh, I have
so many customers to make happy,

and we haven't even started talking
about the ones on the outside."

And over time, it just looks better
as people become more familiar.

And all of a sudden, it becomes
the new thing and others emulate it.

You have to have the intestinal fortitude

to be able to kind of make it
through that initial step

and also recognize designs
that will age gracefully.

Come up with
some color options, for sure..

It definitely feels anti-car,
and I really don't like the wheels.

- But we'll talk about that another time.
- Yeah, yeah. Yep.

When do we run out of time?
I know we...

We're working towards the 7/8 show
and it'll be a show like this.

Better wheels.

Better wheels,
we'll get you better wheels, for sure.

My whole life, I programmed myself
to believe I would become an engineer,

just go that direction.

And for me, it was always,
"Okay, let's go. Let's do this."

I went to college in Canada,

and I'll never forget...
I felt this hollow sensation in my heart,

like, "Is this going to be
the path I take?"

I remember being in school

and everything started turning
a different language.

I wasn't understanding it,

I was trying to sketch
and struggling with it.

Then eventually, after...
I don't even think it was even five weeks,

I dropped out.
I literally dropped out of college.

I didn't know how to break it to my dad.

I mean, I couldn't even
form the words in my mouth.

I didn't expect that it was going to be
so cold in the house.

Every day I'd come home and it was like
you could just sense the disgust.

You could just sense this kind of
"What has happened?"

Probably, in many ways, my darkest hour.

Starting in 1998,
it was yet another dark period.

And I felt it coming.

When I heard
we were merging with Mercedes,

I'm like, "Why? We're fine.
We don't need that."

And then, two years into the deal,
things were strange.

You could feel the product
being under-invested in.

And it absolutely
almost cost us our livelihood,

and cost us the entire company.

Mercedes divested
and pretty much left us for dead.

A private equity firm came in
and bought us.

It was horrible.

So I became Head of Design in 2008,
but they moved me under Engineering.

And that's a kiss of death.

That just says that design
is a function of engineering,

not an important piece.

On top of the product being sick,
there was an economic downturn coming

and it was just a perfect storm.

Two months later, they enacted
a voluntary termination program

and nearly half the population
of Chrysler vanished overnight.

I felt like a captain on a ship.

You know, "I'll be the last one
to get off this boat,

but I'm not leaving
until the doors are closed."

I remember going home for Christmas
to my mom's place

and just not knowing what was going on,

just not understanding
what was going to happen next,

not knowing if I'd even come back
to a company

after the holidays were over.

For some reason, I didn't worry,

I knew in the back of my mind
it'll be okay. I had my family.

For as ugly as it was,
I wouldn't change it.

I'm not fazed by anything anymore.
You know, I can handle it.

I only lost 3% of my staff during
the voluntary termination program,

whereas most of the company lost 40-50%,

and that's because we were working
on the future.

That lesson is singed in my mind forever.

No matter how tough times are,
you just do not compromise the product.

You just don't.

It wasn't until 2011 when we started
to dig ourselves out of the hole.

The government gave us a loan.

They didn't give us free money.

This was a loan,
a very high-interest loan.

And we paid it off in full.

And this was only on the condition
that we were managed,

so luckily FIAT decided to come in
and manage the company.

Sergio came in almost like a knight
waiting to swoop in and save Chrysler.

I think I know
how to lead people.

And the ones that we have here
are phenomenal people.

Sergio named me Head of Design
for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

But, you know, the global design role
that I have now,

I wanted to tell the Italians, "I get it."

You know, I wanted
to be seen in their sport.

I've gotta patch a lot of history
in my head.

I didn't grow up in Italy,
I didn't spend time there.

The vehicle I drove was 50 years old,
and people are still in love with it.

I want to do that.

When I come to work,
I want it to have been done so lovingly

that people get that,
they see that care in the design...

decades from now.

One of the most beautiful cars.

I agree. Thank you. It's not
my car, I'm driving it for a friend...

- Oh, you're a lucky guy!
- Extremely!

- Yeah!
- All right, ready?

I use the expression
we've been "common law" with FIAT

for about five years,
so it's a re-education.

When I took over the global role,
it was extremely intimidating.

I'm launched into
not only global executive meetings,

but also how do I carry these brands,
not being an Italian?

There's going to be a lot of eyes on me,
and I know that. It makes me nervous,

but it's also
extremely, extremely exciting.

We're working on
the next four or five Alfa Romeos

coming out in the next decade or so.

Looking at it through the lens
of an Italian designer is unique.

Because I have paradigms
that I've grown up with

and I'm trying to push those down
and distill the product for what it is.

It's a completely
different challenge

to design a Maserati and a Fiat.

A Maserati, you know,
that's a $150,000 car.

Every last stitch, curve, contour
has to be perfect.

I'm kind of rooting for the guy

just because it's nice to see
somebody from Detroit

be able to put his stamp
on a global luxury brand like Maserati.

Working with Klaus now,
who's Head of Design,

I go in and I direct a little bit,
but I really want Klaus to run the show.

So as you see this car, Klaus,

how much of a pilot light is this for
the future of Maserati in your opinion?

I think spiritually,
it very much is not only the future,

but also the past and the now of Maserati

where you just have beautiful execution,
beautiful surfacing,

but then you have some of these details
that add this character.

There's something compelling.
You know me, it's all about proportion.

I feel like this car has
just fundamentally good bones.

The wheels are at the right place,
the tumble...

Everything is where it should be
for this kind of car.

Announcing its presence, its power.
That's pretty awesome.

I don't want to hold their hands,
I don't want to do their job for them.

I want the Italians to do their car.
I want that car to ooze Italianness.

Here's a brand I've loved
since I was a kid,

and I get to play a role
in its future development.

I can't believe it.
I mean, I still pinch myself.

I was living at home, you know,
pretty much hiding in the basement.

Then my brother comes home.

He comes home for spring break.
And he didn't have to come home.

He could've gone to Florida
with his buddies,

but he decided
to go to freezing cold Montreal...

and go see his brother.

I remember I came home
to find him in the basement,

just buried in papers
of drawings of cars everywhere.

What I just saw was a young kid
sitting, wasting his talent.

It was just obviously there,
right in front of him.

He just didn't know what to do.

He asked me
about that letter from Chrysler.

And he said,
"Are you going to do anything with that?

Are you going to follow your dreams?
Are you going to try be a car designer?"

So we called Center for Creative Studies,

and they, on the phone,
described what we needed to do.

It was past the deadline,
I remember that.

We said, "Let's just pick
your best pictures."

I kept him up all night, saying,
"We got to do this.

You have a gift,
let's just get this done."

He made me coffee,

tried everything he could
to keep me pumped up, and...

And he wasn't going to go away
until I rolled up that stuff

and sent it to Detroit.

So yeah, that's a pretty big deal for me.
To follow your dreams.

We've got seven months
of energy and labor,

and love and meetings
and cutting room floor ideas

that are all coming to this moment.

If it's too shallow,
or it's not thought out enough,

the boss could tank it,
and we probably would understand that.

We had a full-size clay to approximate
the entire volume of the vehicle,

and we had the physical property that
approximated the space of the interior

and how it would feel in the dual sliding,
Bombay-type doors.

We should be painting that,
so it gives that lightness.

'Cause I'm missing some of that,

what was in the sketches,
where that upper bar is floating.

Know what I mean?

It doesn't feel celebrated enough.

It looks like an old property.

He's so programmed to expect
things of importance to be there,

I would keep it...

Everything that matters there,
and the support stuff sprinkled around.

- You know?
- And with this?

Oh, man, nervous.

Sergio's such an intelligent person.
He's on a different wavelength.

And I challenge myself
to get ready for any eventuality,

any question he may have.

In fact, I would move
all of that stuff here.

To me, this is background, that's primary.

Yeah.

This is some beautiful content
that should be all there.

I'm hoping today
we can fill that void for him

that I think he's aware that we have.

But, I'm optimistic
that he will be inspired.

That's what I'm hoping, to stay hungry.

Hello!

So today we're here to talk about

a concept vehicle
that's really trying to define

this third space for the next generation.

I got my job in 1992.
I got married right at that same time.

My dad was pretty proud.

For me, I felt like, step one,
"Wow, he's actually proud."

Unfortunately, he passed
in the fall of 1998,

just right before I got promoted,
just before I had my child.

He didn't really, unfortunately, see me
become a manager, then a director,

and it really hurt me.

Because I went from being a worker bee,
so to speak, to a leader, you know.

And I don't know if my dad
ever saw me as a leader.

All right, who thinks
Ralph is our new King of the Hill?

I wish he could see this today,

and just know that his encouragement,
or his pushing, worked.

Waah!

That was cheesy, but I want
to give you guys a round of applause.

That was freaking awesome.
That's about as good as it gets.

Sergio turned around and said,
"This is really good stuff.

This is some of the best stuff
I've seen in a long time."

Whether it's a windshield wiper
or an engine cover,

it all has to be done with love.

The observer recognizes that.

Can we get a fire pit in the middle?

Wow, someone
really cared about that.

And that's good design
and, ultimately, that's good art.

We're staffing up to make the vehicle.

We're building it.