Car design depends on teamwork, in sharp contrast to the social distancing the coronavirus pandemic has imposed. How does smart working change creative activity? What consequences will it have on the form of tomorrow’s cars? Auto&Design has asked these questions of carmaker design chiefs and independent style centres. Today is the turn of Lowie Vermeersch, founder and creative director of Granstudio.
How have you organised your work during this period of lockdown?
The coronavirus epidemic has not upset the way we work because the vast majority of our projects were done completely digitally even before the arrival of this pandemic that forced us to stay at home. However, there is no shortage of ways to meet: all the work of our designers is shared on a networked platform and discussed together. At different times of the day we hold evaluation meetings with the whole team according to a very precise weekly calendar. One of the advantages of this organisation is speed: without travelling, visits and other commitments, work is leaner and more fluid.
Once this period ends do you think it will have influenced the way you draw a car?
Every change so radical inevitably leaves a mark, but at the moment I still don’t see anything tangible in the stylistic content of the products. Maybe it’s because we’re still working on projects that took shape before closing. It will be interesting to see how the concept of using urban space will change, projects in which we are very active. In these days we see a change in man’s behaviour in the city environment: it could be a reason for new ideas and projects. It would be a shame to waste this moment not to reflect on the possible evolutions of urbanization.
Have you brought specific tools from the studio or can you do everything with normal PCs?
Many of our designers had the opportunity to completely disassemble the studio workstation and reassemble it in their homes. The management of large files and very high resolution images would make it impossible to work on a normal computer or tablet like those you use in your private life.
Do you think this period of closure can influence a designer’s creativity?
This is a difficult to answer question objectively, each of us is different in the way we react. However, on a general level, certainly the inspiration is nourished by the most diverse external factors and in my case it is stimulated by travels, meetings and experiences. However, this is an important moment of reflection: when everything starts again we will have to remember everything that has come to our minds in these days.
