‘Datsun design is very pure’

Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President & Chief Creative Officer, Nissan Motor Company is responsible for overseeing the creation of distinctive and innovative designs, managing global design strategies and developing mid- and long-term concepts and innovative ideas for the company’s future vehicles. Recent examples include Nissan 370Z, Altima, cube, Murano and GT-R, as well as the Infiniti M, G, and FX.

Nakamura is deeply involved in the brand management activities of the company. He also serves as president of both Nissan Design America (NDA) and Nissan Design Europe (NDE). He has been involved in the development and reinterpretation of the Datsun brand’s design philosophy. Excerpts from an interaction on Datsun’s design heritage and challenges:

Do you think you have achieved the design goals that you had set for yourself with the Datsun GO?

I think so. I think we have put in a lot of effort to make the car in line with the design concept and one that carries our brand identity, which is very simple, modern and attractive. I think I’m happy with this car.

Datsun is being revived and it has a heritage that is more than 80 years old. So did you attempt to strike a balance with the design heritage of the past or did you completely reinvent the brand’s design philosophy?

Originally, the concept of the Datsun brand isn’t complex. Like you said, when we stopped the Datsun name brought it under the Nissan brand and we have been carrying the design DNA of 30-40 years ago. Later, this was our heritage under Nissan.

But we had created the design philosophy of the brand a lot earlier when Datsun was born. Datsuns have always stood for very compact, but robust, modern car. So we wanted this DNA to stay here.

Was it difficult for you to come up with a design language that was going to be applied to so many cars even before the brand itself is launched in the market?

We have two cars - Go and Go+, which basically follow the same design. Then, we have the Redi-GO concept but it’s yet to go into production. This one has enhanced ‘sportiness’ and is more expressive. It has a very sporty small Crossover/SUV trait. I think this adds to the Datsun brand characteristics. Design-wise it has a very strong front face, as is the case with Datsun Go. The side windows too are very similar. Both keep very much the same design philosophy but have very different proportions and different direction, widening our target consumer base.

With the focus firmly on emerging markets, going forward, what do you think will be the design challenges for Datsun?

Datsun as a brand does target emerging markets, but design-wise I don’t think we are just targeting emerging countries. This design can go to any other market, any other country. I don’t want to make a design language just for an emerging country or a certain market. Of course, the regulations might differ from one country to another. Say you take this car to US or Japan, they’ll have to change technical regulations, but design-wise this is not only for emerging markets, it can be for any market. I really think that’s very important. Even Datsun GO is a simple, modern car which should be very attractive to say the US, Japan or European markets, only price range or technical specifications will be different. Of course, costs too will differ. The interiors will be the same simple, clean design. It might be interesting to see if a US or European customer likes it, but regardless in some way it appeals to me. Datsun design is very pure.

Datsun’s cars are produced to fit into a certain price range. Does this throw up a new challenge for balancing engineering and cost pressure and does it affect your design?

Yes, of course. Engineering requirements and costs are the biggest challenges to overcome, not just for us but for any company. It is also similar when we take up other products. If we design say a Nissan Sunny or a Nissan Micra, we are always fighting over engineering equipment and the cost as well. We want to do more but we cannot. Therefore, basically designing Datsun and designing Nissan or any car for that matter is no different. It’s just a matter of magnitude.