Victor Nacif is vice president, Design Business Aspect, at Nissan Design America, Inc. (NDA) the San Diego based design studio for Nissan in North America that counts the 350Z among its design successes. He joined NDA in 2004 and his areas of responsibility are wide-ranging, including the design process, modelling, technical design and human resources. just-auto’s Editor Dave Leggett interviewed him on behalf of the Lotus Engineering magazine proActive where this article first appeared.
DL: What’s taking up your time at the moment?
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VN: There are a lot of meetings and time being used up for the organisation, for making sure that everybody is communicating correctly and for putting in place a team that I think is very, very high-performance all round. It’s really more the people side of the design business, than it was before when I was sitting down and sketching and drawing as a designer.
DL: So how much time do you spend involved on the creative side as opposed to the management side and being involved with the process?
VN: In our organisation we have Bruce Campbell who is responsible for the design and I am responsible for the ‘design business aspects’ here at Nissan Design America. In my area of responsibility I am responsible for all digital design, technical design – so it’s the visualisation group, the scanning and milling group and I have HR and administration and I’m also responsible for the clay modellers who obviously work in the creative process from the very beginning with the designers.
We review models on a daily basis – not to interfere, but just to review – and then I obviously do a walk-around of the studios.
The studio in San Diego where I’m based, I’m here two weeks out of the month; and then one week normally I’m in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and I do exactly the same process…. I do walk-arounds on a daily basis, to be inspired by what that team is doing and it’s just great to see what they are doing.
DL: What’s the division of responsibility between San Diego and Farmington Hills?
VN: The studio in San Diego was set up some 29 years ago as a think tank, as a creative and innovative environment by which a group of designers from Asia, Europe, America and South America would meet and would create, based on culture, based on diversity and based on the influences that were happening in Southern California at the time.
That all still holds true today. It is still a very, very innovative place to be. And it’s more than the weather – it really is a place where cultures meet and cultures create.
Farmington Hills was created because we have our technical facility there, where there is engineering, there’s a small group of product planners there – and consequently what we have is more production oriented design.
More of the downstream process is for Farmington Hills and more of the upstream innovation and exploratory process is for San Diego.
DL: How much potential is there in the future to further reduce design times and does that mean fewer designers are needed?
VN: Not necessarily. What is happening in the industry is two-fold. One is that we are getting a greater amount of diversity in a shorter amount of time. In other words, we’re coming up with a broader spectrum of ideas but now it’s more focused and only in a specific timeframe.
The second thing I see is that the process itself is pretty consistent once a design is chosen – by that I mean the manufacturing process and the supplier process; it’s pretty clear. You know when the tooling has got to be done, when the plant’s got to be geared up – and I think from company to company everybody is pretty close on that.
The difference in the process is that as you go more towards the exploratory stages and the innovatory stages it tends to be a little more vague and the reason it’s more vague is that the process itself early on is more of a guide. Things get really serious when you are choosing from two final designs or you are down to one design. At that point you are going in deep to the fit and finish issues, the digital process – that is pretty tight all around for everybody.
But the process itself, I see it as more of a guide when you are in the creative stage; you don’t have to adhere to it line for line.
Creativity, I think – and I believe most designers will tell you this – is not planned. You don’t say ‘from nine to five you are going to be creative and you are going to have this output for that day’.
Sometimes we have nothing for the first few weeks and then there’s the idea – it comes through. Sometimes we get it at the first shot and then we still question it – is it true? Did we get the right answer in the first place? And then we go through different stages of exploratory work to confirm whether what we came up with initially is right or wrong.
DL: And the design process itself is constantly evolving?
VN: Yes.
DL: Can you describe an ethos for NDA and what do you see as the key things needed in order to design the right products for the North American market?
VN:. When I first I arrived at NDA I heard three elements and I started analysing them – not just to take them in but to actually incorporate them into the way that I am.
The first thing that we talk about in NDA is design excellence. The second thing is inclusiveness and the third is humanistic.
Humanistic is really the people. Inclusiveness is really the process. And design excellence is really the output.
And a strong cultural value here at NDA is that you cannot create in isolation. You have to have highly-creative and highly-motivated people.
The chances of getting a good outcome are much higher when you have those first two elements as bases and you thrive by encouraging design excellence in everything you do – and that’s throughout the whole process, by the way, it’s not just San Diego having design excellence, but also Farmington Hills.
Even when you are designing the last half-millimetre it takes sensitivity and it takes knowledge of what you are doing to make sure that it improves it or enhances the thing that you are building.
Those three elements are the cornerstones of NDA.
DL: How do those NDA values you have just described relate to broader values in design within Nissan as a whole?
VN: The design values are different from design studio to design studio within Nissan.
For example in NDC which is in Japan, CBI Creative Box, which is in Tokyo or Nissan Design Europe…they have different values and different cultures but what we try to do is not have the same values anyway, because that gives us a different voice.
We have our own voice and it’s almost like children in a family – there is the family but every child has their own voice and not everyone thinks the same.
The design studios that try to become the same, with the same culture, values and points of view, are the ones that become very,very stagnant.
Even between San Diego and Farmington Hills, the culture is different and it’s more than just the change of weather, temperature or location. They really are very different and we have to honour that. The more we try to make them the same, the less we can leverage the unique perspective each studio can provide.
DL: Does any particular NDA-designed model stand out for you as the epitome of what you are trying to achieve?
VN: Obviously we have done quite a few products here and there are products that are going to be coming out in the very near future that have been inspired and designed by NDA.
Probably the one that I can tell you that’s the safest bet is today’s 350Z. It was designed here at NDA and it was a very interesting process. It was a couple of years before I arrived here and it was designed by a multi-cultural and diverse group of people. The inspiration was Ajay Panchal who is a British designer. He created that initial inspiration, but he didn’t then do it all himself. There were Japanese designers who came on board, there were American designers and there were some Brits and that made it very interesting and compelling. I think NDA is exactly that.
We used to be called, by the way, Nissan Design International and we’re more diverse now and we’re called Nissan Design America!
But I think the case in point would probably be the Z, which was very inspirational.
DL: Do you think the vehicle market globally is becoming more or less diverse?
VN: The fundamental cultural expectations have changed in this industry.
Before, you had the European market – which was basically Western Europe. Then you had the US and you had Asia – which was basically Japan.
But now there are huge variations that are increasing. Western Europe is getting smaller in the marketplace; in the US light vehicle sales have gone from 17.6m down to 16m and this year could decline to about 1
5.5m. And in Japan, sales have been stagnant or falling for a number of years.
Places that are blossoming are India, China, South America, Central America and Eastern Europe. That’s created a big shift.
What I see in terms of cars is that there will always be diversity.
Some of the diversity is not visible, but for example, the way the suspensions are set up between England and the US is very different – even though it may be the same car.
I worked on the [Ford] Mondeo programme when I was in England – I lived there for five years in the early 90s – and Ford was trying to do this ‘world car’. What happened was that it created a compromise. It was not exactly, at that time, the right size for Europe and it was way too small for the United States.
Probably, in today’s day and age, the differences would not be as great as they were 20 years ago – but they are still there.
The features will probably be different because culturally there are certain things that the US market wants, in terms of features or colours or materials, that are different to what Europeans want.
Right now I am seeing a backlash here from the traditional thought that the European cars had better taste and were better vehicles than the American cars.
DL: From consumers?
VN: Yes, led by what consumers want. If you look at a Mercedes or BMW, for example, there’s a lot more bright work than there used to be in those cars. In Europe that was unheard of….now there is more interior chrome, more wood, polished aluminium. Before, the European interior was very stark, very basic, very functional – kind of like an aircraft cockpit.
So, culturally, things have changed and I also think there will still be diversity.
DL: Does that mean there’s a need to rebalance and look at where market growth is coming from and adjust accordingly to, say, tap into the design creativity in a newly important market such as Russia?
VN: Sure. I participated – and will participate again this year – in the Michelin Challenge which is open worldwide to students of automotive design who come up with ideas. The last time there were 350 entries from over 150 countries.
We’re dealing with people who have never even driven a car, in places like Afghanistan, drawing automobiles. You know that they have never had that opportunity and yet they are coming up with ideas.
But all sorts of countries – like Brazil, like countries in Asia – all sorts of countries are now savvy in automobile design.
DL: What do you see as the big challenges and pressures for automotive designers these days?
VN: Needless to say we all have to play by the same rules, but design is becoming harder these days. The increasing restrictions acting on designers are sometimes in conflict, too.
At one end of the scale we’re being told that we have to have a more economical vehicle – which makes all the sense in the world – but at the other end of the scale, by the time you add all the safety features that add weight and compromise aerodynamics when hoods have to go up…pedestrian safety is obviously important, but what does it mean for aerodynamics?
Cars are getting bigger and chunkier because more features are being added and because legislation on occupant protection adds dimension and weight.
Over the last 75 years we have found more and more constraints.
I think that if we look fundamentally at the automobile and the essence of what the automobile is as a product, where is the innovation? What is the essence of what this product is supposed to do? What are the different products we can put in the market for those different needs, and then have laws that complement that and not prevent it from happening…
For example, look at three-wheeled vehicles. What is preventing us from doing a three-wheeled and inexpensive vehicle? Well, in the United States you can’t go with a car that costs US$2,500 because by the time you add airbags and side protection, a certain amount of engine performance and air-conditioning what do you end up with?
You end up with a car that now costs US$10,000 and weighs 300kg more than was originally conceived.
DL: Do you think the regulatory environment can change in the way you would like it to?
VN: Well, it won’t come from the regulators. An outside force will be needed for that to happen.
For example culturally, if we look at different types of automobile…
Let’s consider a city car, that gets 80-90 miles to the gallon, or that is hybrid powered, that maybe doesn’t need the same regulations as
a vehicle that is going to be driven on the freeway at speeds of 75 or 80 miles per hour.
Why do we need to meet the same regulations for these two vehicles with very different usage patterns?
I believe that once we start meeting that kind of diversity our CO2 is going to go way down. The usage of those types of vehicles will be more appropriate to reducing harmful emissions and improving energy efficiency.
The customers themselves, I believe, will be more at the leading edge. It’s not going to be the government that changes these things – it’s going to be the customers.
The customers are going to be demanding certain things and we need to put pressure on the regulations to change and to allow things to happen.
DL: How do you see developments in the US light vehicle market in the long-term? What trends do you see emerging?
VN: Probably the biggest trend is the huge sensitivity towards the environment and that is a trend that I hope never goes away.
We need to act very responsibly…and we, as an industry, are meeting that trend with what I think are compromised vehicles today.
We as an industry are not creating specific solutions today that I think could be much more compelling. We will in the future programmes.
Generally, I think the US market is going to go through a fundamental shift of saying that if we want the vehicles we had before, we’re either going to have to pay for them and we need to look at what vehicles are more appropriate to our needs.
And I believe that in US, because it’s culturally very acceptable to have more than one car, you will have families that instead of having, say, two pickups or two SUVs, they might have one SUV for their weekends and a smaller less expensive vehicle for everyday use.
That’s a huge trend.
And then secondly there are interiors. If you look at trends – materials, fit and finish, quality, technology and entertainment – we’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of where that is going. I think it’s going to change fundamentally over the next ten years.
DL: To pick up on the environmental concerns, do you think that means more small cars in America?
VN: I don’t think it is just smaller vehicles…
The US is an interesting place in that culturally we believe that the bigger something is, the better it is. Bigger is more.
If you can offer something bigger for the same price that someone is offering something smaller, even if the smaller offering is better quality – the smaller offering is simply not an inspiration for today’s US culture.
DL: But is that cultural dynamic changing with consumer gadgets like the iPod where high value and functionality is increasingly associated with small size?
VN: That’s probably an element that will influence it, I agree, but I don’t think it will change it though.
If a person has the ability to buy a home or vehicle and that home or vehicle is bigger than the ones they are comparing it to, most people – at least in the US – will opt for bigger.
It’s just a fundamental cultural fact. If you have five acres of land, that automatically should be more expensive than three acres of land – even if the five acres of land is in the middle of nowhere.
That’s my perception of the way things are in the United States, so I’d be cautious in projecting how the market plays out in terms of, say, smaller cars.
DL: Final question – what gives you the most satisfaction in your job?
VN: Design. I hold the title VP, Design Business Aspects. I’ve been in this business 28-29 years and was a working designer for maybe six years and have been in management ever since. My passion and everything I do, inside work and outside, leads to design in general and automotive design. It’s not just automotive design it’s everything. I love design in all aspects, architecture, fashion, colours – and I love automobiles. That’s what drives me, 24 hours a day.
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Victor Nacif
Victor Nacif is vice president, Design Business Aspect, at Nissan Design America, Inc. (NDA). His areas of responsibility include Process, Perceived Quality, Modeling, Technical Design, Administration and Human Resources at NDA’s two design studios, located in San Diego, California, and Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Since joining NDA in June 2004, Nacif has been engaged in instilling better practices and organised methodology for increased efficiency and effectiveness for better coordination among Nissan Design affiliates worldwide. Nacif participates in the Joint Design Policy Group with Renault, helping to develop and implement best practices within the Alliance.
Nacif has a truly international background. Prior to joining Nissan, he worked at PSA Peugeot Citroën in France for nine years in various capacities, eventually as the Director of Design from 2000 to 2004. He has lived in the US, England, Italy, Germany and Japan while working at Ford Motor Company for 16 years in various design management positions.
Like many of his colleagues at NDA, Nacif is passionate about sports cars and all aspects of design. He participates in various Art and Design School juries as well as local car shows where enthusiasts meet to share in the passion of classic vehicles.
Born in Mexico City and raised in Oaxaca until the age of nine, he was primarily educated in the United States, graduating from College of Creative Studies, Detroit Michigan. Trilingual in English, Spanish and French. He and his wife Dominique have a son, Stefan.
This article first appeared in Issue 25 of the Lotus Engineering magazine proActive
