The Designers, Pt 11 – Sooshin Choi, College for Creative Studies

Car Design News launched its first-ever Car Design Review yearbook at the Geneva Motor Show, featuring the award-winning Production Car and Concept Car Designs of 2013.

If you're interested in buying a copy of the 160-page yearbook this interview appears in, alongside trend reports, bespoke car design infographics and a special feature on Marcello Gandini, our inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Car Design Review can be purchased here.

Name Sooshin Choi
Role Professor of design, College for Creative Studies
Age, nationality 56, Korean
Location Michigan, USA
Education Seoul National University, Hong-Ik University, RCA

"There were some good production cars in 2013. The Citroën C4 Picasso was one. It has good harmony and contrast with everything built into the car and there aren't many cars that do that successfully. The Volkswagen XL1 was another. To me it's a perfect visualization of a hybrid car that isn't too unrealistic and has German style too.

"Out of 2013's concepts the Mercedes S-Class Coupé was special. When I saw its exterior it was very similar to what Mercedes already has. But the interior was a shock. It is very soft and feminine and makes the driver and passenger so comfortable. It's not just a car, it's like a space that carries you safely and happily.

"But my favorite concept of 2013 was the Volvo Concept Coupé. Volvo is a symbol for safe, well-built automobiles but in the past couple of years it got somehow forgotten. Now this Volvo brings that design language of Volvo back. The sculpture, the line quality, every area of the car looks nice, harmonizing everything into one.

"At the College for Creative Studies (CCS) student exhibition you can see we are making very dynamic cars that connect smart technology and automotive design very well. Car designers are trying to understand what people's lifestyles are more. It's not really automobile design.

"Often people find this connection between themselves and beautiful automobiles, but so what? When you touch something, just touching the seats, what does touching those seats mean to you in terms of experience? There are many things we do every day but we want a more valuable experience.

"Since October 2013, CCS has offered a new Master of Fine Arts (MFA) course in interaction design to support our MFA in transportation design. It's about how designers can learn about interaction design to feed automotive design. We also offer an MFA in color and material design which is new too. They're all about the experience."

Concept

1 Volvo Concept Coupé
2. Mercedes S-Class Coupé
3. Cadillac Elmiraj

"The Concept Coupé opens up a new era of Volvo-ness. While keeping heritage, the design clearly asserts its direction towards the future"

Production

1. Citroën C4 Picasso
2. Ferrari LaFerrari
3. Volkswagen XL1

"Many car designers try to make a beautiful car, which is great. But then I saw this Picasso; it looked like the designers were trying to understand people's everyday lifestyle, not too much exaggeration, no gimmicks, not flashy"

By Guy Bird