ChryCo's New Design Chief: We're Going Organic!

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

If you want your brain to melt, ask a car designer to explain… anything. When it comes to torturing the English language and obfuscating meaning, these guys are the masters (these are not the Hoffmeister kinks you want). Ralph Gilles is different. Chrysler's freshly-anointed Design Chief is a man of the [Canadian] streets. OK, yes and an Art School grad. But when Ralph talked to Automotive News [sub] about his employer's new design direction (they have vehicles to design?), all we got, thankfully, was "We're done with the 'Edge' look." So it's in with "organic shapes." Like… the 300? Or those two-day-old moldering vegetables I no longer buy? I kid. Anyway, meanwhile, good luck getting that "monkey off our backs on interiors." And the following pledge (as reported by The Detroit Free Press): "With the Nissan project we're working on, we've got designers stationed there… and you'd never know it was based on a Nissan." Oops! I guess that cat's out of the bag!

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • JK43123 JK43123 on Aug 20, 2008

    Organic? If they actually make a profit they'll be orgasmic! John

  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Aug 20, 2008

    ChryCo's got money to spend on designing new cars? Who knew. Will they be around long enough to actually get a new design to market??

  • Wmba Wmba on Aug 20, 2008

    Hmm, the last organic car was the Trabant, I believe, with body panels made out of dried and compressed carrot greens, held together with water and flour [s]resin[/s] glue and painted with diluted woad for that delightful light blue and green color. Of course these days organic means non-GM (er, Gene Manipulated) amongst other things, so Monsanto will be disappointed. A GM hybrid corn husk floor mat will not be an option. Too bad.

  • Capeplates Capeplates on Aug 22, 2008

    The use of organic is simply dangling a carrot at potential buyers!

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