Jeffrey Nagaoka
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Who's Where: Ken Ma resigns as Changan Design Vice President
Ken Ma has resigned as Vice President of Design for Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. after only a year. The former General Motors and SAIC designer's departure is a blow to the Chinese manufacturer's bid to design more distinctive cars to compete more effectively with foreign rivals in China and abroad.
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Central Academy of Fine Arts degree show 2009, China
"Other students are still designing cars; Phoenix tried to push the envelope by trying to explore what the future taxi, when completely electrified, would look like. She tried to condense her design ideas and express them as simply as possible," Wong said. "She also paid a lot of attention to ...
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Central Academy of Fine Arts degree show 2009, China
China's home grown car makers are increasingly ambitious, as illustrated by plans to grow rapidly at home and, in some cases, expand abroad and compete with foreign rivals in cutting-edge technologies. One big impediment they face in taking on their foreign rivals is design.
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Design Essay: Western designers heading East
China has developed its auto industry into the world's biggest over the past decade by what veteran China auto expert, Michael Dunne calls a "cut and paste" approach - copying foreign technology and design to approximate modern cars. This strategy has enabled China's homegrown carmakers like Geely and BYD to ...
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Design Essay: Western designers heading East
Taking a page from Korean carmaker Kia's strategy book, Chinese manufacturers are trying to challenge global peers by tapping foreign talent as design becomes increasingly important as the domestic market matures.
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Who's Where: Dave Rand resigns from Changan Automobile
Dave Rand, the former General Motors Design Chief, has resigned from the Chinese State-owned automaker after joining the company last October. Rand's resignation, which was made official last week, follows that of his senior at Changan, Ken Ma who stepped down as Vice President of Design earlier this year.
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First Sight: Daimler-BYD electric car design renderings leak out
Computer renderings of an electric car, being jointly developed by BYD Co., a Chinese battery and car producer that began making cars only less than a decade ago, and Daimler AG with more than a century of experience - were leaked for the second time this year. The car marks ...
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Nissan opens new design studio in Beijing
Another piece of evidence of the Beijing studio's potential: an edgy crossover car the center's designers developed, inspired by a very popular Chinese street art form called jianzhi - a type of paper cutting. The nameless car - a pure design exercise at this point, according to Nakamura - is ...
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Nissan opens new design studio in Beijing
Delayed by the deadly earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, Nissan Motor Co.'s new design center in Beijing finally received a proper opening this week, when global design chief Shiro Nakamura showed off the studio as a new source of ideas for Nissan and Infiniti.
