Word: hirshberg
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...past few weeks, what started in the '90s as a quiet debate among car buffs and greens has become, as former Nissan design chief Jerry Hirshberg says with a sigh, "a religious war." On one side are devout environmentalists and icky Hollywood types, as well as reputable safety experts who say SUVs can be death machines. A lefty group called the Detroit Project has produced slick ads charging that because SUVs use so much gas, and because some of the crude oil for that gas comes from the Middle East, and because some oil-rich princes have funded Islamic extremists...
...from toothbrushes and teapots to sport-utility vehicles. So in the battle for our wallets, design has become a more critical component. "With all the noise out there, the trick now is to be as creative as you can in observing and then interpreting your expressive abilities," says Jerry Hirshberg, president of Nissan Design International, which, by the way, has been commissioned to design not just cars but also golf clubs and yachts and, most recently, to remake the Los Angeles Times...
...about to launch a new publication called Motoring). Moreover, signature design is no longer the realm of the snobby, afford-anything rich. Ask Martha Stewart, or the prominent architects and furniture and car designers who swap industries these days just to give products that extra mark of distinction. Thus Hirshberg, who began his career as a Pontiac designer, is doing a newspaper. An everyman-discount store like Target, for instance, hires architect Michael Graves to design a toaster. And an everyman-car company like Ford hires a product designer like Australian Marc Newson to do a sprightly concept...
...very little that is practical about the Volkswagen Beetle. But like the great cars of yore, it has a personality that lets buyers say, "Look at me!" And so dealers haven't been able to keep them in stock. "The new Beetle fails at most categories," says Nissan's Hirshberg. "The only thing it doesn't fail in is drop-dead charm...
...Prevention is education and we want to make an impact," Hirshberg said...