Clay helps bring Lincoln models to life
Tried-and-true tool has a place in brand's new design studio
Photo credit: PETER SERLING
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DETROIT -- When Ford Motor Co. created the 1964 Mustang, designers used 60 clay models in the process of perfecting the first generation of the now iconic pony car.
Five decades later, designers needed just four clay models to create the production version of the 2013 Lincoln MKZ, according to Al Biggs, a design modeling manager at a new design studio dedicated to the Lincoln brand in Dearborn, Mich.
That was four more than some in the industry might have expected. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when automotive designers such as Biggs believed the clay model was bound for extinction, made obsolete by computer-aided design tools.
"We thought digital was going to replace clay" completely, Biggs said during an open house for the new Lincoln studio in Ford's sprawling product development complex. "Then we realized that digital was part of the toolbox," but not all of it. "A lot of areas are difficult to interpret digitally."
Areas such as the angle where the A-pillar, the car's fender and the front of the door come together are difficult to visualize on a computer screen, no matter how good the digital image, Biggs said. Those three-dimensional elements look even more realistic after modelers apply Di-Noc, a sheer carbon fiber film that fits over the clay as tightly as skin.
Biggs, a 35-year studio veteran, can remember when designers used as much as 10,000 pounds of clay to sculpt a single model. Today, a lot less clay is required.
Designers start with computer-generated or manual drawings of a car. They build from there applying the clay to an armature, a wooden or steel structure underneath. Then a computerized milling machine sculpts the surface, and modelers work the fine details using hand tools.
Photo credit: PETER SERLING
Lincoln now has 150 designers and design support staffers working at the new studio. Outsiders rarely get a glimpse behind the doors of automakers' design studios, where future products take shape in closely guarded secrecy.
Lincoln took the unusual step of opening the studio to journalists as part of a campaign to show that Ford is committed to the struggling brand. But the open house coincided with the reassignment of C.J. O'Donnell, Lincoln's marketing chief.
Lincoln has its own engineers and marketers. But for design, "this is the first dedicated space for Lincoln since the '70s," said Raj Nair, Ford product development chief.
Lincoln executives are keen to convince the world that future Lincoln vehicles will not be upscale versions of Fords, a criticism that has often been leveled at Lincoln in the past.
J Mays, Ford Motor Co.'s global design chief, said the staffers will be dedicated solely to Lincoln and will not work on Ford-brand vehicles.
"We learned our lesson long ago. If you can't get somebody's head around a brand on a daily basis," elements of sibling brands will start to creep into the designs, he said.
Photo credit: PETER SERLING
During a tour of the studio, Lincoln designers showed one of the clay models used in the development of the 2013 MKZ along with a fiberglass mockup used to simulate paint and surfaces. That MKZ, due to go on sale in November, is the first of a generation of Lincolns designed to lure a new, younger generation of customers. A compact crossover, possibly called the MKC, is due for the 2014 model year along with a redesigned MKS sedan.
Lincoln has promised it will introduce four all-new or revamped vehicles in the next four years.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas and the man many believe will eventually succeed Alan Mulally as Ford CEO, dropped by the studio open house.
Fields said Ford executives know Lincoln must be distinct and upscale, which is why the brand needs its own design studio.
"We really understand that a luxury brand is essential for us to be a global and successful enterprise," Fields said. "There's not a single full-line successful global line maker that does not have a successful, vibrant and relevant luxury brand."
You can reach Bradford Wernle at bwernle@crain.com.
