What creative influences outside of car design are relevant to Audis style?
I personally like very much designers that have a clean and strong design language. Marc Newsom, for example: I like how he treats things. And Philippe Starck, too, but more for the way he designs objects that can trick an eye. He focuses on doing things outside of predefined borders and boundaries. He’s very open to creative thinking, which is really great. What design elements will become more important to distinguish Audis from other luxury vehicles? Two things: our front-end grille and light technology. We’re moving to more LED head and tail lamps. It’s wonderful technology for design, because you can create a character for a vehicle that’s very easy to recognize. On the R8 and the upcoming version of the A4 sedan, the details on the head and tail lamps are like little pieces of art. Another very Audi detail is [the] rounded roof line we started 10 years ago and we’ve decided to keep, especially on the larger cars.
