Audi Plans To Bring Exterior And Interior Design Studios Together For Better Design Unity

German car brand Audi has announced a new design strategy, bringing the interior and exterior design studios together to encourage faster innovation and stimulate greater dialogue between the teams. "You can't survive if you just depend on one brain to do a complex thing like a car," said Audi head of exterior design Achim Badstübner.

Head of Audi Group design Wolfgang Egger has set up a satellite studio in Munich where the interior, exterior and colour & trim teams come together for workshops and to share ideas. Until now the teams, which together employ 200 people, have worked in separate buildings at the main Audi plant in Ingolstadt.

The Concept Design Studio has already produced a prototype vehicle, called the Crosslane Coupé which, the brand claims, shows greater design unity between interior and exterior.

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Steve - 12/21/2012 9:17:55 AM

+2 Boost

I have several strong opinions about Audi's design:
(1) They have some the best interiors in the industry
(2) Their exteriors suffer from too much sameness across models
(3) They've gone in the wrong direction with their overly-stylized headlights
(4) I much prefer the 2012 model year designs over the 2013
(5) Their "gaping hole" grill is instantly identifiable, but not in a good way
(6) The 2012 A5 was one of the most beautiful cars around, but they lost that in the 2013 model year with a less attractive front end

I don't think that unifying the exterior and interior design divisions will do much good, unless the interior folks also have superb exterior design skills, and can influence the exterior folks in a good way.