Lincoln Design Center opening marks new milestone in brand's reinvention

Lincoln celebrates another element of its reinvention journey with the formal opening of the new Lincoln Design Studio in Dearborn, Mich., the brand's first new fully dedicated design center in four decades.

This major facility, located on the campus of Ford Motor Company's Product
Development Center, is home to a skilled, co-located global team of designers, sculptors, math sculptors and modelers representing a dozen nationalities - and with experience in just as many design centers around the world.

This team closely collaborates with a dedicated Lincoln Product Development team located adjacently in the Product Development Center, creating four all-new Lincoln vehicles by 2015 to ensure the reinvented brand has a presence in the highest growth segments of the premium market.

"We have spent considerable time to develop strong integrated design, engineering and product programs into a common Product Development vision for Lincoln," said Raj Nair, Group Vice-President, Global Product Development. "Lincoln's advantage is we can build on the company's tremendous global product development resources and ensure we continually innovate to develop the best technology and apply it to support the unique Lincoln difference."

Nair pointed out two significant examples of this approach, highlighting the all-new Lincoln MKZ's push-button shift and panoramic glass roof. 

Creating a facility dedicated to Lincoln is an essential step in the reinvention of the brand.

"During the great recession, the US luxury market had changed. Now, there is opportunity for a fresh, new alternative in the premium market," said Jim Farley, Group Vice-President, Global Marketing, Sales and Service. "Lincoln's renaissance is built on our new product lineup and is a personalised experience with designs that deliver on our promise of a personalized motor car: beautiful, elegant, and most of all, surprising."

The new design studio is located in the nerve center of Lincoln vehicle development, allowing engineers and designers to be co-located. Approximately 150 design team members who work exclusively for Lincoln are also in the center.

Max Wolff, Lincoln's Director of Design, is responsible not only for the design of all Lincoln vehicles but also the environment in which they will be created.

The new home is an environment where designers and engineers truly collaborate. The loft-like studio replaces walls with glass. Cubicles are banished in favor of open workspaces where designers sit across from one another. The entire space is configured to allow Product Development team members to drop in, have ad-hoc discussions and make impromptu innovative brainstorm sessions the order of the day and not the exception.

"We also made it a priority to fit interior and exterior design teams into one space because often they are two separate work streams and therefore, two different sensibilities," Wolff said. "Now everyone collaborates on one harmonious vehicle."

The first vehicle to emerge from the new studio, the 2013 MKZ, goes on sale late this year.

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