mts Posted May 1, 2006 Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 Laurens van den Acker has been appointed General Manager of the Design Division of Mazda Motor Corporation, effective, April 28, 2006. As head of the design division, he will lead a consolidated Mazda design team responsible for the overall design and styling of all Mazda global products. He will report to Seita Kanai, Senior Managing Executive Officer in charge of R&D. Van den Acker is currently located at the company's world headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. Prior to joining Mazda, van den Acker was the Chief Designer, Strategic Design, at Ford Motor Company's design offices in Dearborn, Michigan. From 1998-2005, he held several prominent design positions at Ford, among them chief designer of the Brand Imaging Group in Irvine, California and, more recently, chief designer for the Ford Escape platform. Notable cars which van den Acker has worked on, have been the Ford Bronco, Ford 427, Model U and Ford 24/7 concept vehicles, as well as the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner production cars. Before to joining Ford , van den Acker also worked for Volvo, SHR Perceptual Management and Audi AG. He began his career as a lead designer at Design System srl in Turin, Italy, in 1990. Mr. van den Acker graduated from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands in 1990 with a Master of Engineering degree from the Faculty of Industrial Design. He is fluent in Dutch, German, English and Italian. May 2006 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synesthesia Posted May 1, 2006 Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 I'm not to thrilled with his ford stuff, but the audi is impressive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted May 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2006 Two very different demographics.... Ford = low-middle income while Audi is upper middle and up.... Why would anyone design for the rich and have it miss the demographic customer.... mind you the euro Focus is a little rocket, unlike the Mexican built shit over here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsonist Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 Hmm, interesting. He helped design the new A and S lines in Audi, which Jeremy Clarkson critized and called it "letting the Audi's grow a goatee". Meh, I like Clarkson but he can fuck himself. This guy is miles better than Bangle the jerkoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted May 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 Ah yes the BMW killer.... :rifle: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 don't even get my started on bangle, that prick who looks like he's homeless takes cars and makes them look like hello kitty got it on with them "look at me, I was well styled and mean, now I make stupid asian style and look like crap car 20k less" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted May 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 He catered to your favorite demographic... the damn Asian that buys and destroys BMWs.... FUCKERS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsonist Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 I give him props on the 7 series, and perhaps the Z4 (it's a damn roadster anyway). The 5 series...I don't like it anymore. Audi A6 takes a shit on it, and let's not even get into the E Class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 there all horrible, they were made to look "friendly" and less aggressive, there not making damn jap cars, god damn gooks I would like to point out that while the millenia was being developed, and actually to this day, mazda is the only jap car company to have an american ceo, infact I believe he was a vice president at pontiac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsonist Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 The 3 and 5 series DEFINITELY look Japanese....but the 7 series looks like an oversized Jaguar. They should learn from Audi though....Thank God this guy is with Mazda now. Mazda also had a Bangle-like fucker designing their cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Poor happy looking BMWs.... fuck I hate that smiley demographic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsonist Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ZyTC93lGI M5 bashing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mts Posted May 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 Bahahahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
///BHRpowered Posted May 4, 2006 Report Share Posted May 4, 2006 if he worked for audi during the mid 90's, when audi had a badass aggressive look then great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latinopikachu Posted May 10, 2006 Report Share Posted May 10, 2006 *sigh* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsonist Posted May 11, 2006 Report Share Posted May 11, 2006 I believe he did, I really don't know Audi's history till that point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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