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Designer in Charge: Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles

By Rain Noe - March 21, 2011

in Object Culture | Design Business

We love seeing designers speak with passion, and it's a bit startling, though satisfying, to see when the designer in question works for a large corporation but has not had that passion beaten out of him. If anything, it's quite the opposite in the case of Ralph Gilles.

Something appears to be going very right over at Dodge, where CEO Gilles is both an industrial designer and relatively young at just 40 years of age. As Gilles describes himself in an interview with Forbes,

I don't see myself as the classic car designer that's all about style. I'm always thinking about the business case, the big picture implications of whatever we're working on, the engineering challenges. A true industrial designer is more of a problem solver. A true artist tends to make a singular piece that stands almost in a museum by itself, whereas an industrial designer is designing a solution for millions of people.

Anyways, back to the passion—check out this vid of Gilles speaking the design gospel at the Los Angeles Auto Show after the jump:

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Frank Wm. Moore

13 years ago

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I would like to heartily congratulate Mr. Gilles and his engineering staff for coming up with one outstanding concept for the 2011 Charger. This vehicle is so well thought out that this man and his staff should be given one nice bonus for their efforts.
I totally like the new color concept of the upholstery and the materials used on same.
The only change, and a minor one at that, I would make is to have used a bright chrome product for the grill. I had an chrome R/T grill installed in my 2008 Charger and it improved the looks tremenously.
Keep up the good work Ralph. Now you have to get to work on the Challenger and improve the design faults of the interior of this car.
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Nick

13 years ago

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I really wish someone had asked the question, why US cars are so inferior to European cars in both aesthetics, quality of fit and finish and performance. Is it that US buyers are intrinsically less learned about beauty or that US car designers and manufacturers are constrained by their management from achieving higher standards of visual and functional appeal? Who is asking the tough questions?
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Designer in Charge: Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles

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