One on One with Micah Jones
We recently sat down with designer Micah Jones, lead designer on Concept Camaro interior. Continuing the conversation, he spoke about some of the interior features.
Do you think a Camaro driver is different than any other sports car driver? Do you think they have their own traits?
Well I think the previous Camaro buyer definitely has different values than other sports car buyers. There is definitely an American pride aspect to it, and also there is the heritage aspect where the Camaro is America's sports coupe: an attainable, accessible, affordable and very exciting car. It's always been bold, which I feel is an element of American design.
It has always been a good-looking car, but our goal for this concept car is to expand the appeal to those who are not necessarily Camaro buyers. We really wanted to transcend any stigmas and make it desirable to everybody, the executive, the teenager, everybody. It has to be a universally appreciated car. And I think it does that.
Was it hard to bring in parts of the old and mix it with the new?
No, it's fun. Again it's the challenge. I like a challenge. So in looking at the past Camaros, we picked out things that we thought were important to do for this new one. And then once we identified those three or four things, the rest of it was all our own take.
And what were those three or four things?
The first and the major one is having a crosscar instrument panel that has a console that tucks underneath it versus most modern consoles, where they turn up and blend into an instrument panel so the driver and passenger are totally separated. We wanted the Camaro to be simple and open. So that was the first major element. And then the other things were just details, essentially. Display details. The cluster has the rectangular frames with the deepset circular gauges inside them that are inspired by the '69. And then the gauges on the console, the four gauges on the console we call the four-pack, that was also offered as a feature in the '69 Camaro. And also the steering wheel. It's a 3spoke wheel with a really small, deep hub on it that's pretty reminiscent of old muscle cars. So besides that, everything was just up to us to do it as modern and slick as we wanted to.
So how did you come about some of those other things? Where did you go for inspiration?
As far as how the components fit into it, like the radio, the gauge bezels and the switches, a lot of that was inspired by some products that are coming out now. Like some modern watches, for instance kind of have a retro quality to them but still come across as futuristic. And the usage of material, the authentic materials, the use of leather and metal, the way they use them together is really contemporary.
So how did you choose colors?
We wanted to be really bold with the black and white scheme. This higher contrast and more confident interior follows our philosophy that a convertible should be expressive and have a more fun quality to it. Plus the black and white scheme is becoming a, I wouldn't say trendy, but a very contemporary color scheme now that we're seeing in some products, as well as a few show cars that have come out recently. Black and white is kind of making a resurgence, and we heard from our global design analysis guy that "white is the new silver." [Laughs.]
It's got a purity to it.
Yeah, yeah. So we wanted to use white for the accent. And we felt that using the white or the lighter tone also gives it more of a fresh quality to it versus all black. And seeing that it's a convertble, we really wanted it to be open and fresh inside, and not to mention functional. Because when the sun's beating down on the white leather, it won't be nearly as painful as black leather when you sit on it. The "houndstooth" interior offered in the early Camaros kept the black and white material limited to just the seat facings. This inspired the usage of white in our concept car. The materials, too, I take it had a huge impact on what you could do to creatively modernize it. It definitely has a huge bearing on which colors and finishes we chose. With that said though, this vehicle was, or is supposed to be, very honest and very simple. I know there's a lot of hi-tech materials out there that can do some great things, but we didn't feel the Camaro was a good place for a lot of the really, really hi-tech materials.
Are you saying a Camaro buyer isn't into the high-tech?
No, I'm not saying that. But the Camaro itself isn't about that. I think the interior is meant to be very simple and bold and familiar, while keeping the focus on a powerful driving experience.
So the interior materials are pretty familiar. You've got leather and billet aluminum for the most part. But the way those traditional materials are used is very contemporary. The way they fit against each other with very flush-fitting executions. Even the finishes are, I wouldn't call them futuristic by any stretch, but they're definitely things you couldn't do in the past. Like with the metal itself. The billet aluminum has got a couple of different tints on it that give it a really specific finish. It's like a darker, kind of smoke finish. Then there's a satin finish over that to knock down the hard highlights on it and give it a really robust look to it. And then the white panels in the door and the IP are actually a tricoat paint that has a nice pearlescent in the second coat. I guess the paint technology has changed a bit too, where we can get a richer finish from the paint.
I noticed the floor, too, is quite different. It's not all carpeted like you'll see in a normal coupe or a Cobalt, even. Why is that?
Well we wanted the floor to look like it was thought about and really integrated into the car. So the material used in the floor represents a formed metal floor. And the floor has radiused corners that blend up in the console and doors, continuing the theme.
There are carpet strips that rest on the center of the floor and don't wrap up into the sides. This really emphasizes the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. So you look in the car from the side, and everything is pretty much horizontal and all moving back. From the lines across the dashboard into the doors, everything swings back. And then when you look down to the way the seats integrate with the doors, it's a horizontal-parallel relationship and then you look down even farther and the carpeting itself has a strong flat, horizontal quality to it. And that's even further emphasized by the carpet itself, which has a fine rib-like texture to it. So it's really linear. Simple and straight and fast. It's not being held up by anything.
So the shifter is different too.
Yeah, the shifter is again one of those things that is part retro and part contemporary. The basic look of it is pretty retro where it's got a long, thin shaft to it that's got a little kink in it. And that's a lot like the Hurst shifters of the muscle car days. But the way we wanted to make it contemporary is in the way it's tied into its surroundings. The way that shaft goes up into the ball, it just kind of opens up and becomes a spine to run through the ball, bisecting it. And then where the shaft drops into the console, it's fixed to a large dome, a big disc essentially, that moves with the shifter and closes out any gaps. That just makes for a high quality and modern execution.
And how long did you work on that shifter?
Honestly, I didn't do the shifter, because a lot of the design that's on the convertible is from the coupe last year. There were two of us working on it. I was the lead designer who pretty much established the theme. And then Julien Montousse was the other designer, who helped out with a lot of the details and brought his unique flair designing them. He was really influential. So I don't want to take credit for that, because it took him a long time to do that shifter!
It seems pretty ergonomic. Seems like you'd have to know a bit about anatomy.
Well, part of it is common sense. You just kind of hold your hand out. You think of what position your hand will be in, and you design it so that there aren't any pinch points. So your hand fits on it well. We did deviate from common ergonomics by making it bigger than a shifter would normally be because we really wanted to give a strong, robust quality to it. When you hold it, it's almost like a baseball in size. It's quite large. But that was for design impact and to make it proportional with the rest of the interior.
It feels pretty wild! I've driven the car. And changing gears with that shifter feels like you're driving a machine. It's like something really powerful, and you get that feeling just from holding it.
How much do you think the production car will vary from what the initial designs were?
Very little.
I bet that feels good.
Yeah, it does. Definitely.
To know that you succeeded in making the right design choices?
Yeah and that management and other people succeeded in making the right choices. Because as I say, "I'm the designer, but I'm the guy at the bottom." The car wouldn't look the way it does if it wasn't for my boss and his boss and her boss. You know, there's a whole chain of people. So I really have to give credit to the company for collectively making a really good decision that ultimately yielded a great product. I'm just the guy at the bottom. I sketch it. I draw it. I help sculpt it. A lot of it comes from me, but I give a lot of props to the design leadership.
So you're happy with the way it turned out?
Definitely. It was an absolute trip to work on. It was exciting. It was challenging. I knew when the project started, "Aw, they're bringing the Camaro back, this is a pretty big deal." But I had no idea how big of a deal it was until the leaked photos ended up on the forums. And all of a sudden, like bam! It just spread like wildfire. And then when the [Coupe] debuted at the auto show, the response was incredible. I knew it was big, but not that big. So now I feel even more honored to be part of its history. It's really incredible!
That's great camaraderie.
Absolutely. The people are great. Of course when you're working on the Camaro, people are even more happy to work. There's even more pride. Especially in the fabrication shop. There's probably 50 people that worked on the car from the paint shop, woodshop, metal shop and trim shop. It's neat when they're working on the car, sanding the clearcoat and thinking "I'm gonna buy one of these things one day." It's such a personal experience.
So does collaborating with all of those people or even other designers impact your design?
I mentioned that I worked with Julien Montousse on the coupe. And the collaboration went really well there. I was a little anxious at first. On the one review that it was official that my theme was to be picked for the show car, I was like Wow! Alright! And then I heard that Julien was going to come in from California to help me with it, and he's done a fantastic show car interior the year before as well as the GM Sequel. He's so unbelievably talented. It really worked out well, because I got to learn a lot from him and he got to learn from me. And then the end result was really ideal because it had my sense of overall interior experience with his sense of detail and craftsmanship and his modern touch to it. Like I said, collaboration is really a big part of what we do. You can't get frustrated when things don't go your way because there's a bigger picture and a lot of people involved.
All these cars that we do are all a team effort. I'm just one cog in the wheel, just one person. I had a fun time and am really honored to be a part of it. Props and kudos go out to everybody who worked on the car to make it as great as it is.
Good note to end on. Thanks for meeting with me today. Can't wait to drive it! |
