We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Anadolu Isuzu Design Team about their original and creative Medium Size Coach design work. Anadolu Isuzu Design Team is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original medium size coach works.
Anadolu Isuzu Design Team ("AIDT") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Visigo Medium Size Coach. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
AIDT : Visigo is a mid-size coach. Its customers and buyers are used to travel with larger coachs, which offer a high level of comfort and quality. Visigo had to challenge the segment of bigger coachs, without compromising its cost targets.
AIDT : For the exterior, we focused on the design language. It had to compete with 12 meter sized coachs, which cost twice as much as Visigo. Still, Visigo had to compete with them aesthetically. For the interior, we focused on spaciousness. Larger windows, sky windows and color scheme are the main factors for this.
AIDT : Our company extends its export network and Visigo is one of the key products for these markets. While we are working on some options for these special markets, R&D keeps working on other engine options.
AIDT : The need of the market was obvious. But the realization of the vehicle took 24 months.
AIDT : The vehicles function and market need was commissioned But still, there were questions of validity of the need. The design of the vehicle needed to persuade the customers that the vehicle indeed delivers it promises while being an affordable option.
AIDT : The design is being produced by Anadolu Isuzu and it is a strategical product.
AIDT : We have examined our potential customers and markets. We know that our customers need to earn Money via this product. But they had to compete with larger coaches. This design is highly detailed. Every detail had to be touched by designers so that our customers are satisfied with the quality of the product.
AIDT : The design was carried out by our design Office, so we were mainly influenced by each other.
AIDT : Target customers are travel companies. They mainly use this product for shorter cruises, airport transfers and tours.
AIDT : Unlike its competitors, this vehicles design is challenging another segment. It is a feasible option for 12 meter coach users, where it offers its passengers the same level of comfort.
AIDT : The name was chosen by marketing division. It has a phonetic affect and fun to pronounce.
AIDT : Most important part was the field researches, where we discovered our customer. We observed, how they earned they money and how they felt while doing it. After that we conducted classical design processes. Only differentiation is that during the design process, we met lead users a couple of times and heard their insights about the design.
AIDT : The vehicle is aerodynamically shaped and offers pretty much one best values on the subject. Many iterations were led to achieve this result.
AIDT : Working as inhouse designers has its benefits. We worked with the R&D engineers and production engineers and technicians throughout the project. That way, we could foresee results of our design decisions from every aspect.
AIDT : Even though classical production methods are used, design process benefited from many softwares. We were able get CFD results for aerodynamics to iterate and we were able to evaluate the design with lead users with virtual prototypes.
AIDT : We believed, this particular project needed closer relations with customers. We worked closely with focus groups, we listened to customers. We tried to find out what they meant, what they would love, what they would hate.
AIDT : The design of the vehicle confronted many production methods. In the exterior, we used strong surfaces with chamfers. Unlike predecessors, we had to overcome some mounting applications in order to achieve a higher quality. In the interior, we forced our vendors to do more. We designed illuminated holding bars, which had to endure for all life-span. We designed patterns for both fabrics and ventilations. This level of detail was and challenging for our suppliers.
AIDT : Anadolu Isuzu has already export operations over 60 countries including western Europe. The vehicle itself has a good sales graphic, which is an important indicator that the design of the product is well accepted. It is also quite important to get acknowledgement of European design organizations. This helps to the recognition of the brand and the product.
AIDT : The challenges of this design carried our design office to a new level. But the most important part is that we worked closely with engineers and technicians. We extended out knowledge of production and cost.
