| General Motors isn't new territory for Ed Welburn.
Appointed sixth design chief at the world number one carmaker on its 95th
anniversary, he replaced a retiring Wayne Cherry, the man largely noted
for maintaining the brand’s position. But will he be able to fill
Cherry's shoes?
With Cadillac, GM had a great luxury brand, like the STS above, that could have competed with European rivals Audi or BMW |
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Welburn speaks with a soft, velvety voice. His Philadelphian
drawl accentuates certain points and adds a musical note to his words.
It’s hard to dislike Welburn, but it’s just as impossible
to get to know the GM brand more intimately through him.
The designer admits his role is more of a strategic one. GM, after all
has so many brands in the US, and there is a need to gather them all effectively
under one roof. Welburn sees having so many brands as a huge advantage
for GM mainly because of the diverse nature of the motoring industry today.
Having as many brands as we have, we are able to really deploy them,"
he explains. "Each one has a very different mission, and we are able
to cover most of the market. How we take advantage of the power of each
one of these brands does need to be very strategic," he concludes.
Additionally, Welburn chairs GM's Global Design Council, although he insists
they don’t work for him, but that it’s more of a team effort.
The council's main aim is the GM family to collaborate on design. "We
can also take advantage of the power of having over 400 designers,"
he adds.
There is a design language or a brand character that GM has developed
for each of its brands. Some of it is written, some of it is not, but
it certainly isn't laid out in a textbook. "Most of it is on a more
emotional level as each brand has a different emotion attached to it,"
he notes. So how do you discover and nurture these emotions? Welburn explains
that it is the job of the leadership team of design to be the custodians
of it.
As GM's design
chief, Ed Welburn is responsible for the development of Cadillac
as a global brand |
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With Cadillac, GM had a great luxury brand that could have
competed with European rivals Audi or BMW. Although things haven't really
quite work out for the brand, Welburn is still an optimist. "We consider
Cadillac to be a global luxury brand, with products that we think are
relevant to different regions," he confirms. GM doesn't think it
would work to make cars like Mercedes-Benz, Audi or BMW. "Cadillac
has to be unique, stand on its own and for everyone to recognise that
it is an international sized vehicle, but with an American design language,"
he explains.
At long last Cadillac is coming to Europe, we are told. But all that can
be revealed at this stage is that it will include some of the portfolio
from America, minus the Escalade, as it wouldn't be appropriate for all
of the countries in Europe.
Welburn is extremely pleased with the results of the vision that was put
in place to develop the new products for Cadillac. Because of this he
believes it has been easy for designers, engineers and everyone involved
to fall in line and to develop the vehicles one after another in a short
time span. "It's very important to have a strong vision for a brand
as well as a strong vision for any individual vehicle that you are developing,"
he adds.
Previous to his current post, Welburn was executive director in charge
of body-on-frame architectures for GM Design, where he was responsible
for the Hummers, the Escalades, the Chevy Tahoes, the big pick up trucks
and sports utilities.
The Escalade in particular has been a big hit with young and perhaps urban
buyers. Welburn is highly enthusiastic about gaining the confidence of
younger customers and for him the Escalade is the vehicle that has opened
the doors to younger buyers.
He explains: "GM began by seeing a trend towards utilities, and specifically
a trend towards luxury utilities. Young people, urban people, really connected
with the Escalade, so we will continue to build on that connection to
make a vehicle that is even more relevant to this segment of our market,"
he says.
Other utility vehicles have got the attention of urban America for a short
period of time, but haven't lasted, whereas the Escalades, Welburn believes,
continues to grow as GM continues to keep the design fresh. He notes that
its popularity transcends urban areas and has even filtered into suburban
America, as well as become a hit with celebrities in all different areas,
especially music and sport.
"I believe this will have a positive image on the GM brand,"
admits Welburn. He also believes it has had an influence on the whole
Cadillac line up. Nowadays he thinks young people get pretty excited about
Cadillac.
Welburn understands his youth market. He explains: "The key is that
there is no one-vehicle type that people want. "I have seen many
attempts to design a vehicle for young people and it just hasn't worked."
He thinks young people are attracted to a strong and honest design.
"You just don't want to do a design that insults young people,"
he says. "You don't want to insult any category, or any group. Therefore
to do something that people think is young and hip, but misses the boat,
isn't necessarily the right thing to do. It just has to be honest and
it's got to be real." According to the designer young people want
a clean sheet of paper, something that they can then personalise and customise.
This is where Hummer's been a success. Once again Welburn's eyes light
up as he discusses the brand. He admits that they may not be able to afford
it, but it is a desirable car for younger buyers. The H3T concept, one
of the designer's babies and first revealed at Detroit at the start of
the year, is a smaller, cheaper, more fuel-efficient Hummer, well by American
standards anyway. It is also a good indication of what the carmaker intents
to do with its small Hummers. "Young people think it's just fantastic,"
he adds. So far there aren't any mass production plans for the smaller
Hummer, but everyone realises that it is in the horizon as the opportunity
is just too great.
Welburn stresses that no matter what the design team does with Hummer,
even if they make a teeny weenie one, it must have extreme capabilities.
Whether the customer takes it off-road or not isn't the point. "All
design elements and specs have to be extreme. Even the door handles have
to be big and strong and tough and the hinges that hold the doors have
to stay big and exposed," he says. Welburn sees Hummer appealing
to other regions of the world, but admits it would have to be the right
size.
GM has tried to make a strong design change in the Pontiac brand, shown
on the Solstice and G6. Pontiac, explains Welburn, is a very sporty and
aggressive brand and they two new cars are both clean and approachable
in design. He is honest with this one: "The mission of Pontiac in
the large part is to design vehicles that appeal to young people and the
more aggressive designs we had for Pontiac in the past frankly did not
appeal to them." To achieve this, he explains, the cars need to have
great proportions. The Solstice has real classic sports car proportions;
the grill shape is classic Pontiac for instance, but done in a new way,
he adds.
Things haven't been so good for Chevrolet though. Some say the cars look
dated and the Daewoo Kalos being re-badged as a Chevvy, may completely
destroy its brand identity. Welburn hasn't given up on this front. He
sees Chevrolet as a global brand, one that has great value and spirit.
With Saturn Welburn gains animation. GM has just announced a new Kappa
based vehicle, different to the Saturn Curve. "I get excited even
thinking about it," he says. "I am so happy with this design
and it really will point the way for the brand." All he reveals is
that the designs will be more expressive, a bit of a more emotional design
statements. The Vauxhall Lightening, also based on the Kappa architecture,
on the other hand needs to face up to some challenges in executing the
right hand drive before any plans are announced. GM is looking at a number
of opportunities with Kappa as it is a flexible architecture and there
are great opportunities to develop a variety of vehicles on it, he admits.
GM cars in general, and especially with Saturn, are facing quite a stiff
competition from Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda on the US roads. Welburn
isn't blind to this and admits that competition is stiff but that it has
really challenged the carmaker. "There is nothing like competition
to improve work," he adds.
American cars have notoriously been slack on interior quality. Welburn's
team are aware of this and have reorganised the design centre with more
focus on interiors. He says that interiors must be the absolute highest
priority in every region around the world, especially in North America.
"I enjoy our design reviews of the interior because the bar continues
to rise and rise. It's a real energised team," he says. "As
long as the quality of American cars begins to rise then it's a lot easier
for American cars to become more appealing in other regions, as long as
it is also relevant to that particular region."
"I think designers are globally part of a fraternity," he says
dreamily. "We have common interests and common challenges. We may
come from very different cultures, our assignments may be very different,
the brands that we work on may vary, but there is a common bond that exists
between designers."
Welburn studied product design and sculpture. He has worked for GM in
the US, in Europe, in the advanced studio and on most of its brands. He
obviously knows his design and definitely has a good sense of where and
how each brand is positioned within the bigger structure. These are crucial
times for the American giant. Toyota is toeing on its back and if GM is
not careful with how and what it does with all its brands, at home and
abroad, then the Japanese carmaker may even overtake it in not so long
a future. Sceptics say Welburn is just the front man, and it is vice chairman
Bob Lutz who makes all decisions at GM. This may be the case, but Welburn
does have the charm and charisma to push forward these visions and help
keep GM at the top.
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