5th Aug

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Strategy

Challenge - Vision – Rationale - Execution
Our heartland; working closely with the client team to define their challenge, to create robust and exciting future brand, design and product visions — along with compelling justification to gain buy-in — and then help them execute their strategy within the company.

Intelligence

Best practice – Trends - Insights
Providing client teams with rich, useful ‘food’ that enables them to make their creative leap from a firmer and higher start point: best practice, relevant trends and forecasts, and powerful insights from research in specific areas relevant to the client challenge.

Ideation

Exploring – Realising
Considering potential design implications, exploring directions these might best take, and then realising these as initial design ideations in 2D or 3D digital form.

Engagement

Experiences - Co-creation
Curating experiences that bring clients into direct contact with relevant stimuli and people, and co-creations sessions with other creatives.

Evaluation

Insights – Surveys - Audits
A qualified external view on client issues; headline expert insights, large customer surveys, and rigorous audits for brand, design, product and perceived quality.

Communication

Talks – Classes – Events
Delivering engaging talks to a range of audiences, ‘master-classes’ to elevate in-house know-how, and design contests and seminars to engage with new ideas and audiences.

Car Design Research worked very closely with me to develop a new Design Strategy for Volvo cars that we're rolling out now. Their work was both clear and visually strong for us to use in Design, but also had the commercial substantiation valued by our management team.

Thomas Ingenlath

CEO Polestar, Previously Chief Design Officer, Volvo

When we needed a credible and knowledgeable outside point of view, we naturally turned to Car Design Research. Their vast knowledge of all things design, experience in the field and network of design professionals establishes them as a reference point for car companies.

Laurens Van Den Acker

Chief Design Officer, Renault Group

What makes the research work of CDR unique is that they understand design and have a passion for it. It allows them to create studies and insights that resonate with designers and make sure that what they do is a real added value to the creative process.

Lowie Vermeersch

Founder & Creative Director

I've been fortunate to work with some very strong internal creative teams but there is always value in having external input, and for several years I've much valued close support from the team at Car Design Research. Most recently they have worked with me to create key design management tools for Kia and Hyundai that will enable us to consistently differentiate our brands and elevate the contribution design makes to our business. Some agencies deliver useful research, some have expertise in the automotive sector, and a few get car design; in my opinion CDR is unique in having all three of these things.

Peter Schreyer

Executive Design Advisor, Hyundai Motor Group

Car Design Research brings a unique perspective to projects, adding significant value through their expertise. Their collaboration with internal teams is consistently smooth and professional, ensuring exceptional outcomes. With a deep understanding of the automotive industry and meticulous attention to detail, Car Design Research has helped us push boundaries and create standout designs. Their research-drivenapproach and strategic guidance have been invaluable in navigating the ever-changing market and meeting customer demands.

Stefan Sielaff

Vice President Global Design, Geelyv

I’ve worked with Car Design Research both at Calty Design and ED2, and what I’ve always found is that their research, insight, opinion, and strategic advice consistently adds unique value to our projects.I love their passion for all things design. CDR’s balance of clear vision and creativity, especially in the world of car design, has inspired our design teams to look beyond the expected to deliver real results for our customers.

Ian Cartabiano

VP Advanced Design, Calty Design Research, Toyota/Lexus

We retained CDR for a comprehensive study on our brand, the beating heart of the our business. Their work enlightened unknown strengths which will make our business run faster in current races. Even more important, they suggested unforeseen game fields where our business proposition is encountering major interests. In essence, our heart was looked after extremely well.

Silvio Pietro Angori

CEO, COO, Pininfarina

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Sam Livingstone

Director

Passionate about cars and design from a young age, these interests took Sam through product design and design management degrees where the strategic use of design, and particularly car design, became his focus. He has now led automotive design strategy projects for many Asian, European and US automotive brands, working closely with many of the world’s design directors. Prior to founding Car Design Research, he was a management consultant, which in turn followed a four year period as Design Strategist in the design group of a large automotive OEM. Sam used to part own, and be Editorial Director of, Car Design News, and has for the last 17 years tutored at London’s Royal College of Art on the Intelligent Mobility Design programme — previously Vehicle Design. He also sits on the judging panel of several important design awards: ‘World Car of the Year’; iF Design’; and ‘Scuderia Zagreb’ and is an award winning critical writer on car design.

Robert Dooley

Design Strategist

Robert works across all areas of CDR projects, in particular on areas that concern emergent technology and creative process. A champion of new mobility (and cycling), he is also active in PhD research that brings computational methods and automation technologies to automotive design practice. Robert holds an MA Vehicle Design (Distinction) from the Royal College of Art.

Thomas Ridge

Product Strategist

Thomas brings a high level of experience and abilities in automotive research, drawing from finance, engineering and sales experience to inform and substantiate much of the contexts of the creative process in new vehicle development programmes — and particularly advanced product planning. His automotive OEM experience includes managing multi-million pound programmes, leading long term planning process and competitor analysis for the C-suite.