Stop spinning your wheels.
Get in the driver's seat with J Mays, the superhot auto
designer at Ford, and learn how to get your team around the
roadblocks.
It's
media day at the 101st New York International Auto Show, and
the floor of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is crowded with
out-of-work actresses gesturing over the latest vehicles and press
members queuing up for free buffets.
In the midst of the confusion walks J Mays, vice president of
design for the
Ford Motor Company. He's easy to spot. Just look for
the man with the pack of reporters and
car enthusiasts trailing him
like the Pied Piper of Dearborn.
Mays has been the most sought-after designer in the automotive
world since 1994, when, as design director for Volks-wagen, he
persuaded a reluctant board of directors to introduce a radical new
Beetle. With that, he managed to get the ail- ing car company up
and running again - and established himself as the face of
retro-futuristic design. In 1997, Ford sought him out to
reinvigorate its product lines. Four years later, Mays has done
more than simply reinvigorate - he's resurrected and reinvented
them.
Mays, 46, now oversees design for all Ford brands, including
Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar,
Volvo, and Land Rover, but here at the
Auto Show, the real attention-grabbers are Fords - especially the
elegant new Thunder- bird and hot-looking Forty-Nine, a sleek black
hulk of a
concept car that's equal parts
James Dean and George
Jetson. It's pretty clear, thanks to J Mays and his talented design
teams, that it's hip to be driving Fords again. (Oh, and in case
you're curious, Mays says the J "doesn't stand for anything.")