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Inside Mazda

Taking KODO Design to a Higher Level With a Focus on Aesthetics Unique to Mazda and Japan

Mazda Designers Mazda CX-5

The goal of Mazda design is to make the brand irreplaceable to its customers by offering them the joy of owning something beautiful to which they feel a special attachment. This ambition is shared by Shinichi Isayama, chief designer, who has loved cars since he was a boy and who did not hesitate to choose a career as a car designer.

“As a person involved in the creative process, my desire is to leave a legacy of beautiful things,” Isayama said. “I hope to bring richer color to people’s lives and the world around them with beautiful designs and make them more appealing.”

Given this ambition, Isayama felt it necessary to express Japanese identity to create designs that embody the brand. Isayama was sent to Germany in 2008 and later worked in the United States. This gave him the opportunity to view his homeland from an outside perspective. It was then that he began to consider putting world-class Japanese craftsmanship to use in building cars. This includes craftsmanship and skills handed down from generation to generation and arts such as the tea ceremony, which eliminate all unnecessary elements and ostentation. For Isayama, expressing Japan in his designs is more than merely using materials or traditional forms that reflect the country.

KODO Design on the all new 2017 cx5

“But this doesn’t mean I’m simply pursuing novelty or adding things merely for appearance, either,” Isayama added. “I want to express the spirit of Mazda craftsmanship, which has something in common with sword-making and the Japanese notion that there is life in things crafted by human hands. The idea is to express ways of thinking and living through the attention to detail and painstaking workmanship I feel only Japanese are capable of.”

This spirit of Mazda craftsmanship means being honest and facing the essence of the item head-on. In the same way, a sword-maker refines iron from iron sand and then pounds and folds it repeatedly, honing it into a blade. A craftsman puts his heart and soul into the sword, which becomes more than a tool. By building cars in this way, they become more than mere machines and speak to people. This, Isayama believes, is the unique quality of Mazda and of Japanese craftsmanship.

This notion of breathing life into the car is at the heart of Mazda’s KODO Design philosophy. Having reinterpreted Japanese aesthetics, Isayama took on the challenge of taking KODO Design to a higher level. His aim was to enhance the dynamic distinctiveness and come up with a design with both mature sophistication and power that expresses finely honed beauty. “Refined toughness,” the slogan for the development of the new CX-5 design, originated from this vision.

KODO Design on the all new 2017 cx5 crossover suv

True to this ambition, once the all-new CX-5 is in motion, the surrounding environment and colors reflected on the seemingly simple form of the car’s body change in a beautiful fashion. The strong lines along the front fender give way to rounded forms at the rear of the body’s side panels, and the strong rays of light reflected off their surfaces are softened for a delicate form. This design mutes any direct expression of toughness created by the surfaces and lines for simple elegance and a muscular appearance. The result embodies the basic premise of Japanese aesthetics: less is more.

The same thinking has been use in the interior. As a practitioner of the tea ceremony, Isayama naturally thought of the traditional tearoom.

“I wanted to create a space that would let passengers relax while enabling the driver to concentrate on the road,” he said. “This called to mind the tearoom, where there is a comfortable harmony between relaxation and tension.”

KODO Design on the all new 2017 cx5 crossover suv

This is a story not of things but of the spirit. In a tearoom, all non-essential elements have been eliminated to create tasteful simplicity. By creating the sensation of a dignified space beyond the shadows, a sense of tension amid an air of comfort is created.

The designers of the CX-5 were motivated by the belief that, while a car is a beautiful tool, it should also be a living work of art and a machine that elicits excitement. This means the design must not be a novel design that will lose its charm in the future or an expression of opulence or high-tech. Originating from a determination to produce a car with aesthetics unique to Mazda and to Japan, the all-new CX-5 embodies a profound concept that goes beyond simple design theory.

 KODO Design on the all new 2017 cx5 crossover suv 4_Japanese tea house Chashitsu