Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has been wheeling out some rather imposing designs, particularly with its front-end treatment courtesy of its spindle grille, and intentionally so, according to a CarAdvice report. The company is doing just fine with the resulting polarised opinions, said the president of the Japanese automaker’s Calty Design Research studios Kevin Hunter.
“The front end has been polarising, there’s no doubt. We hear people who love it, and people who don’t,” he said. “We’re OK with that, polarisation is OK for us. We went down the path a long time ago where we were trying to satisfy everyone, did a lot of conservative design, and it didn’t get people excited. They were good products but lacking emotional impact,” Hunter said.
Moving away from the old design direction, Lexus’s spindle grille is a key element in the marque’s current design language and it is here to stay, says Hunter. “(The) spindle is our brand identity, it’s our aim to make it attractive of course, and the LF-1 is the next step in its evolution. We call it ‘architectural spindle’,” he said.
By Hunter’s own admission, there are some less-than well-resolved applications of the spindle grille, chiefly when applied to mid-lifecycle updates of models from the more conservative era of design. “I like to think if we can integrate the spindle beautifully into the overall design, to get away from the feeling of the grille being just applied, but instead be part of the entire construction of the overall body,” Hunter said.
The LC 500 in particular, has impressed us at paultan.org not just for its objective prowess, but for its show-car good looks inside and out, too, to the tune of repeat nominations for our collective 2017 Top Five lists.
GALLERY: Lexus LF-1 Limitless concept
GALLERY: Lexus LC 500
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it’s not wrong…as han from tokyo drift said “50% of something is better than 100% of nothing”
I like the spindle grille…i like the design language of lexus…the most beautiful of them all…so whats your problem mr merz, sir bimmer and en audi…
Problem is, this is 100% fail.
not really, previously lexus was so boring the only people remotely interested in them (boring mercedes uncles) didnt buy them as they were rather conservative…at least the vulgar looks did interest some setia eco park hokkiens who once drove x6 and wears pink jeans but is really loaded to get the lexus
Theres a way to be fresh and not polarising. Just take a look at new Mesidis design language. Its diff from b4, its not boring, yet its identifiable from every angle. And this philosophy is translated into increased sales from the rich younger segments that usually go for BMWs and yet stately enuff to maintain their traditional unker customer base. Mesidis is the new cool, while BMW becomes Ah pek. Lexus just took Infiniti’s crown as the overpriced alien.
See, people, all of you go to buy Merc and BMW, now the president of Lexus angry already… ;D
Too much
Polarising is always good in attracting attention. Attention is good attract punters. Plus there’s a method to the madness that is designed to grow on you. In hindsight, polarizing would turn into ground-breaking – provided it’s done with the right stuff. And Lexus has proven it has the right stuff by backing up weird with quality and reliability.