Acura Ford

01/30/2019 DPCcars Videos

From a desk at the Ford Design Studio, a designer enters a virtual room and begins a 3D sketch. He is designing a virtual car around himself and adjusting the attributes to best suit him – the driver. This work is part of Ford’s latest exploration of a new process that places the customer at the center of design and can help reduce the time it takes to create a vehicle.

Ford is the first automaker to work with Gravity Sketch – a 3D virtual reality tool that enables designers to create more human-centric vehicle design. Designers trade in their sketchpads for a headset and controllers to become immersed in virtual reality, imitating gestural interactions through motion tracking that replicates sketching with pen and paper.

Michael Smith, Ford design manager, says seeing all angles of a vehicle as it is being drawn truly unleashes creativity and fosters development of human-centric design from start to finish.