Former Mazda chief designer Laurens van den Acker heads to Renault

[اخبار مصر موتورز]

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Renault
Amidst a wave of reshuffles at several automakers' design departments recently (including Hyundai, Volvo, Ford and BMW), Laurens van den Acker's departure from Mazda earlier this month caught people by surprise. The talented Dutch designer, only 43, had steered Mazda's distinctive styling language for the past several years, after having designed for Ford in Dearborn, as well as Audi and a handful of independent design houses before that. The picture, so to speak, appears to be coming into focus now, however, as reports indicate that van den Acker will be taking over as head of design at Renault.

The French automaker's 64-year-old styling chief, Patrick le Quement, will be retiring from the post he's held for 22 years, from which he lead Renault's controversial design department to varied effect. Although many of his designs were successful, quirky products like Avantime and Vel Satis were dismal failures, while the pillbox-tailed Megane II was a source of controversy despite achieving market success. It'll be interesting to see the direction van den Acker takes Renault's design in over the course of his tenure. Follow the jump for the press release; thanks to Pete for the tip.

[Source: Renault]Continue reading Former Mazda chief designer Laurens van den Acker heads to Renault
Former Mazda chief designer Laurens van den Acker heads to Renault originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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