For Genesis, Design is a Competitive Sport

Almost every automaker sells a black edition trim these days.

It’s not hard to understand why. It’s a low-effort offering that looks sleek and that buyers will pay extra to get. Not making one is just leaving money on the table, which can make some black trim packages feel like a bit of a cynical marketing exercise.

Genesis is on the verge of releasing its own Prestige Black edition trims for its North American lineup. In pictures, vehicles equipped with the package look like any other black edition model, but the brand doesn’t really do low effort. When you see it in person, though, it’s clear that this isn’t some cash grab. The brand really put a lot of effort into the trim. 

Carefully chosen wheels look like they come from the aftermarket, and, while it’s not surprising to see black trim, the thoroughness of the brand’s blackout job is really impressive, extending not just to the wheels and window sills, but to the badging, the Genesis lettering, and even the winged logo in the wheel centre cap. Such is the brand’s dedication to the hue that it can sometimes be hard to make out a badge.

The Vik Black paint, meanwhile, is named after volcanic rock from Iceland, and the faint shimmering that dances in the light reminds one of the metals unearthed by the force of an eruption. If you live in South Korea, that’s the only colour option available to you and, until now, that was the only market where the Prestige Black (there, simply called the Black) trim existed. Now that it’s in North America, a new shade of paint, the equally dazzling Uyuni White, has joined the options list.

The almost oxymoronic colour was added to the Prestige Black trim package because, in North America — and especially in the southern U.S., where the sun beats down harshly — darker vehicles tend not to sell as well as lighter ones. The strategy has worked, and Genesis Canada says that interest in the package is exceeding its expectations. These are the local insights that are important to have when you’re releasing a new vehicle line, and it’s why Genesis just opened a new design studio in El Segundo, Calif.

Why Does Genesis Need Three Design Studios?

The new studio is one of three globally, and its grand opening this week means that Genesis’ North American design team no longer has to share space with its parent company, Hyundai. 

A state-of-the-art facility, the building is exactly as architectural as you’d expect from a design team. Wooden beams extend overhead, where a retractable glass canopy lets the California sun shine on upcoming designs — something the other two studios in rainy South Korea and cloudy Germany simply do not have reliable access to. Borrowing ideas from its home country, the studio is also full of greenery, blurring the distinction between the indoors and outdoors.

The studio is there to do more than deliver insights on American buying habits and add gold inlays inspired by California hot rodding culture into the trim of the G90 Prestige Black Edition. As SangYup Lee, Genesis’ head of global design, says, the designers at the studio are there to compete with their German and Korean counterparts.

Equipped with a lab for materials and colours as well as an advanced clay studio with robotic arms that can carve out as many as four concept vehicles at a time, the people who work at the California Design Studio are expected to come up with complete vehicle designs they think are worthy of being sent out into the world. If each studio is inspired by its local surroundings and cultural milieu, all the better, as Lee’s colleague, Luc Donckerwolke, Genesis’ chief creative officer, explains.

“We, SangYup and myself, are making sure that we are the referees,” Donckerwolke told media at the grand opening of the California Design Centre. “We actually push the designers for the most extreme version [of the] model [they’re working on].”

That way, when the two senior designers present their teams’ work to Genesis’ top executives in Korea, there are three wildly different concepts to choose from.

Friendly Competition

Although there are three studios and each is in a fight to have its design chosen for production, the offices aren’t at each others’ throats. Donckerwolke explains that the competition is more sporting than that. And the designers in the studio agree.

According to John Krsteski, the California studio’s chief designer, sometimes a studio is in the lead for most of a vehicle’s development, which inspires the others to work harder, and sometimes to take the final design victory.

“It doesn’t matter which design wins, as long as the best design wins,” Krsteski explains.

That attitude is important because even after a design is signed off on by Genesis’ senior executives, the work isn’t done, and the job of getting a vehicle into production is so big that all the studios must collaborate.

From the qualities of the paint to the feel of the carpet and how much recycled material is used in it, a million decisions have to be made, so all of a sudden, the teams at each studio must go from being in competition to pulling together in the same direction.

Part of managing that tension comes down to Donckerwolke and Lee as leaders, keeping each team focused on producing the best product possible for Genesis and, more importantly, its customers. But another part comes down to the designers themselves, and the spirit in which they compete, according to Krsteski. 

The collaboration comes in because “we work together to ensure that we’re able to challenge one another enough to get to the best design.”

Design Focus

Design has been a central focus for Genesis since its creation, and that spirit of competition has created some memorable vehicles and some impressive success. While the brand still feels small, it’s important to remember that it’s only 10 years old. In that time, it has reached the million cumulative sales threshold faster than any other premium brand on Earth, even Tesla.

Because the brand does not take a “Russian doll” approach to its vehicles — that is, requiring each vehicle to adhere closely to a unified design language — each team can be pushed in its own extreme direction without fear of confusing customers. In fact, Genesis believes that each vehicle should speak directly to its customers, not to a brand-wide ideal.

The next expression of that individualized design will be in the form of a big new luxurious flagship SUV, which is set to arrive next year. Although we may never know which studio is responsible for the design idea of the new model, we do at least know that each played a part in making it come to life.