Reporter Notebook: Inside Out

Special Coverage

Ward’s Auto Interiors Show

Color Me Blue

Fashionistas will have to bite their tongue if they see a reconfigurable instrument cluster beaming with some color not found in nature. So says Royce Channey, senior industrial designer at Visteon.

With auto makers giving consumers the power to design their own interior lighting at the turn of a knob or push of a button, there is increased potential for color clashes.

“Part of the attraction of certain vehicles is the ability for someone to personalize it,” Channey says. “So it’s not up to the designer, necessarily, to judge. There are people who wear things that I wouldn’t choose to wear, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

Baby, It’s Cold in Here

Erich Merkel, vice president of North American sales forecasting for IRN and moderator for the panel “Redefining the Premium Interior,” remarks on the unusually chilly temperatures inside Cobo Center’s conference rooms.

“It feels like my U.S. sales forecast in here – cold.”

A Nose by Any Other Name

Mara Ignatius, manager of Lear’s “Aventine Collection” of fine leather, addresses her industry’s undying pursuit to determine what consumers consider the accurate scent of leather.

“It is interesting to ponder the perfect nose,” she says. “Who is that nose...that knows?”