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Crystal Windham wasn’t born a car person. “Some of my colleagues talk about cars that they doodled since they were six years old. I was not that person,” she says. “But I used to sit on my porch and cars would come by. Corvettes are the ones that got my attention. One of my favourites is the ’63 split window, with the dual cockpit design. They’re just awesome.”
Windham, a director of design for General Motors’ Cadillac division, certainly sounds like a car person now. The Detroit native has been working for GM since 1994 and, in 2008, became the first black woman to be made a director at the company’s global design centre.
It was not exactly an august era for the iconic American automaker, which declared bankruptcy in 2009 — the biggest industrial insolvency in US history — and earned the nickname “Government Motors”.
Right away, Windham became responsible for interior redesigns of the Chevrolet Impala, a model long branded the most archetypal American family saloon. The new Impala’s stylish looks gave no hint of the turmoil the company that created it was in at the time. Windham’s subsequent redesigns won plaudits from customers and automotive critics alike. “It was a time to prove to the world that we were still relevant,” she says.
Another test of relevance is close at hand in the Cadillac Lyriq, an all-electric SUV that will go on sale as a 2023 model. The Lyriq’s chief engineer, Jamie Brewer, worked closely with Windham on what she calls “the crown jewel of the interior”, a curved 33in screen that can be read and operated by both driver and front-seat passenger. “There are large screens in other competitors’ vehicles, they’re pretty large,” she says. “But we went the extra mile. We picked a 33in diagonal LED display.”
Everything in the interior is keyed to that display: “It’s a clean design, one graphic display from edge to edge. Some of our competitors and even some of our vehicles use rectangular displays within an organic shape, so now this meets our artistic approach.”
Windham’s taste for marrying technology with design was a long time in the making. “In 10th grade I didn’t know what path I wanted,” she recalls. “Then my first art class teacher mentioned that my sketches were good and encouraged me to do more.” Following high school, Windham enrolled in the prestigious College for Creative Studies in Detroit, where the head of the transportation design department steered her into sketching cars. “He told me, ‘Take your love of drawing and apply that to cars. You’re a young black female in this field, you will be sought after.’ I didn’t look back from there,” she says. “I kept going.”
Windham’s mother, an educator, helped nudge her along. “I remember her describing me at the time, that nothing in particular interested me,” says Windham. “She saw me stay up really late working on my portfolio of designs. Both my parents and a few other family members, who were here at GM at the time, they helped find a mentor for me.”
One of Windham’s mentors was Ed Welburn, the legendary GM head of design from 2003 to 2016. “When I hired in, he was very open to being my mentor. I would stop and talk with him at major crossroads in my career and get advice from him,” she says. “I watched his leadership style, and I watched him be uniquely himself, and effective.”
Windham values the mentoring that she received from her senior colleagues at GM, and she now supports mentoring those seeking automotive careers and exploring art. Outside the office, she meets several times a year with high-school and college students. “When you understand the power of being mentored,” she says, “you understand your success can’t just stop with you.”
Windham’s leadership style enables her design teams to take risks and manage inevitable failures, she says. She also credits many of the solutions her staff have created with the sharing of experiences, both in test-driving and in integrating design ideas with mechanical challenges.
Which is likely to come in handy, as autonomous vehicles are sure to redefine automotive design inside and out. “What we’ve revealed is that technology continues to be big and present,” says Windham. “Look at what’s happening from an autonomous driving perspective, and all the technology and safety features.”
When asked about the advancements in windscreen technology that will enable video content to be displayed inside a self-driving car, she says: “The whole environment is going to reshape itself. I’m really excited about the opportunity this creates for interiors.”
Not that conventional auto interior design doesn’t have room to grow as well. “For me and Cadillac, it is a full sensory experience. It’s not only what you see and touch, it’s what you hear when someone comes into your vehicle. It’s what kind of mindset we can put passengers in. We say ‘artful integration of technology’, that’s what we do.”
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