Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
In-house seat design ensures comfort and quality.
Instead of outsourcing seat design, the automotive industry norm, Ford created a dedicated seat engineering team within its Body Engineering division. Three Ford engineers – Qin Pan, Joanna Rakowska and Michael Medoro – spent months working with sophisticated virtual technology to design in-house vehicle seating that maximized both comfort and quality.
For the Ford Flex, the objective was to reflect the quiet luxury of the interior by reducing seat vibration. Using real-world road surface data, the Ford engineers could design mass dampers to counter a variety of road surfaces far earlier than ever before in the development stage.
While the new in-house seating technology has immediate benefits for Flex customers, soon the acquired learning building the F-Family Seats will be applied to a range of Ford vehicles from the Ford Focus to the new Ford F-150.
Tags: F-Family Seats, Ford engineering, Ford F-150, Ford Flex, Ford Focus, interior vehicle design, reduced seat vibration, seat engineering, Technology
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Fashion designer Anthony Prozzi brings stylish new look to the Flex.
As consumers become more and more sophisticated in their tastes, vehicles are no longer simply in the realm of mobility; today’s customers view vehicles as fashion statements that reflect their lifestyle. The Ford Flex is a convergence of form, function and fashion.
Former high-profile fashion designer, Anthony Prozzi, has drawn on his wealth of experience to create a luxurious upscale look for the Ford Flex. Working with the Ford design team, the New York born-and-bred designer, who has worked as a designer at DKNY and was also a contributing editor at W magazine, created a stylish interior with a fresh combination of colors, textures and materials that directly mirrors how we dress today.
The seating is one of the areas that Prozzi considers “Oscar winning.” Inspired by the timeless appeal of the tweed jacket, Prozzi incorporated a Harris tweed on the panels and seating fabric of the base model. For customers looking to show their appreciation for sophisticated fashion, the luxury model incorporates diamond perforated leather seating with stitching that connotes a fine pinstriped suit.
Another fashionable element in the Ford Flex is the center stack design, or cockpit integrated display – the low-gloss metallic paint gives it an understated elegance with just a bit of jewelry-inspired sparkle. To deliver on the concept that “space is the new luxury” Prozzi created a single visual line that traverses the vehicle’s interior, pushing out the surface and giving the Flex a horizontal flow.
Tags: American classic, Ford design, Ford Flex, interior vehicle design
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Ford Crossovers - text,
Ford Flex - Text |
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