FCA designers' creativity is thriving at home

DETROIT — Working from home the past few months hasn't dampened the creative spirit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' design crew.

Ralph Gilles, FCA's design chief, said the team is churning out some of the best work he's ever seen.

Being hunkered down during the pandemic, he believes, has helped designers zero in on their tasks. Gilles also thinks the competition level has increased "in a very healthy way."

"They don't have any distractions," Gilles told Automotive News last week. "Some have kids crawling over them and pets and stuff like that, but for the most part, a lot of them don't have any distractions, and they're able to truly focus and bang out some great work."

The health crisis has struck as FCA's designers are early in the ideation phase for the automaker's next suite of products. The U.S. crew comprises around 400 people, half of them on the surface development team that does its work digitally. They've taken their tablets and high-powered computers home to stop from missing a beat. But the clay modelers who sculpt the physical mock-ups have been on furlough with reduced salaries.

The ideas are still flowing, and the ingenuity of the product visionaries is still there. The work just has to be surveyed purely digitally these days.

Gilles, in this environment, can't run his hands over the surface of a clay model, something he enjoys doing. And he can't touch a computerized 3D creation on Google Meet, no matter how vivid it is.

Losing that physical component also means Gilles can't survey a model from various distances in person. Gilles said he would examine models from 50 to 75 feet away because a vehicle looks different from these vantage points, and he can see things he wouldn't notice up close.

The design team is maxing out its digital tools, with Google Meet, formerly known as Hangouts, being a prime spot where Gilles can look at 3D designs, spin the vehicles and zoom in.

These online design sessions have taken on greater significance during the pandemic, especially when communicating with those overseas. Gilles said many more international design reviews will be handled virtually in the future.

"I've been actually having a lot of reviews with my mates in Asia and also Italy using these tools, so that's something we didn't really do before because we didn't have to. I would literally just fly there," Gilles said.

"But now we're doing it more and more, so much so that we're going to actually continue doing reviews that way from here on out. Not all of them, but a good portion of them can be done virtually now."

Gilles said designers could begin trickling back into the office this month or in early July. Then, Gilles said, they can start "machining these properties out that we've been working on."

While working from home, Gilles has noticed he can take in designs more completely.

Normally, designers would post sketches on a huge wall. Maybe he'd notice a particular sketch, or maybe he wouldn't.

"But now that I look at every single one because I have to go through every file, every theme fills up my screen," Gilles said, "so the scrutiny level is much higher."

Gilles' schedule is loaded with virtual meetings from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The bar area in his basement serves as his headquarters.

With such a tight schedule, he'll black out his screen and have lunch during some meetings. Sometimes, Gilles will break up the day by running an errand, heading to a 7-Eleven or taking a walk with his dogs. He joked that his dogs have been walked so much recently that they run from the leash.

The design team has been able to keep its connection to the next generation of creators. Gilles said FCA hasn't canceled its design internships during the pandemic, so the company has a batch of virtual interns this year who are doing sketches, attending meetings and making contributions.

Gilles said it's important to keep those relationships. He misses being to able to meet with students in person at universities.

One thing Gilles has noticed in the era of online meetings is that seniority has a different dynamic.

"You don't feel the seniority so much in these type of meetings. Everybody's on an equal footing," Gilles said. "That's a neat dynamic as well, so it kind of flattens out the organization in some ways because everyone has a voice, everyone's heard. That's really, really cool."