https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amy8yS9OTQE&

Overview

This iconic motorcycle brand with immense heritage had a pivotal moment in 2006-07 when a new engine was conceived. The dilemma within the leadership team was whether to introduce a new platform or to use the new engine in an old platform and risk losing both new customers and existing loyal customers who liked certain aspects.

I worked closely with the CEO, Head of Design, Head of Engineering, Marketing and an external design agency Xenophyia which was later absorbed by the company for their collaboration and contributions to the brand.

Main contributions from my side were to accelerate the decision making process by creating prototypes, renderings and other design artefacts to reduce the risk of failures in

• Customer acceptance
• Engineering feasibility
• Supplier lead times
• Overall brand impact due to product / market fit failure

I achieved these outcomes by

• Sourcing components and selecting existing components that matched design intend as outlined by Design Leadership.
• Creating full scale 2D side elevation renderings to correct proportions and geometry of overall vehicle appeal
• Creating clay models and metal fabrications to inform design decisions for engineering processes like pre-fabrication, tooling and pilot production runs
• Creating computer aided Class A surface models to evaluate light & shadow, colour studies and other details that made the Classic 500 a turnaround project for the company.