As Jerry Hirshberg explains in his book The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World, when he left General Motors some 20 years ago to establish what has become a fairly well known studio, Nissan Design International (NDI), many people in Detroit thought that he was, well, a bit on the wacky side. GM was where there was styling genius and creativity, right? Yeah, right.
On June 30, Hirshberg will retire from NDI.
During his tenure, the studio rolled out a number of innovative models, including:
- 2000 Xterra SUV
- 2000 Maxima
- 2000 Sentra
- Original and current Altima
- Original and current Quest
- Original Pathfinder
- Infiniti J30
- Nissan Pulsar
And Hirshberg took the studio well beyond the bounds of the highway-and the off-highway. NDI designed a variety of products, from luxury yachts to computers.
Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of Hirshberg's career is that he became something of a minor TV star: What other industrial designer have you ever seen in a commercial talking about the why of a company's product? Sure, we have had company CEOs, from Lee Iacocca to Frank Perdue, shilling their cars and chickens, but rarely do we see actual working people out there saying, in effect, "This is what we have done and this is why we did it that way, and we think it is pretty damn good." Which goes far beyond that guy driving the Ford Explorer on some blue highway doing emissions tests because "These are my mountains."
One might argue that the reason Hirshberg was put in front of the camera was because there was no other identifiable Nissan executive, given many of the changes that the seemingly hapless manufacturer has undergone during the past several years. But whatever the rationale, it is still good to see someone with responsibility for something out in public taking that responsibility. Think about it: If you think that, say, the Maxima has the ugliest rear end this side of a Chevy Impala, then you can blame Hirshberg. If you think that the Xterra is the coolest sport ute rolling, then props to Jerry.
Although Hirshberg will be replaced as president of NDI by Tom Semple on October 1, it will be Hirshberg, not Semple, who will be the Nissan spokesperson. . .which is, in some ways, unfortunate, in that it undercuts the whole notion of responsibility ("I used to be the president of NDI, and now I just visit the place, but the brand new 2002 Whatchamacallit has the sort of design that I would have done had I thought of it. . .").
NDI is based in La Jolla, California, one of the nicest spots in the country. Hirshberg should just take on a well-deserved retirement-perhaps kick back on a yacht and sail the Pacific off the La Jolla coastline—and let his legacy at NDI speak for him.
