#HTE

Decoding the design language of the 2019 Lexus ES350

For more than 20 years Lexus has been delivering their version of luxury autos and building a loyal following. Needles to say they’ve been very successful over this time frame, producing more than 2 million ES sedans since 1991. The 2019 edition will be the 7th generation of the platform, and they have dialed it in at a high level. During the launch event in Nashville we got a chance to test the new sedan and meet with members of the design and management team to get a better understanding of how and why they do what they do.

After a visit to the Gibson Custom Shop in the morning, we drove to Franklin, Tennessee, about 30 miles outside Nashville, where we would spend the next several hours exploring the countryside and local roads. The roads included the particularly beautiful Natchez Trace Parkway, a two-lane road running 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville. The road is not quite a national park, but is maintained by the National Park Service, and commercial traffic is prohibited. The result is a road seemingly built for test drives. Smooth, scenic, undulating, and miraculously free of traffic.

I had a chance to speak with Lexus International president Yoshihiro Sawa, who provided some insights into the Lexus design language, which they call L-Finesse. On a surface level, L-Finesse can be described as ‘leading-edge design and technology applied with finesse’. The understanding of the word 'finesse’ is critical, and refers to the depth of thinking that goes into every detail, every design decision when producing the vehicle. It embodies concepts of Japanese aesthetics and hospitality as well.

The L-Finesse philosophy can be broken down into three core concepts; Seamless Anticipation, Incisive Simplicity and Intriguing Elegance. All products from Lexus must satisfy and embody these concepts, and these principles help guide the design team’s efforts.

The notion of Seamless Anticipation is based on the Japanese concept of hospitality, known as “Omotenashi’. This refers to not simply meeting a the needs and desires of a guest, but to anticipate them and deliver the desired experience in a thoughtful and immediate fashion. It puts the customer at the center of attention, both through the dealer/purchase process and more importantly during the driving experience. This results in careful placement of controls and gauges, discreet lighting sequences and thoughtful feedback loops. Taken together the interior seems to know you before you’ve entered, letting you enjoy every moment of the drive.

Incisive Simplicity is a difficult standard to achieve. At its heart this concept includes aesthetics and ease of use. The designers at Lexus work hard to ensure that every piece of the car, inside and out, are beautifully crafted and a pleasure to the eye and the touch. But simplicity does not mean lacking in detail, or visually boring. Rather, every piece of the product should be easily and instantly usable, with a minimum of effort. A good example is the placement of the visual output on the heads-up display, positioned in such a way as to minimize your eye movement from the road to the display and back, making it easy to use even if you’ve never used one before.

The last of the three concepts is Intriguing Elegance, and this also is interpreted within the Lexus vehicles in ways that embody a Japanese perspective. The idea is that the design details on the car should capture the imagination of the viewer/driver, and lead them through elegant body work and character lines into intriguing details. Combinations of materials coming together in unexpected and exciting collections on the dashboard or at the door handle, or two body lines merging into a single line in a beautiful transition. This approach to design, embodying opposite forces like stillness and motion, is a hallmark of the L-Finesse language, and is successfully embodied in the new ES.

In addition to the Gibson custom shop, we toured the Hatch Show Print production facility and were treated to a performance by Nashville singer and songwriter Natalie Hemby in the elegant Analog room at the Hutton Hotel. Her songs are stories about poignant moments in life, full of insights into people and places. The two production facilities embody a long history of craft and exquisite handwork. The art of story telling and attention to detail is also important to design, as a well-crafted interior or object can often speak directly to our hearts and emotions in ways not possible in other mediums. In that sense the designers at Lexus are present in the vehicles, and if you look closely you can hear them speaking to you directly.