Meet the Chief Designer of Toyota Motors Corporation

(Pictures credit to HANS GREIMEL)

Meet the chief designer of Toyota Mr. Simon Humphries. Well we’ve heard of Peter Schreyer of KIA previously with Audi AG and Adrian van Hooydonk BMW chief designer who replace Chris Bangle but seldom had we heard about Mr. Humphries. Mr. Simon Humphries was a soft spoken Englishman that joined Toyota way back in 1994. Prior to joining Toyota, he has no experience of designing a car and Mr Humphries worked for Sony Corp. and various consumer goods studios, styling everything from video cameras and train interiors to golf clubs and toilets.

Mr. Humphries came into the limelight of Toyota design team after a semi retirement of design chief Wahei Hirai san in June 2009 and currently Simon Humphries is the highest ranking foreigner at Toyota City in Japan and he speak Japanese fluently. His latest design that came out to production was is the latest Prius and the upcoming Lexus CT 200h. Current President of Toyota, Akio Toyoda san wants Humphries to forge a new look that embodies the chief executive's personal ambition to make cars that are more visually interesting and fun to drive and Mr. Humphries “quote” about the company president , "He comes to every single step of the design evaluation process and talks to us directly on every car. He's very, very involved."

Among the project under Mr. Humphries supervision was concept of Pod concept car in 2001 and the Scion CCX, precursor to the first Scion model, Toyota FunCargo and Toyota bB.

About Simon Humphries:

Title: General manager, Lexus-Toyota

Joined Toyota: 1994

Age: 43

Nationality: British

Family: Married, 3 children

University: De Montfort University in the United Kingdom (industrial design)

Hobbies: Black belt in Aikido (Japanese martial art), gardening

Noted work: Pod concept, Scion CCX

In his garage: Dark-gray Land Cruiser, blue Toyota MRS

Most coveted car: Triumph TR5

Favorite vacation spot: Thailand

Favorite food: Curry with beer

Last movie seen: Avatar

Source of inspiration: Drinking with friends

Advice to young designers: Be yourself

Head to the source if you want to read more about Mr. Simon Humphries.