BEIJING, China - Infiniti's says its latest design studio here is now officially open.
This follows the September opening of the Infiniti Design Studio in London, making Infiniti Design Beijing the second exclusively dedicated facility in Infiniti's global network of design studios.
Infiniti chief creative officer and senior vice-president of Nissan Motor Corporation, Shiro Nakamura, said: "China has quickly grown to become the second largest market in the world for Infiniti, so it is essential for us designers to be even closer to the heart of the market and its pulsating culture.
"We expect to draw many inspirations from Chinese customers' deep understanding of premium brands and lifestyles, and this will strengthen Infiniti designs even more."
FUTURE OF DESIGN
Infiniti says the first fruit of the new design organization is the Infiniti Concept Vision Gran Turismo that will have its virtual covers lifted off in just a few days. It is a vision of what a future high-performance Infiniti could look like and was developed for Gran Turismo, the legendary racing video game made by Polyphony Digital Inc., for the Sony PlayStation.
The Infiniti Concept Vision Gran Turismo is a project that started as an ambitious internal global competition to "design a pure Infiniti GT car". The winning design was born in the Infiniti Design studio in Beijing, says the automaker.
Infiniti's executive design director Alfonso Albaisa said: "The fact that our new Beijing studio won the internal competition for the Infiniti Concept Vision Gran Turismo demonstrates their forward thinking and their strong capabilities in terms of advanced design.
"This is a great first step in applying Chinese design trends to our brand and bodes very well for future production model designs."