In this short clip you’ll hear Andrew Smith, the Executive Director of Cadillac Design, talk about Cadillac and its new marketing direction. He explains how Cadillac’s heritage and previous workings may influence today’s products, but it does not limit or hinder them in anyway. He opens up by saying, “I am adamant that we can never dwell on the past. We have a fantastic heritage, but we always have to look forward.”
What he means by this (we think) is that he doesn’t want his design team to feel that they must conform to traditional styling cues; he wants them to push forward and create new looks. Smith believes that all of the great Cadillacs have done this.
Also shown in the short, less-than-a-minute-long video are your favorite new Caddies, including the CTS, ATS, and XTS.
Comments
To move forward you often need to leave some of your past behind.
Cadillac needs to leave 16 year old Art and Science behind. It’s a catchy name but lost it’s edge when softened for the Chinese market.
BMW, Benz and now Audi have all moved on since 1999, and Cadillac must do the same.
You are kidding right? BMW and Audi have had the same design language just as long or longer than Cadillac. Mercedes had a misdirection of going back and forth on design direction. And Audi had updated their design language very closely to their former models just like Cadillac is currently doing with the CT6 and XT5 as an example.
There is nothing wrong with Cadillac’s design but what is wrong is ignorance from the general public of refusing to be seen in a Cadillac due to ridicule from their peers and thinking that American luxury is inferior is the main culprits why Cadillac is in this situation today. People need to lead, not follow.
Also there is other things subjectively why Cadillacs are not selling but it does not have anything to do with design. Also, look at Mazda for example as a bread-n-butter brand, they have fantastic designs but they don’t produce the volume like those from Honda, Ford, Nissan, Chevy and Toyota.
i like the art and science design. i still get a thrill when i see a cts staring me down at an intersection. there is sort of an elegant menace to it and there is no confusion that it is a cadillac. i hope it continues to evolve but at the same time i hope it retains that distinctive look.
The problem is the sedans look the same. A novice would never tell the difference. They need to look like a Cadillac but they should look different. I love Cadillac but have been distressed by the clones.
Andrew Smith sounds like the new Cadillac commercials asking viewers to be daring because the Cadillac of today shares just the company name of yesteryear and it’s the truth as Cadillac’s CTS-V is possibly the best car the company has designed and built in over 50 years as the poor CTS/CTS-V sales says that most Americans are hypocrites as they have for years said of willing to consider a domestic made car if it was competitive with Europe and the CTS/CTS-V not only is competitive it’s better and yet not many of the cars have sold.
The current Cadillac styling is just ok. They need something stunning like the Elmiraj which they refuse to build.