It’s 21 April, and I am in Milano for the annual Design Week. This is the place where creative people are gathering to find the new trends. What was before just a place for clothes and furniture has become a place for mobility to look for inspiration.
For this first DVN / Konzepthaus session in Milano, I give the microphone for the introduction speech to Naomi Saka, Bentley’s lead lighting designer to present what she does at Bentley and how she is developing the UX experience of their future cars. A few weeks ago, I visited her and the Bentley design team. Fascinating how they handle all details – including lighting. As stated by Head of UX and Design Operations T. Jon Mayer: “When you design a Bentley, you need to design for the century” – you have a certain responsibility to keep the Bentley spirit.
Tomorrow, I will fly from Milano to Beijing, which will become the automotive capital for a week. In this week’s DVNewsletter, I am already sharing some early insights about some new car reveals. But as the Milano Design Week is particularly dense, with many lighting-related announcements happening simultaneously, other reveals—such as the Hyundai Ioniq 3 and the Mercedes C‑Class—will be covered in detail next week.
This is a first taste of what will be presented at the end of the week, pointing to emerging lighting trends: will we continue with crazy things, or return to a more conservative approach, or move further toward more sustainable lighting solutions? Everyone should take a close look at what is coming from China to help shape future vehicle—and lighting—designs.
On 26 April, the Beijing auto show opens to the public. And in Geneva, lighting experts will open the 94th GRE session. For a full week, they will discuss proposed updates to the lighting regulations that hold force in most of the world. Items significant to the lighting community, which will affect the whole supply chain, include final discussion about signalling road projections as part of the turn indicator, definition of new standardized LED sources L2 and L3, and the ongoing discussion about turquoise ADS lights. You can find here a long summary about the agenda and the topics that will be discussed.
Sincerely yours,
