Core77

This woman is fake!

"We found in the past that if they didn't understand the buyer, designers would just go off and design something for themselves," [said Moray Callum, executive director of Ford Americas design].

Solution? Ford is experimenting with a rather novel technique: Designing a car around a fictional but psychologically-fleshed-out avatar named Antonella (photo above).

Antonella was the guiding personality for the Ford Verve, a design study that served as the basis for the latest-generation Fiesta. A character invented by Ford designers to help them imagine cars better tailored to their intended customers, she embodies a philosophy that guides the company's design studios these days: to design the car, first design the driver.

..."Invented characters get everyone on the same page," Mr. Callum said. "Personalizing gives context to the information we have. Sometimes the target demographics are difficult to relate to by, say, a 35-year-old male designer.

...Ford's goal in using made-up characters is that they will help produce cars that transcend national traits and are instead built around international, psychological archetypes.

Read more about this fascinating process here.

via ny times