Two Canadians draw inspiration from Greek gods for Nissan Titan design - The Globe and Mail
Nissan, the last of the auto makers to remake a flagship full-size pickup, assigned senior design manager Diane Allen (DA) to the task. Effusive of speech and passionate about her work, she oversaw the Titan redesign over the past three years with a pair of Canadians alongside. Seated at a table in the Nissan Design America conference room, the trio provided The Globe and Mail with exclusive insight into the collaborative thinking that went into the redesign. The Titan XD crew cab with the all-new Cummins 310-horsepower V-8 turbo diesel engine will be in showrooms later this year. They wanted to go for an all-new truck – new sheet metal, new interior – and when we got that go, we were pretty excited. Because we’re not just a truck studio, we came to the program with a fresh set of eyes, and it allowed us to move the dial a bit for Nissan, for the truck. we go and talk to truck people, we research it, we see what the competitors are doing, and it just brings a real freshness to it. RR: The Titan had been around a long time [since 2004]. It had legs because it was a good design. But we were excited to catch up and try to pass some competitors with a super-capable truck that still has that Japanese DNA. DA: We were kind of the ‘weekend warrior,’ not the real work truck but more car-like in a lot of truck-people’s minds. Source: www.theglobeandmail.com
