Toyota’s top designer is heading over to Yamaha
Akihiro Nagaya, who goes by the name of Dezi, is the man who is responsible for injecting some attitude into Toyota’s designs in recent years. Working as both a design executive and a freelance consultant, Dezi has styled countless concept and production cars for Toyota and its Lexus brand. However, as of July 1st, Dezi has taken his talents to the Yamaha Motor Company as its general manager of design. This a role that Yamaha has never filled before, having previously chosen to outsource most of its design work.
At this point it’s unclear whether Dezi will be responsible for the design of just Yamaha’s automotive operations or all of its motor vehicles, which includes motorcycles, scooters, ATVs and marine products. It’s important to note that the hire comes at a time when the company has been exploring further involvement in four-wheeled transportation.
Yamaha has provided engines for vehicles like the Lexus LFA, Volvo XC90, and Ford Taurus SHO, and even toyed with the idea of a supercar with the oddball OX99-11 concept in the early 1990s, but more recently embarked on a partnership with Gordon Murray Design to build the Motiv.e city car.
Yamaha and Toyota each own a small piece of each other and have collaborated on numerous projects. For this reason, Dezi’s move is being characterized as transfer between partners rather than one company poaching an employee from another. Read more about this story here.
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