Armenians in car design. Vagharsh Sahakyan (Volkswagen)

Auto.am begins a series of interviews with car designers of Armenian descent.

We were very interested to find out whether our countrymen worked in large car companies. It turned out that some do, and rather successfully.

We picked car design as a subject, because it’s the most competitive sphere in the world, which makes the success achieved in car design by Armenians as well even more meaningful.

Our first interview is with Vagharsh Sahakyan, who works at Volskwagen and does interior design. 

One of the projects Vagharsh worked on is Volkswagen Phideon, recently presented at the Exhibition Center in Beijing. 

- Vagharsh, could you tell about yourself before we proceed to the main subject of our conversation? Where you were born, grew up and got education, how much of an Armenian you feel like, whether you’ve been to Armenia.

- I am 28 years old, I was born in Ural, Russia. My family moved to Yekaterinburg when I was 12. I went to an art college there and studied graphic design. I entered the second course of Strate College in France when I was 17, and I’ve been working at Volkswagen since 2009. 

I frequently visit Armenia, the majority of my relatives live there. 

- When did you realize you wanted to do art, painting? When did you decide you wanted to work in car design? 

- I painted as long as I can remember. At the age of 15 I was convinced that car design is my future. Two years later I went to university to do car design professionally. 

- Why did you choose interior design? 

- We were taught to think globally about design, be that exterior, interior, interface, etc. It was one of the advantages of French school. I made the final decision when I was writing my graduation work at VW. I was in the interior design team and partook in the internal projects as well. I realized there how diverse the creation of interior is. The difficulty of the work was what attracted me. 


- If I’m not mistaken, PSA Centre Style Peugeot was the first car company you worked at. How did you get a job there?

- Yes, it was my first internship. It lasted four months, and the final results were presented to the company’s design team. 

- What projects did you do for PSA Center?

- I worked at a personal project there, a new model of Peugeot that was designed for futuristic cities. The concept was a car as open as possible, with a flexible body. 

- Design of many Peugeot and Citroen cars such as Citroën DS or Peugeot 406 Coupé is considered iconic in car design. Which models would you point out, especially from interior perspective?

- Generally speaking, examples of American car industry were visually the most interesting of all car interiors of the 60s and the 70s. However, many interiors became similar since the rules of safety and ergonomics came around. There are some differences at present, and many brands compete in a technological race. Interior design changes according to new technologies. 


- How did you transfer to VW?

- I was at the last course of the college in 2009. I applied for graduation internship at Volkswagen and received an invitation. I was offered a job in the same team after I finished the internship.

- You’ve worked at concepts of Volkswagen Cross Coupe GTE and C Coupe GTE since 2011. What is your specific work in these projects?

- A little correction - the mentioned concepts were presented to the public in 2015, and their development was launched in 2014. Both concepts reflect the vision of potential VW models. Cross Blue GTE shows the “extreme” version of SUV, a format we presented in the concepts of Volkswagen Cross Blue and Volkswagen Cross Blue Coupe. C Coupe GTE in its turn was a teaser of a luxury model. We presented its standard model Phideon at the Exhibition Center in Beijing. 



 - What is the philosophy of the VW brand? How is it different from other German carmakers’?

- There is a definition in German, zeitlos, which clearly states the philosophy of the VW design. A timeless design that never gets old, it will be relevant while the competitors produce 2 generations of models, trying to catch up with trends . Golf MK 4 is a great example of iconic design. It wasn’t only progressive at the time of the launch, but “got old” finely as well. In my opinion, it looks like a true Volskwagen today. 

- Some people think that interior design of certain VW cars is too conservative and boring, although very practical and comfortable. What can you say about that? 

- Actually, Vokswagen is a brand with a big portfolio, so it has a very diverse audience, and the company has to satisfy the preferences of each customer. When you first get into any VW car, you should understand intuitively how it works. The “learning” should get down to a few movements and actions, as with Apple devices. 

- How free are you in your design? I mean imagination, creativity. Is there a framework you shouldn’t go out of?

- We point the issues when we begin a project - which market it is for, which customer, etc. But anyway, as I mentioned, it should be a real Volkswagen. 


- If you were told you were completely free in your imagination, what cardinal changes would you make in current VW design?

- I’d make no cardinal changes. It was the brand’s philosophy that made me stay here, and I would go back to VW roots again.  

- Many control elements disappear or transform with appearance of new technologies. Big touch displays in Tesla and Volvo interiors are a shining example. Do you think it simplifies control, or is it just a temporary trend?

- It’s not a trend, it’s more of a reality. People expect to have everything they use in daily life in their cars too. As long as our work, education and leisure are connected to touch screens, we’ll find them in our cars, just in different sizes and formats. Moreover, taking the development of virtual reality and holographic projections into consideration, the most interesting is still ahead. 

- Which element of car interior design is the hardest to project in terms of ergonomics?

- I’d say, the driver’s seat. Everything crosses on this point - ergonomics, technologies, quality of material… 

- Car design is considered the most difficult part of industrial design. You can count people with vision of future car design on the fingers of one hand. What do you think is the future car design?

- Imagine that people who are now 10-15 years old will be using the future cars. They will give the answer to your question. 

- Which car designer inspires you?

- I follow the work of many people. I have an honour to work with some of them every day. I will give no names. 

- What car do you drive? Is it a VW?

- Of course, VW.

- Are you actually allowed to drive cars of competitor marks? Not direct competitors, of course.

- We can drive any car we want, they have a liberal approach to this. 

- What advice would you give beginner designers who decided to do car design? Perhaps, advice from you experience or good design schools?

- The world of car design is extremely small. People who don’t belong here, don’t stay for long. Hard work, awareness, fluency in languages - these is the minimal arsenal of a student. One of the great advantages today is that you only need to click 2-3 times to get all information on schools, classes and designers. Seek and you shall find. 

Karen Antonyan