Shiro
Nakamura of Nissan to Receive Major Design Award
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Photo
credit: www.pakwheels.com
Shiro
Nakamura of Nissan
DETROIT
-- The Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology announced
that Shiro Nakamura, Senior Vice President, and Chief Creative
Officer, Nissan Motor Company Ltd, has been elected as the
Lifetime Design Achievement Award winner for the EyesOn
Design Automotive Exhibit, 2010.
The award itself is unique in that only those designers
who have previously won the award are allowed to vote. As
a young man, and to this day, Mr. Nakamura has listed as
favorite cars the Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed 1964 Alpha
Romeo Canguro and Sergio Pininfarina's 1964 Ferrari 275
GTB Berlinetta. Both of these design heroes are on the DIO's
panel of previous winners who elected Mr. Nakamura to this
high honor.
Mr. Nakamura, almost always listed in the press as "the
Dapper Mr. Nakamura," is a fascinating man. An accomplished
musician, who at one time sat in at a Ginza jazz club as
a bass player, also counts Miles Davis among his heroes.
Not to be musically narrow-minded, he also plays classical
music with his cello. Think Bach!
But the design legends who added to their very select list
with his election to the Lifetime Design Achievement Award
may not even have known of his musical prowess. They voted
him in for his design successes. Among the many are the
Nissan 370Z, Murano, cube, GT-R and Infiniti G37, FX and
Essence Concept.
Most recently, Shiro has played an instrumental role in
the design of the Nissan LEAF, a zero-emission, all-electric
family car that will go on sale in December. The Nissan
LEAF will be on display during the press preview of the
North American International Auto Show on January 11-12,
2010.
Born in Osaka, Japan in October 1950, Mr. Nakamura graduated
from Tokyo's Musashino Art University with a Bachelor of
Art degree in Product Design and immediately joined Isuzu.
Several years later he came to the United States and graduated
in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Transportation
from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif. Then,
after stays at Isuzu in Europe and General Motors in Detroit,
he was wooed by Carlos Ghosn in 1999 to join Nissan. In
2000, he was named head of global design for Nissan and
Infiniti, and he was promoted to Senior Vice President,
Design in April 2001. In 2006, he was named Chief Creative
Officer and has been responsible for brand management, as
well.
Mr. Nakamura is well-known to the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology
since he has, on multiple occasions, served on the EyesOn
Design panel of OEM global design leaders who judge concept
and production vehicles introduced in Detroit each January
at the North American International Auto Show.
The Lifetime Design Achievement Award will be presented
in June 2010 at the EyesOn Design event, held annually on
Father's Day at the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Grosse
Pointe, Mich.
Source:
Detroit Institute of Ophtalmology
This
page was last updated on
Fri, January 8, 2010 8:08 PM
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