By Chris Haak
A few years ago when I had the opportunity to interview Justin Thompson, the designer of the then-new 2010 Buick LaCrosse, I asked him how designers felt when their original works were refreshed via a mid-cycle enhancement (MCE). Suddenly, a piece of the car that they had labored for literally years of their life on was unceremoniously ripped off the car and replaced by something that may or may not quite mesh with the rest of the design. I also asked him which designers were assigned to do the updates, and he indicated that a separate team worked on the updates, while the “whole car” group had moved onto – you guessed it – the next whole car. Reading between the lines, the “B team” was doing the update work, while the more established designers were working on the stuff that we still haven’t seen.
