The Making of the 2015 Ford Mustang

We visited one of the design centers of Ford’s R&D facilities in Detroit during our last day of the NAIAS this week and they showed us the process in conceptualizing and creating the new 2015 Ford Mustang.

We meet with key executives, design and creative heads as well as the master sculptor that shared details of the design flow and how to came up with the new look of the Mustang.

The entire team started off with Ideation. This is the stage where every designer can submit concepts of what the new Mustang would look like. They are all sketches and they had dozens of it.

The process was like running the “Next Top Chef” or like a “America’s Got Talent” but with design sketches. Executives then decide which of the sketches would make the cut and they shave the entries down to 3 themes.

The final 3 themes are then refined by the team and revisions are introduced to make them closest to what the new Mustang should be.

Each of the 3 final themes are then molded or sculptured by a Master Craftsman into a real-sized model.

The models give the team a better understanding of the size and scale of the car. Additional revisions are made or added based on the model. Of the three, one will be finally selected to become the new 2015 Mustang.

To give them a better perspective, they add more realistic materials to make it look like the real thing, take it outdoors under the sunlight to see how the curves and corners reflect the sunlight.

After this model is finally approved, they’d create the real one and test it out.

While this is being done, another team would be in-charge to design the interior of the Mustang.

A lot of attention is given to each detail of the interior — the analog meters, dials, stitches of the leather, even the positioning of the cup holders.

Another designed is assigned to pick the colors of the car. They started off with several dozen ones and end up with the final 10.

Additional tests are done outdoors including test drives, lighting, reflections and many more. More revisions are introduced based on the results of the tests and feedback from the executive team.

Once everything is signed off, the Mustang goes into the production line.

That’s how the 2015 Ford Mustang is created. And while we’re all waiting for the release of the car, the design team is already busy creating the 2017 model.