Last week CarDesigNews did a livestream (find it here) about vehicle lighting, moderated by James McLachlan
Panellists were Andrea Amato (Ducati), Philippe Poilane (DS Automobiles / Stellantis), and Moritz Waldemeyer (Studio Waldemeyer). Here’s DVN CEO Paul Henri Matha’s summary of the discussion:
Since the introduction of DRLs, light signatures have become a critical identity vector for motorcycles. Ducati aim to evolve while maintaining coherence across their range: forward-looking, yet anchored in the brand’s history. DS have been crafting light signatures for 20 years, since the first LEDs. The depth effect, tunnel, line of light: elements that create emotion at distance and pride of purchase. Light guides and illuminated surfaces have opened near-unlimited creative freedom. Electrification opened the door to outside studios: without a combustion engine, emotional dimension must be compensated elsewhere. The static light signature is now mature, what comes next? Animation, communicating driver state, dialogue with pedestrians for autonomous vehicles: all unexplored territory.
Light no longer just identifies the brand: it communicates vehicle state, driver mood, and soon the vehicle’s intent to other road users. Ducati already uses lighting colour to signal riding mode changes. DS offers modular interior ambiances by driving mode. Moritz envisions cars expressing driver mood or communicating with pedestrians – whoever first establishes a clear visual language could accidentally create a global standard.
Over 80 per cent of lighting designers’ working time is spent navigating regulatory constraints (DVN comment: maybe a bit exaggerated!). Light animation is permitted when approaching or leaving the vehicle, but strictly prohibited while driving, except for the scrolling turn indicator. Ducati’s Monster dynamic turn indicator, a world first in motorcycles, had to be redesigned conventionally for the US market. Amato’s advice to young designers: be creative first, then master constraints early enough to plan a variant from the start. Waldemeyer relativizes: the best designs often emerge by turning constraints into a design advantage, as confirmed by his work on aircraft interiors.
Waldemeyer advocates cross-pollination: deeply understand a technology before returning to creativity to exploit it in novel ways. Amato keeps a close eye on Chinese brands – strong performers in perceived quality through lighting – as a warning signal for established European brands. Poilane cites Milan Design Week as a CMF inspiration source. On supplier relations: the basic building blocks have not fundamentally changed in 20 years. Creativity in their use makes the difference. Diving deep into supplier capabilities allows designers to submit ideas suppliers had not themselves envisaged, thereby co-creating innovation.
The proliferation of rear light bars is the textbook example of how an innovation becomes a trend, then a cliché. Waldemeyer also points to illuminated badges and light strips between headlight clusters as frequently overused. Poilane insists on the brand-specific signature as an immovable foundation, while seeking new effects with each new model. The signature protects identity; the effects enable model-by-model differentiation.
Asked what they would do without regulatory and cost constraints: Amato envisions radically redesigned front faces by motorcycle segment with light placement freedom currently impossible. Waldemeyer wants to illuminate entire surfaces, animate bodywork, make electric mechanics visible as V12 engines were once exposed in supercars – recreating the emotion lost with combustion engines. Poilane points to the DS X e-tense concept as a concrete illustration of a front signature richness impossible to produce in series today.
Adaptive lighting systems able to illuminate the road without dazzling other users are progressively addressing night-time glare while maintaining driver visibility performance. On concept versus production: Amato recommends pushing ideas as far as possible in concept phase, but keeping 15 to 20 per cent of production constraints in mind to preserve proportions and volume balance. A concept that entirely ignores reality can produce a signature impossible to transpose to series without betraying the original idea.
