Creating cars and managing creativity

The work of designers and the aim of the Renault Design team is to bring life to manufactured products. The organisation which Patrick le Quément has created in order to accomplish this task, has proved to be a delicate combination of two very important factors ; an unbridled talent for creativity, and the demands of a company with respect to production and performance. The designers recruited by the company have to be talented and able to work in teams. The way in which design is organised has to be scrupulously rigorous : this is an excuse for allowing the designers to behave like so-called ‘bad boys’, in other words, allowing them to question, oppose and create disorder in the name of stimulating creativity. The management of the designers has to be a balance between the convergence phases when vehicles are being designed, and divergence and divergence and ‘recharging one’s battery’ phases, which are necessary to keep creativity going.