Mazda Welcomes Kodo Design Language
Matasaburo Maeda, on of Mazda’s original designers for the Japanese auto maker, is proud of where the company is going next. The Mazda 2, their latest design, was based on “a contrast between soft planes and dynamic tangents,” Mr. Maeda said when the car made its American debut.
The New York Times adds to this, and Mazda’s next direction:
A similar contrast is at the root of Kodo, which is intended to embody the tension of power and speed caught in motion. The word means “soul of motion.” The Mazda 2 offers its own mix of elements. Mr. Maeda says the design is “a rhythmic interplay between soft surfaces and sharp contours,” or between the organic and the mechanical.
It also reflects an effort to appeal to multiple audiences. Because the Mazda 2 was sold first in Japan, where it was intended to appeal to women who drive in restricted urban areas, the design emphasized the car’s compact size with short overhangs and a rear roof pillar that angles forward.
But Mazda did not want to alienate men, so Mr. Maeda gave the car prominently arched front fenders that suggest power. These also evoke the dynamic style of Mazda’s RX-8 sports car, whose design he also directed.
Side character lines and low “swage,” a curved indentation across the bottom of the doors, give the Mazda 2 a sporty, confident air and lend an impression of movement to the wedge shape.
For such a small car, there is a lot going on in the sheet metal. But despite what the designers call “contoured edges and strong sculpturing in the area of doors and fenders,” the designers kept the body free of ornamentation.
While hints of Kodo are conveyed by the Mazda 2’s appearance of energy and power, the design language was first clearly enunciated with the Shinari concept and then reflected in the Minagi crossover concept on which the coming CX-5 crossover will be based.
Kodo is a departure from Mazda’s previous design language called Nagare, epitomized in several dramatic concept cars with wavelike forms inspired by the flow of wind and water. But the look was hard to express in production vehicles. The wave of Nagare receded, leaving as its legacy only a swooping crease stamped on the side of the latest Mazda 5 minivan.
Kodo, too, is described as an expression of natural energy, although in a more compressed and dramatic form.
Already Mazda designers have begun to alter the faces of the cars, backing away from the smiley-face grilles of recent years. When the Mazda 2 was adapted for sale in North America it received such a face, internally known as the Joker smile, but may lose it soon.
The Kodo-style grille is angular like a five-pointed shield, said Derek Jenkins, Mazda’s North American design manager, with a stronger, more aggressive look. “Kodo gives us a more assertive and provocative presence,” he said.
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