One-On-One With Joe Dehner, Head of Dodge & Ram Design

While Ralph Gilles is well known in these pages as head of all Design activities at Chrysler LLC, there are , of course, a legion of other people behind him. Joe Dehner is one of those, being Head of Dodge & Ram Design. Dehner was interviewed recently by Ashley Fournier for the Chrysler blog.

Some interesting insights emerged from the time they spent together. Chrylser’s design studios, under the influence of Fiat management, have been seperated into brand-driven units so as to develop a unique look and feel to the individual product lines. While the change was announced many months back, it takes time for changes like this to become real.

It seems that this is an ongoing issue management philosophy and, for the moment, the pendulum is swinging to one side. Chrysler’s design activities were previously more integrated. There are probably some cost reasons for doing this, but as much as anything else, it is driven by a choice to have unique brand identities, or a corporate-wide design image.

Dehner gives some insight into those early days of Fiat’s presence, the decisions that were made and how they impacted everything from brand logos to the RAM’s crosshair grill. It’s an interesting read, but you have to take it slowly to absorb the significance of what Dehner is talking about. Further interviews in this series might prove to be equally insightful.