Mazda makes cars for people who want more from their vehicle than to just go from A to B. Its Jinba Ittai mantra – car and driver as one – has produced some of the most dynamic driving and best-engineered vehicles of all time. Mazda design has created cars that turn heads wherever they go, winning numerous awards along the way.
“In the last decade, we have started to implement a particular expression and people have started to recognise Mazda design very clearly,” said Ikuo Maeda, Mazda’s global head of design, in an interview with autocar.co.uk. He’d just been named the publication’s 2020 Design Hero. Autocar's editor, Mark Tisshaw, is effusive in his praise. “He’s overseen a generation of Mazdas that can be traced back to the introduction of Kodo design in 2012. [Since then] we think Mazda has been producing the best-looking range of cars in the market.”
It’s not just in the UK where Mazda design is held in such high regard either. The Mazda3 won this year’s World Car Design of the Year, an award voted for by 86 automotive journalists from every corner of the globe. This film celebrates Mazda's extraordinary design achievements.
Instrumental to the brand’s success is the overarching design philosophy: Kodo – Soul of Motion. In the beginnings of this design concept, Mazda’s designers wanted to express the instantaneous reaction and the vitality of wild animals as they spring into action. This style was launched in the form of the Shinari concept car. However, the philosophy has developed further recently, introducing a refined elegance and allure inspired by ancient Japanese artistry. Again, two concept cars – the RX-Vision and the Vision Coupe – embody the philosophy that has now been adopted in the latest generation of vehicles – the Mazda3 and CX-30 – and will be rolled out into the full range. The images below are available to download so you can use them as screensavers or share them and enjoy.