This man makes cars look beautiful

Van den Acker refers to ‘his’ cars as ‘beauty with brains’; irresistible looks-wise but also intelligent and efficient. He talks about each model as if it were the love of his life. The designer feels that cars are emotion, which his 500-strong design team creates.
“I think that, as a child, I became fascinated with the unique combination of speed, the sound of the engine and the beauty and colours of the bodywork. It was a complete sensory experience. The car is probably the most complex product there is, bringing together all forms of design, from sculpture to graphic design. It’s one of the few products with human characteristics. A car has a face, shoulders, a nose and a behind. And it has character; it can be male or female, boring, aggressive or elegant.”

‘A car can be male or female, boring, aggressive or elegant’

His first car was a hand-me down: his mother’s Nissan Micra, which he used to commute between Ghent and Delft (for his graduation project with Volvo Trucks). “The first car I bought with my own money was a 1973 Volvo 1800 ES. I lived in California; most of these rare Volvos had been exported there. I loved the ‘shooting brakes’: beautiful, exotic elongated lines yet practical.”
Nevertheless, his love of cars was not the primary reason why Van den Acker chose to study in Delft over 30 years ago. “My choice of Delft was very practical really. I was good at science subjects and drawing, and Delft enabled me to combine those two interests at the highest level.”

Living abroad
To such an extent that Van den Acker is now considered one of the most influential Dutch people in the automotive industry – although he has spent more time living abroad than in the Netherlands. “Honestly: my biggest dream was to become a car designer at a major company. This dream came true at the age of 27, when I was hired by Audi in Ingolstadt. I view everything since then as a bonus.” The fact that he moved to Ford in the United States, for example, where his responsibilities included the design of the Ford Escape. He left Ford in 2005 to become head of Strategic Design for Mazda, in Japan. And before joining Audi, immediately after graduating from TU Delft, he already had a career in Italy, where he helped design the interior of the Bugatti EB110 SS.
His link to TU Delft remains special, he says. He currently has six pairs of TU Delft students helping to design the car of 2030, for the third edition of the Renault Design Award. They are supervised by Elmer van Grondelle, programme manager for Automotive Design at TU Delft.
He thinks it sometimes helps that he has a Dutch background. “Dutch people are appreciated for our communication, directness and openness, pragmatic thinking and language skills. We have strong opinions, but we’re also willing to listen to others. TU Delft engineers have a broad education, which helps us to understand views from other departments. But ultimately what matters is whether you get good results.”

Jorinde Benner

• Name: Laurens van den Acker (52)
• Place of residence: Paris
• Marital status: Married to designer Pieternel Kroes and father of daughter Raeven (18)
• Education: Industrial Design
• Student association: Delftsch Studenten Corps
• Job: Senior Vice President of Corporate Design for car manufacturer Renault (since 2009)