The pattern on the evolved, iconic spindle grille is of such delicate complexity, it required an unusually high level of human skill in both the design and fabrication stages to complete. From computer screen to finished product, constant artisan involvement ensured the beauty of the designer’s original vision was fully expressed.

The new design features a single intricate span of interlocking Lexus ‘L’ motifs, a web-like tapestry inspired by the fine delicate patterns of those found in nature. While previous designs called for two separate upper and lower molds, the designers at Lexus challenged themselves to express the the new incredibly complex grille as a single, integrated piece.

While the computer modelling program rendered the pattern with reasonable accuracy, completing the precise design required a human eye. Augmenting the computer render was a skilled design modeller in an unprecedented display of dedication to detail, working a typical eight hour day over a six month period to individually adjust the curved surfaces of five thousand motifs on-screen. Reflecting the performance spirit of the LS F SPORT variant, the grille has an even more dynamic expression requiring edits to over seven thousand surfaces. Now complete, the intricate, computer-rendered pattern – finished by meticulous human manipulation into a work of art – continues its journey in the hands of a metal mold Takumi craftsman.

“Takumi” describes a craftsperson with the highest levels of technical skill and precise application, honed over decades of experience in his or her field of expertise. Yasuhiro Nakashima has spent twenty-seven years learning and honing his craft – filing, shaping and polishing metal molds to extremely exact levels. The Takumi master possesses a natural competitiveness and a passion to be the best at what he does, the depth of his dedication illustrated in his own set of customized tools – including hand-made bamboo instruments to shape finer details. When Nakashima received the all-new Lexus LS spindle grille design from the Lexus Design team, he needed to bring his passionate artisanship to ensure the mold’s accuracy.

The uncommonly large single grille required the finished mold to be structurally sound while also accurately reflecting the finely detailed design. The machines and processes used to create the mold are amongst the very best available anywhere but – reflecting the same human factor in the design – finishing with absolute accuracy necessitated a remarkable human skill. With his customized toolset and experienced eye, Nakashima is able to refine surface smoothness to within 100 microns (0.1 millimeter) – a difference even the best robotic milling technology cannot detect. During the finishing he also anticipates details technology cannot, polishing by hand the minute individual surfaces in directions that improve the reflective aesthetic of the grille’s final coating. These details may not be readily noticeable at a casual glance but are further indication of the dedication he applies to his craft with techniques refined over decades.

Fabricating a mold to the exactness articulated in the design demanded extra attention from Nakashima that helped push the production stage out to five months – over a month longer than usual. Throughout the process, he collaborated with the design team – each challenging the other, designer and craftsman working together to ensure the very best outcome. Koichi Suga, Lexus Project Chief Designer complements Nakashima, “We consistently pushed our partners beyond previous thresholds to help deliver a vehicle that delights the public enough to want to buy it. I know this can be very difficult at times but I also know Nakashima-san shares our vision and worked extremely hard to realize our design”. Nakashima concludes, “I want those who see the grille to appreciate the design and to feel wonder over its creation, I want them to be amazed at first glance”.

Lexus has redefined its flagship sedan and set it apart from the competition with unique, imaginative design and elevated levels of craftsmanship that make the impossible, a reality. And that story begins at the front, with the completely reimagined spindle grille.

In early 2014, Lexus and Asahi Glass Company (AGC) together began to explore how to use glass in vehicle interiors to express Lexus’ distinctly progressive perspective on luxury. Eventually this led to the Kiriko glass concept for the all-new Lexus LS flagship.

Kiriko, a unique Japanese tradition of hand-cutting delicate patterns into glass, produces stunning reflections of light, depending on the angle of both the light and the viewer’s gaze. Examples can be appreciated in vases, sake glasses and traditional glass ornaments.

An industry giant, AGC’s wide range of glass products include smartphone screens and television panels, as well as automobile windscreens and windows. Despite their decades-long expertise, Kiriko would require a completely new glass-molding process. It was, recalled AGC’s Hideki Ishioka, “Completely outside our traditional scope”. It also required an artisan to design and craft an exquisite, elegant Kiriko glass prototype.

THE ARTISAN

AGC turned to Kiriko glass Takumi craftsman, Toshiyasu Nakamura, a native of Toyama City, home to the well-known Glass Art Museum, a showcase of glass artisanship. Nakamura was tasked with re-creating Kiriko’s reflective effect in glass panels. These ornamental panels, to be fitted to the LS door interior, provided a unique challenge for Nakamura. Unlike the reflection in a Kiriko sake glass, prominent when held and moved around in one’s hand, a door panel is relatively fixed and a standard Kiriko glass cutting pattern might not draw out the desired characteristic.

Running his finger along the lines of a cut-glass model, Nakamura described his thoughtful solution, “Cutting at altering angles through the hand-drawn lines on the glass results in a ‘twist’, allowing more light to reflect at different angles along those lines,” he said, resulting in a distinctive and startling effect. He also hopes LS passengers will be able to enjoy these reflections at all times, with night driving yielding further reflections.

Nakamura’s meticulous methodology allows for this delicate and exacting design process – draw, cut and polish – to be accompanied by several rounds of quality inspections, necessitating only a single, final review on completion.

THE INDUSTRIALIST

From this point, it’s another eighteen months before the final Kiriko glass panels are ready to be fitted to the LS, and this journey is a story in itself. Multiple panel reproductions – exact facsimiles of Nakamura’s craft – were a singular challenge, while an automobile’s rugged environment requires a durability far beyond that of regular Kiriko pieces. For this venture to be a success required AGC to invent a whole new eight-stage process, carried out in eight different locations across Japan.

To state that AGC built a new mold to duplicate Nakamura’s design would be an understatement. His ‘twist’ lead to the incorporation of a never-before-implemented 3D digital scan when designing the mold, faithfully rendering the glass panel’s unusual dimensions and accurately reproducing its unique expression. “That’s something we never did before,” explains Ishioka, “That area was a real challenge for us.”

Partner vendors were carefully vetted to complete the remaining stages – finishing, polishing and strengthening. The latter achieved with both a film-dipping process and rear-mounted metal plating, providing the Kiriko piece a sturdiness that belies its delicate appearance. Their attitude and energy to exceed expectation impressed Ishioka, “Our partners go beyond simply completing their task. They also infuse their work with passion and emotion,” he said, in keeping with the spirit present throughout the LS’s production journey.

Due to the Kiriko panel’s unique, irregular shape, even transporting batches between vendors required an all-new logistical approach from AGC, with customized packaging materials, and innovative delivery processes ensuring quality throughout the panels’ journey.

Quality control is taken seriously by a company used to delivering products of exacting standards to the bio-tech, electronics and optics industries but even this existing process was insufficient. Above and beyond an already rigorous quality inspection, in another first, AGC must ensure the final output matches Nakamura’s prototype not only in accuracy and polish – but also in beauty.

INTERCONNECTED HARMONY

It is difficult to fully comprehend the beauty of Kiriko glass without seeing it in person. To follow the cut glass lines with one’s own eyes, and marvel at the light subtly glistening in different directions as your viewing angle adjusts.

This finished ornamentation represents both Nakamura and Ishioka’s shared vision of Japanese beauty and luxury. Nakamura reflects, “To me, Japanese beauty represents a subtlety and depth that reveals detail and craft the more one observes. As reflected in the Kiriko glass, looking at it from different angles yields different aesthetics, yet it conveys an overall sense of harmony and connectedness.”

This might also describe the union of Nakamura’s Takumi craftsmanship, and Ishioka’s passionate willingness to push the boundaries of industrial technology. Nakamura concluding, “The partnership of traditional hand-made artistry and leading-edge industrial processes is – in itself – a form of craftsmanship.”

When Lexus designers conceived the interior of their next flagship sedan, they imagined features that would excite the senses and deliver a distinctive expression of luxury. One such element is Artwood, an ornamentation with an artistic aesthetic unique to Lexus, fitted throughout the interior of selected LS grades. Traditional craftsmanship and modern technology are brought together to create beautiful patterns from natural wood in the ornamentation. Toyota Tsusho Corporation’s automotive division worked with wood specialist Hokusan, Ltd. and Yamaha Fine Technologies Co., Ltd, the renowned manufacturer of musical instruments, to create this unique ornamentation for Lexus.

Hokusan combines the thousand-year-old Japanese tradition of wood craftsmanship with modern manufacturing techniques to produce Artwood’s exquisite wood-grain designs. From raw timber, the company embarks on a two-month long, eighteen-stage process – including their advanced wood-slicing technology – to create fine patterns across the wood-grain. The result is bold and vibrant cross-grain patterns – natural in origin, yet a design that doesn’t actually exist in nature.

Celebrated for fine wood craftsmanship, Yamaha’s relationship with Lexus began with the very first LS 400, Yamaha finishing its distinctive interior wood paneling. The all-new LS is a complete reimagining of a flagship sedan, and accordingly, necessitated elevated levels of craftsmanship. Yamaha’s wood artisans responded in kind, adding to the story of craftsmanship that characterizes the all-new LS. Their expertise is applied to Hokusan’s wood sheets, with another two-month journey of shaping, polishing and finishing across fourteen processes, completing the Artwood ornamentation to be fitted to the LS, available patterns being Organic and Herringbone.

Such a protracted and complex process of experimentation to complete Artwood reflects the year-long creation of the original Artwood prototype by all three partners – including prolonged design reviews – with the result, a brave, elegant and unique design.

Artwood also demanded a new approach to production and new pinnacles in attention to detail, in cutting and design, fabrication and finishing.

Achieving an evenness in the ultra-thin wood sheet without flaws was more challenging than usual, according to Hokusan’s Tomoki Aoyama, “To design a uniquely elegant pattern from natural wood for Lexus, we had to re-work our usual production processes,” he said.

Further, the ‘Herringbone’ pattern requires yet another layer of craftsmanship, with Hokusan commissioning additional Takumi artisans whose ‘Yosegi’ technique brings a whole new wood art tradition to Lexus. This pain-staking process of manually gluing together multiple wood sheets of varied colors and grains manifests itself in the distinctive Herringbone design. Once complete, this multi-directional pattern requires Hokusan to carefully slice the combined sheets– a procedure accomplished with the meticulous consideration of water levels and glue dryness.

For Yamaha, finishing the two Artwood ornamentation patterns to the same high quality mark proved arduous. While wood coloring and polishing is in the company’s DNA, each piece is a unique, fabricated design. This called for a high degree of individual attention from the experienced craftsmen, with intensive painting and polishing processes finally drawing out the boldness of the patterns in the natural wood. Meeting these challenges galvanized Yamaha’s artisans, as Yuri Nakauchi attests, “Bringing to completion this highly-crafted ornamentation, to be used in Lexus’ flagship model was very exciting and drove us to strive for new levels of skill and productivity for a successful outcome.”

The combined efforts of Hokusan’s manufacturing precision and Yamaha’s time-honored finishing prowess have resulted in exquisite designs, with patterns expressed slightly differently as the light source alters from direct external light of day to the softer and more ambient illumination of darker hours. Aoyama imagines LS occupants being quietly and pleasantly surprised, “They may feel a subtle harmony to their environment, and upon closer contemplation find the beautifully designed art in the ornamentation is actually natural wood.”

The Artwood ornamentations are a premium element of the luxury expression in the LS interior. They are also another chapter in the story of exacting Takumi craftsmanship in the flagship model; an exemplification of elegant, brave design, created from natural wood. And only made possible through the vision of Lexus and the cooperative efforts of dedicated artisans.

Hand Pleating is the fabric counterpart to Origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. From a single piece of cloth, hand pleating crafts a design expressing patterns formed by light and shadow. At her studio, the Sankyo Co., Ltd.’s Yuko Shimizu designs and pleats fine fabrics for curtains, fashion apparel and wedding dresses, the latter being a specialty of hers. She draws daily inspiration from the nature around her, “The sky above, the movement of cloud and the river,” she says, “For example, outside our Kyoto studio is a river, its low waters flowing over the pebbles to reveal patterns that influence my designs.” Sankyo was originally a supplier of pleat-making machinery, and in the decades that followed, Shimizu constantly learned and improved the art of hand pleating from the craftspeople she encountered.

With that hunger to continue learning more from many different sources, it is no surprise that Shimizu differentiates from her peers with out-of-the-box thinking that helps create solutions to unexpected obstacles, a very necessary approach to the particular challenges this initiative provided.

Shimizu’s craft came to the attention of textile manufacturer, Seiren Co., Ltd. Shimizu applied her wedding dress pleating expertise to a fabric sample provided by Seiren. Her work fulfilled Lexus’ desire to imbue the LS model with a feeling of timeless Japanese craftsmanship, resulting in a three-way collaboration to develop the pleated door trim.

A NEW CHALLENGE

The fabric provided by Seiren to be folded into the pleated panels is luxuriant yet hard-wearing – it’s also significantly thicker and heavier than those Shimizu normally pleats. The challenge facing Sankyo was delivering finished panels that both reflect the elegance and craftsmanship of the LS while still being able to withstand the rugged nature of a passenger vehicle interior – climactic variances, dust and human use elements amongst others.

Shimizu’s unorthodox approach made that balance possible. “To answer this challenge, we brought a whole new way of thinking and completely overhauled our work processes.” Shimizu said. She doubled her team’s size to six artisans, dividing the twenty processes in the development between them. The completion of a single pleated panel is a culmination of an undivided three-day effort.

While pleating at Sankyo is customarily carried out by a single Takumi, transforming this more durable fabric into pleated panels necessitated an extra Takumi, both folding the pleats in synchronicity. That innovation was followed by another as Shimizu introduced new techniques to achieve a shine that changes as the angle of light does, and incorporate a graduating fold size in the pleats. As daylight or door trim illumination falls across them, one realizes this interplay of light and shadow forms three-dimensional patterns along the door panel, each fold expressing the Lexus “L” motif.

A VISION FULFILLED

While all are regular company employees, Shimizu’s team collaborate closely, in the manner of a family. Their combined energies, effort and skill have been poured into the hand-finished pleated fabrics. More than a mere product, she hopes occupants in the LS will experience her philosophy of luxury, “We really put a lot of energy into crafting something beautiful that also radiates warmth for passengers to feel comfortable and relaxed.”

The all-new Lexus LS sedan scheduled for sales launch in Europe at the end of 2017 aims to provide world-leading safety performance through the combination of two advanced Lexus safety systems―Lexus Safety System + and Lexus Safety System + A. These systems are ultimately aimed at the elimination of traffic casualties.

The fifth-generation Lexus LS carries on the tradition of a smooth and powerful ride as well as exceptional quietness and comfort that started with the launch of the first generation as a new standard for luxury cars. Its new GA-L platform brings an improved driving experience, offering the driver the thrill of as-you-command control. As a symbol of Lexus, the fully redesigned LS achieves a bold transformation through the adoption of new styling and advanced technologies within an innovative coupe-like silhouette, while affording ample interior spaciousness befitting a luxury sedan.

Lexus Safety System +

As a flagship, the LS boasts extensive application of advanced safety technologies, including the already well-established active safety package Lexus Safety System +, which is based on the Integrated Safety Management Concept. Rather than considering a vehicle's individual safety technologies and systems independently, this approach aims for coordination in the pursuit of an even higher dimension of driver support in all driving situations.

Several features of Lexus Safety System + have been improved in the all-new LS, including the Pre-Collision System (PCS), Lane Departure Alert (LDA) and Dynamic Radar Cruise Control.

Lexus Safety System + A

In the new LS, Lexus Safety System + is combined with Lexus Safety System + A, which will provide advanced pre-collision support and sophisticated driving assistance.

The Lexus Safety System + A package includes Active Steering Assist, which, as a world-first technology, helps prevent collisions that cannot be avoided through automatic braking alone, and Front Cross Traffic Alert (FCTA), which is designed to warn the driver of the possibility of head-on collisions at intersections. These features, along with Lexus CoDrive, which assists the driver in maintaining in-lane driving, and others achieve a high level of driving safety support.

The LS also comes with other technologies for supporting safer and more-secure driving in a broad range of situations. Support has been designed to be clear and intuitive, such as by providing the driver with information ranging from support status notifications to information on vehicle behaviour during safety feature operation via a large head-up display (HUD) and a multi-information display.

New active safety technologies

Pre Collision System (PCS) with Pedestrian Alert and Active Steering Assist

In addition to conventional PCS, which supports collision prevention and damage reduction through alerts, Pre-collision Brake Assist and Pre-collision Braking, the new LS is equipped with Pedestrian Alert, a world-first technology that specifies the direction of the presence of a pedestrian, and Active Steering Assist, which can automatically controls steering and braking. With Pedestrian Alert, if there is the possibility of collision with a pedestrian ahead, the direction of the pedestrian’s presence is shown in an animation via the LS’s large colour HUD, contributing to intuitive recognition on the part of the driver. Active Steering Assist determines when there is a high possibility of collision with a pedestrian in the lane of travel or with a continuous structure, such as a guardrail, and if the system also determines that it is difficult to avoid a collision with brake control alone but that it might be avoided with steering control, the system assists in collision prevention or damage reduction through automatic steering control in addition to activating an alert and applying the brakes.

Lexus CoDrive, advanced driving assist technology

Lexus CoDrive adds Lane Tracing Assist (LTA) to the basic functions of Dynamic Radar Cruise Control to provide steering support that is in line with the intentions of the driver. By providing seamless driving support on roads with many curves or in traffic jams, Lexus CoDrive largely decreases driver burden. It coordinates with the LS's large HUD and multi-information display to clearly notify the driver of the state of support provided.

Lane Tracing Assist (LTA)

Lane Tracing Assist provides lane-keeping support by way of steering control when Adaptive Cruise Control is in operation. In addition to lane line detection by way of a camera, tracing of the path of the vehicle ahead enables assistance even when lane lines cannot be recognized, such as in low-speed driving in congestion when there is little distance to the preceding vehicle.

Two-stage Adaptive High-beam System (AHS)

With eight LED lights at the top and 16 below (on each side), the Two-stage Adaptive High-beam System provides optimal lighting by way of separate on/off control of each row of LEDs, enabling finer control of light strength and distance compared to the existing LED-based AHS. This allows higher frequency of high-beam driving without blinding preceding or oncoming vehicles, thus improving night-time visibility.

Front Cross Traffic Alert (FCTA)

To help prevent collisions at intersections, FCTA is meant to detect forward cross-traffic vehicles. It uses forward direction radar and is the first in the world*³ to alert drivers of the direction from which a cross-traffic vehicle is approaching the immediate intersection. Alerts are displayed using the LS's large HUD. If the vehicle proceeds regardless of the presence of an approaching vehicle in cross traffic, warnings are also issued by a buzzer and the LS's multi-information display.

Road Sign Assist (RSA)

RSA acquires road sign information using a camera and navigation maps and then displays such using the LS's HUD and multi-information display, thus reducing driver failure to recognize signs and encouraging safe driving.

Improved active safety technologies

Lexus has further evolved the performance of PCS, LDA and Dynamic Radar Cruise Control in Lexus Safety System +, which is featured in a growing number of Lexus models and is combined with Lexus Safety System + A in the LS.

Pre-Collision System (PCS)

PCS detects pedestrians and vehicles ahead using millimetre-wave radar and a stereo camera and supports collision prevention and damage mitigation with an alert, Pre-collision Brake Assist and Pre-collision Braking. The improved PCS can detect bicyclists and night-time pedestrians and has improved deceleration performance during automatic braking. For example, it can decelerate the vehicle by as much as 60 km/hour when a pedestrian is detected, thus improving its collision-prevention performance.

Lane Departure Alert (LDA)

LDA helps to prevent lane departures. In addition to detecting road lane lines, it is now also capable of detecting the boundaries between asphalt and such elements as grass, dirt and curbstone through advances in recognition capability. Thus, it can now perform its functions of alerting the driver and operating the steering wheel even on roads that do not have lines.

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control

Outstanding basic recognition performance has been secured with wide-angle detection using newly developed millimetre-wave radar and a camera with a wider forward recognition range. Dynamic Radar Cruise Control also provides support for making driving more comfortable, with smooth acceleration at start-up, and during following, departure and acceleration, for a sense of security for occupants, and smooth deceleration in the case of a rapid change in deceleration speed during following.

Other active safety technologies

Parking support brakes (stationary objects, vehicles approaching in the rear, pedestrians in the rear)

With the aim of reducing damage from accidents when parking, during which moving vehicles and pedestrians, in addition to walls and other stationary objects, perimeter checks and complicated driving operations are considerations, low-speed braking support systems have been integrated into a single package. Added to the already commercialized Intelligent Clearance Sonar (ICS) and Rear Cross Traffic Auto Brake (RCTAB) is the world's first rear pedestrian support brake, which detects pedestrians using a rear camera, and in the case of a possible collision, helps to minimize damages by using alerts and brake control.

Panoramic View Monitor (with side clearance view and cornering view functions)

Side clearance view and cornering view functions have been added to the Panoramic View Monitor, which supports periphery safety checks. Side clearance view produces an image on the LS's 12.3-inch display monitor of the area in front of the car as if it were seen from an elevated point at the rear of the car, allowing the driver to more-intuitively confirm the space on the sides of the vehicle when passing by another vehicle on a narrow road or when moving toward the shoulder of the road to allow passage. When side clearance view is in operation, cornering view automatically produces an image of the vehicle as viewed from the rear at an angle in line with driving operation during cornering. These assist in confirming safety when making left or right turns on narrow roads and in preventing the driving up onto curb stones when departing the roadway.

The all-new LS is based on an extended version of the brand’s premium global architecture for luxury vehicles (GA–L) platform – the stiffest that Lexus has ever developed – which offers enhanced handling, ride smoothness and cabin quietness. F SPORT models will capitalize on the platform’s responsiveness and agility to present the most engaging LS driving experience yet, and will be available on the LS 500 and LS 500h.

The 2018 LS 500 F SPORT will be on display starting April 12th at the Lexus booth in the Javits Convention Center for the 2017 New York International Auto Show.

The 2017 RC F GT3 racing car will also be presented for the first time in Europe, showcasing the brand’s growing engagement in motorsports.

Other Lexus models on display will include the LC, the RC, the RC F and the RX and NX ranges.

The redesigned Lexus stand will showcase Lexus’ hallmark craftsmanship, quality and safety while giving visitors an immersive experience. The new design, implemented for the first time in Europe at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, highlights the brand’s new global communication strategy and tagline – Experience Amazing.

The Lexus press conference will take place on March 7, at 12:45PM on the stand no. 4211 in Hall 4, Palexpo.

The introduction of the LS 400 in 1989 in Detroit made automotive history. Not only did the vehicle make its mark by offering the drive performance, quietness, and luxury that consumers expected from a premium vehicle, its unveiling heralded the birth of the Lexus brand.

Now, 28 years later, the all-new LS sedan will boast a bold new look with a coupe-like silhouette without compromising roominess, visionary technology, and will be built on an extended version of the company’s all-new global architecture for luxury vehicles (GA–L) premium rear-wheel drive platform—shared with the LC—for a more dynamic experience on the road.