Calty Design Research Incorporated (also simply known as Calty) is a

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

design studio established in 1973. They have two facilities: one in Newport Beach, California for concept designs, and another in Ann Arbor, Michigan for production designs. Calty provides both interior and exterior styling proposals for future Toyota vehicles and advanced design, production color and wheel design concepts for Toyota's product development operations. Calty Design Research Inc Office in Newport Beach, CA

Calty Design Research Inc Office in Newport Beach, CA

Calty was initially created by Noritsuna Watanabe and David J. Stollery in 1973 at

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of th ...

. In 1976, Toyota sent

Kazuo Morohoshi Kazuo (カズオ, かずお) is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible spellings It has several written forms, and the meaning depends on the characters used (usually kanji, but sometimes hiragana). Common forms include: * 一雄: first son, ...

to rebuild the design center into a much stronger entity. Morohoshi was an assistant manager in Toyota who had recent completed work on the third generation Corolla and the Tercel and Corsa. His task was to build a long term design center in America to cater for American tastes and styles rather than catering to Japanese tastes and styles. Morohoshi had to develop both the direction for the new center and physical realities such as selecting the building, fitting it out and hiring staff. He choose to staff it with Americans, even though there were often cultural misunderstandings between himself and the American staff for a while. After one year under Morohoshi's management, Calty started working on the second generation Celica, aimed at the American market. American sales soon picked up as a result of the styling being aim at American tastes. With the aid of design consultant and longtime Art Center faculty member Strother MacMinn, pure research was also undertaken in the form of concept cars. These paved the way for features incorporated into future Toyota cars. Feedback about the concept cars also allowed Toyota to gauge how American audiences perceived styling issues, which were often different from how the Japanese perceived them. Morohoshi was called back to Japan in 1983 to head up Advanced Design at the Nagoya Design Division in Japan. The building he choose for Calty in Newport Beach is still being used by Calty. When Toyota decided to build a luxury car (the

Lexus LS400 The is a full-size luxury sedan ( F-segment in Europe) serving as the flagship model of Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota. For the first four generations, all LS models featured V8 engines and were predominantly rear-wheel-drive. In th ...

), it was aimed at the 43 year old white American male earning $100,000 per year (in 1987 dollars). A team of Japanese designers was sent to California to discover what this demographic looked for in a car and how it reflected their lifestyle. This team worked closely with Calty. As representatives of the target market, Calty was also involved in the exterior and interior design. However, Calty's sporty designs came into conflict with executives in Japan, who favored a more conservative car that appealed to middle-aged Japanese executives. Calty was also involved with the design of the new Lexus dealerships and the early training of these new dealers. Toyota's design centers around the world often participated together to design new cars. For example, in February 1996 there was a competition among the design centers for the design of the first generation

Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003. In 2007, th ...

. The Calty design was chosen, although the detailed work to turn it into a production car was done by Development Center 2 in Japan. Here is a time line (model years) and list of vehicles Calty has contributed to: *2018

Toyota Camry The Toyota Camry (; Japanese: トヨタ・カムリ ''Toyota Kamuri'') is an automobile sold internationally by the Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota since 1982, spanning multiple generations. Originally compact car, compact in size (narrow-body ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and h ...

*2018 Toyota Camry (XV60) *2015

*2014 Toyota FT-1 concept *2013

Toyota Avalon The is a full-size sedan produced by Toyota. It is Toyota's largest front-wheel drive sedan and serves as its flagship vehicle in the United States, Canada, China and the Middle East. It was also produced in Australia from April 2000 until Jun ...

*2013

Lexus GS The is an executive car sold by Lexus, the premium division of Toyota. The same car had been launched in 1991 as the Toyota Aristo in Japan. For non-Japanese markets, it was released as the Lexus GS in February 1993. It continued using the Toyo ...

interior *2011

Scion tC The Scion tC is a compact car manufactured by Toyota under its Scion brand from 2004 to 2016 over two generations: ANT10 (2004–2010) and AGT20 (2010–2016). Both generations were built in Japan. The tC was introduced first in the United State ...

*2011

Toyota Sienna The Toyota Sienna is a minivan manufactured and marketed by Toyota primarily for the North American and select East Asian markets. It is named for the Italian city of Siena, in the region of Tuscany. It replaced the first generation Previa ...

*2009

Toyota Venza The Toyota Venza is a five-passenger mid-size crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by Toyota primarily for the North American market. The first-generation model was based on the XV40 series Camry platform and sold between 2008 and 2017. It ...

*2008

Toyota Highlander The Toyota Highlander, also known as the , is a mid-size crossover SUV with three-row seating produced by Toyota since 2000. Announced in April 2000 at the New York International Auto Show and arriving in late 2000 in Japan and January 2001 i ...

*2007

Toyota Tundra The Toyota Tundra is a pickup truck manufactured in the United States by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota since May 1999. The Tundra was the second full-size pickup to be built by a Japanese manufacturer (the first was the Toyota T100), but th ...

*2007

Toyota FT-HS The Toyota FT-HS is a hybrid sports car concept introduced at the 2007 North American International Auto Show. Calty Design Research designed the concept. FT-HS stands for Future Toyota Hybrid Sport. The goal of the rear wheel drive hybrid pow ...

concept *2006 Toyota F3R concept *2005 Scion t2B concept *2005

*2004 Toyota FTX concept *2004 Lexus LF-C concept *2003 Lexus LF-X concept *2003 Toyota FJ Cruiser concept *2002 Toyota Matrix *2001 Toyota RSC concept *2001

Toyota RAV4 The is a compact crossover SUV produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. Considered the first ever compact crossover SUV, it made its debut in Japan and Europe in 1994, and in North America in 1995, being launched in January 19 ...

*2001

*2000

Toyota Celica The is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word '' coelica'' meaning 'heavenly' or 'celestial'. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to the '' Toyota Corolla Store'' dealer chain. Produ ...

*2000

*1999 Toyota Solara *1997

Toyota Prius The is a car built by Toyota which has a hybrid drivetrain, combining an internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Initially offered as a four-door sedan, it has been produced only as a five-door liftback since 2003. In 2007, t ...

*1997? Toyota Solara convertible concept *1995 Lexus FLV concept *1995

*1995 Toyota Tacoma *1991 Lexus SC/Third-Generation Toyota Soarer *1990

Toyota Previa The Toyota Previa, also known as the in Japan, and Toyota Tarago in Australia, is a minivan that was produced by Toyota from 1990 until October 2019 across three generations. The name "Previa" is derived from the Spanish and Italian for "prev ...

/Estima/Tarago *1990

*1989 Toyota MX21 concept *1985 Toyota FXV-II concept *1979

Toyota Hilux The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although the ...

*1978? Toyota FXV concept *1978

*1977 Toyota F100 concept *1977 Toyota CAL-1 concept

References

External links

* {{Automotive industry in the United States Automobile designers Design companies of the United States Toyota subsidiaries 1973 establishments in California

See also

References

External links