Joel Piaskowski is an American car designer from Michigan. In 2014 he was appointed head of

Ford of Europe Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany. History Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...

design team.

Career

Piaskowski studied at the

College for Creative Studies The College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts ...

in Detroit, graduating in 1990. He first worked with

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

, where he stayed for 12 years and where his work included the

Buick Lucerne The Buick Lucerne is a full-size car manufactured by General Motors from 2005 to 2011. Named for the city of Lucerne, Switzerland, it served as Buick's top-of-the-line sedan until it was replaced by the second generation Buick LaCrosse. History ...

. Piaskowski moved to

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

in 2003 to run the US studio for six years, where he is credited with the design for the Genesis sedan and the Genesis Coupe. In 2009 Piaskowski had a short spell with

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

where he ran the advanced design center in California. In 2010 he joined

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

as the director of exterior design for the Americas, working under

Moray Callum Moray S. Callum (born 19 November 1958) is a Scottish automobile designer who was vice president, design, for Ford Motor Company, having retired on 1 May 2021. His elder brother Ian Callum was the Design Director of Jaguar from 1999 to 2019. E ...

. There, Piaskowski led the

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

and

F-150 The Ford F-Series is a series of light-duty trucks marketed and manufactured by Ford Motor Company since model year 1948 as a range of full-sized pickup trucks — positioned between Ford's Ford Ranger (T6), Ranger and Ford Super Duty, ...

projects. In May 2014 he was appointed head of Ford of Europe design, taking over from Martin Smith in July. Piaskowski is known in the Detroit underground techno community as the originator of the "German Techno Tape", a one-of-a-kind collection of Techno and handbag originals from the late 90s Berlin scene.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piaskowski, Joel American automobile designers Ford designers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)