Chief designer at HMA, Joel Piaskowski leaves Hyundai
Chief designer at Hyundai Motor America Joel Piaskowski leaves Hyundai and joins Mercedes…
Six years after Joel Piaskowski was named a chief designer at Hyundai Motor America, he is going to resign. It is not known why Joel is leaving the carmaker and there are no information where he will work after he leaves Hyundai headquarters at the end of the month.
He was primary designer of the eagerly awaited Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which arrives in showrooms sometime during the spring of 2009 and also known as being the driving force behind several Hyundai HCD concepts, such as Hellion -HCD-10 (above) or Hyundai Talus -HCD-9.
Before he joined Hyundai in 2003, Joel worked for General Motors, where he spent 12 years working on Chevrolet, Pontiac, Opel and Buick brands. He also spent one year in Germany where he worked at Opels design center in Ruesselsheim.
Bellow, I have posted some images of the Hellion concept, that Joel designed a few years ago and you can also watch an interview with Joel Piaskowski and his coleague designers from some competitive brands (Mazda and GM) here.
Hyundai Hellion concept:
December 28th, 2008 at 4:10 am
cant say im a big fan of this guys work
December 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
well he did oversee the designing of the new genesis coupe’s exterior… that turned out beautifully. i like how he used the talus’ greenhouse on it. always liked that part of the concept. anyways i hope hyundai can find someone really good cos lots of things are happening for design in the industry and hyundai needs to keep up with it…
December 29th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Yeah, this is one of the ugliest Hyundai cars ever, but it was not designed to win the beauty contests. It was just an experiment for the company and even Joel admits it was not designed to be beautiful but challenging for people that saw it.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
[…] HCD-11 concept follows the plain and ugly (sorry Hyundai) HCD-10 Helion, which made its premiere at the 2006 Los Angeles auto show and was designed by Joel Piaskowski, who […]
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 am
Might not be his greatest work, but hey, have to give him props for trying to push the boundaries.
Says he was key behind the Genesis Coupe which is a runaway success so I’d have to say he did a fantastic job with the Coupe and give credit where it is due..