The Concept designer
Pär Heyden, 34, STRATEGIC DESIGNER
SEMCON, GÖTEBORG

Pär Heyden has no problem in imagining
what the world will look like in 2020. Imagination
is part of his job description as a
strategic designer for industries like the
automotive industry, where he designs
concepts for the cars and transport systems
of the future and works out how to
communicate the identity of a car.
“Concept development is about
creating a pier to send into the future
that will lead you in the right direction
and give you a reference point for your
work,” says Pär, who works on assignments
for many different industries.
In the automotive industry he’s
looked at how to separate similar models
from one another in order to create
a clear identity.
“We don’t focus on what the car looks
like, but instead talk about the car’s
personality and try and find different
ways of describing it as a person. Who
is the car? Who is the customer? One
way of giving the car clear qualities is
to imagine it as other products. If the
car was a watch or a shoe, what would
it look like?
Working with the future is not always
easy to communicate. How do you get
customers to understand your ideas?
“It’s important to be able to convey
your dreams. For example demonstrating
how future transport systems
might look in 2020 requires you to support
your ideas with analyses, facts and
visual drawings.”