GoKawiilTisha Johnson is a rare anomaly in the car world: a design leader for an automaker who is not a man. In a resolutely testosterone-fueled industry where, traditionally, women have seemingly been given positions of authority in design labs as long as they focus on interiors, colors, or material selections, very few have been afforded free rein on the most important visual element of the car, the exterior, let alone promoted to run the entire aesthetic show. Johnson has.
As head of design at Slate, this gender-specific fact might be why the world has fallen in love with the Jeff Bezos–backed truck. Casual observers might put the Slate EV's popularity down to its low price. Starting at $24,950, the Slate arriving later this year won't just be the cheapest EV on the US market; it will also be the cheapest pickup truck of any power flavor.
But people buy cheap all the time. Be it a pickup or portable speaker, cheap doesn't mean they love the product; it usually means a compromise. And it's hard to love a compromise. The real trick is in creating something beautiful and accessible.
Photograph: Courtesy of Slate
It's a hard task—ask Jony Ive, who has fashioned the best-looking automotive interior in decades for the $640,000 Ferrari Luce. Even though you could buy 25 (and a half) Slate trucks for the same price as a Luce, the Ferrari's exterior has been met with a frosty reception, to say the least. The budget Slate, meanwhile, has won multiple awards for its looks, not just for how much it costs. Johnson and her team have nailed beautiful and accessible. The TL;DR secret sauce? Ditch the testosterone and bring in a woman's perspective, and, perhaps more importantly, lack of ego.
Johnson has been working toward getting people to love the Slate for 27 years. Her final-year thesis at California’s Art Center College of Design in 1999 focused on the genuine need for a useful, affordable, and hopefully desirable vehicle for a single mom. It has taken two long spells at Volvo (a 17-year tour in total), with stints in between as head of design at Whirlpool and Herman Miller, to realize her vision.