John Anthony Sahs has been an automotive designer for over 20 years. But he’s also an artist, graphic designer and vintage car owner. In the video above, he gives us a look into his life, and how Jennifer Lopez influenced the design of the third-generation Nissan Cube.
An alumni of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, John Sahs started his career working on the advanced design team at Mercedes-Benz in Japan (he did the interior of the 1997 Maybach show car) before joining Nissan in Atsugi the summer of 2000. Since he returned to California, he’s come back to teach at Art Center as a guest lecturer.
Artwork by John Anthony Sahs
Sahs’ work is varied, having worked on interior and exterior design programs he also finds time to create some stunning artwork, using acrylic and digital methods. But when he’s not holding a pen over a Wacom tablet, he’s usually behind the wheel of his Datsun Fairlady, cruising down the roads of Southern California to attend a car show somewhere.
Sahs has been with Nissan for more than half of his career. Though he took a break for a few years to found his own company, STUDIO-6Design, and develop the second prototype for electric car start-up SIM-Drive, Sahs returned to Nissan in 2012 and was the project lead designer for the Nissan Resonance concept car, which previewed the production Nissan Murano. The Resonance won many accolades when it first made its debut at the 2013 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), including the EyesOn Design Best Concept award that year.
Sahs’ list of achievements includes the 2001 Nissan GT-R concept interior, the 2003 Serenity show car exterior and the 2008 Denki Cube concept interior. More recently he was the interior design manager/lead designer for the 2016 Nissan Titan and design manager for the Infiniti Synaptiq concept, which won the People’s Choice award at the 2014 LA Design Challenge, and lead exterior designer for the third generation Nissan Cube — which he talks about in the above video.
[divider]Film Crew[/divider]
Director: John Reyes-Nguyen
Cinematographer: Tim Jieh and John Reyes-Nguyen
Editor: Louis Lee
Colorist: Joseph Berger-Davis
Music by: Scott Chops Jung
