Hideichi Misono to Inaugurate Toyota Lectures on Design Series At the College for Creative Studies

DETROIT, Jan. 5, 2004 -- College for Creative Studies (CCS) will inaugurate its new Toyota Lectures on Design series with a presentation by Hideichi Misono, Senior General Manager of Toyota Motor Corporation's Design Center. Misono will speak about Toyota's design philosophy on January 6, 2004, at 5:00 p.m. in the Wendell W. Anderson Jr. Auditorium in the Walter B. Ford II Building on the CCS campus.

The Toyota Lectures on Design series was established through a $1 million endowment gift to CCS from the Toyota Motor Corporation. The series will bring prominent designers and scholars in all fields of design to speak at CCS. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Misono began his career with Toyota in 1969 when he joined the Design Division of the Mark II, Crown, Corona Interior Design. In 1976, as assistant chief designer at Calty Design Research, Inc., he was involved with research for the first-generation Camry.

Throughout the 1980s, Misono was a manager in Toyota's Design Division, with responsibility for the Camry, MRII, Corolla and various show cars.

In 1991, he headed the "2001 Future Vision of Toyota Design" working group as Project General Manager and a year later was appointed Executive Vice President of Calty. After five years at Calty, he became General Manager of Toyota's Design Division and was promoted to Senior General Manager in January 2003.

Misono oversees the entire Toyota design operation, including the headquarters, Calty, ED2 and Tokyo design studios. He also supervises work at six Toyota-affiliated manufacturing companies.

The College for Creative Studies is one of the nation's leading arts education institutions. A private, fully accredited, four-year college, CCS offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in animation and digital media, art education, communication design, crafts, fine arts, illustration, industrial design, interior design, and photography. CCS is credited with having one of the world's most recognized programs in transportation design and for placing more graduates in automotive design than any other school. CCS is located in Detroit's Cultural Center, where it provides a dynamic learning environment in which students explore issues of art and design, and the culture in which they exist, while preparing for careers in the professional world. For more information, contact CCS at 313.664.7400 or visit www.ccscad.edu .