Toyota’s CALTY turns 50, reveals unseen concepts
By Laura Burstein2023-10-09T14:40:00
Car Design News visits Toyota’s CALTY studio in Newport Beach on the eve of its 50th anniversary
On a warm autumn night, Calty Design Research opened its doors to a select group of media to celebrate its 50th anniversary and showcase many of the highlights of its five-decade tenure. During our visit, we got a private tour from Ian Cartabiano, VP of advanced design, and chatted with head of Toyota and Lexus global design Simon Humphries, as well as Calty president (and longtime Calty designer) Kevin Hunter.
“It never ceases to amaze me just how many designs have come from Calty and what a source of inspiration it has been,” Humphries said. “It represents everything that’s good about design.”
Established in 1973 under the direction of Shoichiro Toyoda, son of the company’s founder, and Eiji Toyoda, CALTY, short for California Toyota, was the Golden State’s first major automotive design studio. (Although design legend Chuck Pelly opened Designworks in Southern California the year before, the independent design firm was…