J Carrol Mays
Background
Born in rural Oklahoma, Mays started working at his family's auto parts store at an early age. While attending Maysville High School in Maysville, Oklahoma, Mays enrolled in an occupational drafting program at Mid-America Technology Center in Wayne, with aspirations of
architecture. After high school, he studied commercial art at the University of Oklahoma before briefly switching to
journalism.
In 1976, he transferred to the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, graduating in 1980
with a Bachelor of Science degree in transportation design.
Career
Volkswagen Group and BMW
Mays began his career as an exterior designer at
Audi, a subsidiary of
Volkswagen Group, in
Ingolstadt,
Germany.
While there he worked on the design of the 1986 Audi 80 B3. After a brief stint in 1983 at
BMW in Munich
where he worked on designs for the 5 Series E34 and 8 Series cars,
he returned to Audi the following year as senior designer,
where he worked on the design of the Audi 100 C4, Volkswagen Golf III and
Volkswagen Polo.
In 1991, the Mays-designed
Mays moved back to the United States in 1989, to become chief designer at the Volkswagen of America Design Center in Simi Valley, California.
He returned to Germany in 1993 as Audi's design director responsible for the company's worldwide design strategy, development and execution.
SHR Perceptual Management
In 1995, Mays became vice president of Design Development for
SHR Perceptual Management, a consultancy that worked for numerous automotive companies, including Ford.
Ford Motor Company: 1997-2013
Replacing
Jack Telnack as global Vice President of Design of the Ford Motor Company in 1997, Mays became responsible for the design direction of Ford Motor Company's eight brands (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury,
Mazda,
Volvo,
Land Rover,
Jaguar Cars, and
Aston Martin). He was responsible for a number of
concept car designs, including the Ford Fairlane, Shelby GR-1, 021C and "427",
Jaguar F-Type and
Volvo SCC. Mays has been involved in the design of numerous production models, including the Aston Martin DB9, Land Rover LR3/Discovery,
Ford GT, Ford Shelby GT500, 2005 Ford Five Hundred, 2011
Ford Fiesta, 2012
Ford Focus, 2015
Ford Mustang, and 2015 Ford F-150.
| at the Petersen Automotive Museum]] | debuted in concept car form at the 1999 LA Auto Show, but the 2002 vehicle proved to be a commercial failure.]]]]
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While at Ford, Mays has received several professional awards and recognition for his designs. In November 2002, Mays' designs were the subject of an exhibition, "Retrofuturism: The Car Design of J Mays" at the Geffen Contemporary of the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Los Angeles. He also received the Harvard Design School annual Excellence in Design Award in February 2002, and in September 2002, the Don Kubly Professional Attainment Award from the Art Center College of Design.
On 1 November 2011, Mays announced that the next generation Australian Ford Falcon, expected after 2015, is likely to be front-wheel drive or front-wheel drive based 'all-wheel drive'.
At the 2011 Los Angeles auto show, Mays talked about the advancement of technology integrated into Ford's production line, and how that has driven vehicle design, especially interior design.
Pixar
John Lasseter approached J Mays to work with
Pixar as a design consultant during his times at Ford and RCA. Having originally helped during the production of Cars, he had gone on to continue involvement with several other movies, including designing the robot for Big Hero 6 and the vehicles in
Zootopia.
Vehicle Design and Intelligent Mobility course at Royal College of Art
Beginning from September 2015, J Mays started contributing to the Royal College of Art's prestigious Vehicle Design programme as a visiting professor.
The course was later renamed to Intelligent Mobility from 2018.
Whirlpool
In September 2018, Whirlpool announced Mays as its new VP and chief design officer.
Mays retired at the end of 2021.
