The multi-sensory luxury experience, brought to you by Lexus

• Lexus luxury that engages all the human senses
• Making luxury personal for every customer
• Colours, materials and finishes key to the sensory experience
• Givaudan, bringing fragrance to the journey
• Audio excellence with Mark Levinson

The Lexus approach to luxury is not defined by a single element. It’s about the complete experience when you’re inside your car.

As driver or passenger in a Lexus, everything you see, hear, touch and even smell combines in harmony to create a perfect multi-sensory environment.

What’s more, you can adjust the elements to suit your mood or the type of journey you’re making.

Feed your wellbeing with calming lighting and soothing sounds. Or energise your trip with refreshing fragrances and up-tempo beats.

It’s an attention to detail that requires craftsmanship skills, deep insights into human sensory perceptions and the application of precision technologies.

Today Lexus designers and its specialist partners are brought together in a mission to break new boundaries in multi-sensory experiences, closely monitoring the latest trends, pursuing sustainable solutions and taking the concept of the in-car luxury experience to an even higher level.

MAKING LUXURY PERSONAL WITH THE LEXUS LBX

Lexus wants to “make luxury personal”. That means giving every car owner more opportunities to make their car an expression of their individual style and values.

It’s an approach that’s being pioneered with the LBX, Lexus’s groundbreaking new small SUV.

This is an authentic Lexus in every detail, but it opens up new interpretations of luxury. Your car is not just a means of travelling from A to B, but a place where you can live your life – in comfort, connected, rewarded, safe and secure.

That’s the message in Lexus’s new “Living in my LBX” campaign.

Rather than traditional luxury, the LBX offers something that’s more in tune with today’s desire for a more relaxed “premium casual” feel.

This contemporary twist means options for bolder colours inside and out, new upholstery textures, eye-catching detailing and tactile finishes, pleasing to the eye and rewarding to the touch. But the LBX is still very much a “Lexus” in every detail, delivering luxury beyond what customers might expect in a car of its size.

To emphasise the importance of how you feel inside your car, the LBX doesn’t adhere simply to a grade structure where at each level you pay more for extra comfort and features. Instead, you choose from different versions where individual details are harmonised to create a different mood and feel.

COLOUR, MATERIAL, FINISH: THE LOOK AND FEEL OF MODERN LUXURY

How a car looks is the first thing you will notice, and that includes the interior furnishings that you will experience on every journey you take. That makes Colour, Material and Finish – CMF for short – a critical consideration for vehicle designers.

The Lexus philosophy

There are three guiding principles in Lexus design: –

• Omotenashi – the Japanese spirit of hospitality and service
• Takumi – the finest craftsmanship, rooted in artisan traditions
• Time – applying a respect for Japanese heritage and tradition to create a valuable experience whenever you spend time in a car

“Time” is the foundation on which Lexus designs its products. It doesn’t just want to make beautiful products, it also focuses on how people will experience their time in our cars.

Viviana Hohenstein is a Lexus designer and specialist in CMF, working at our European Design and Development centre in the South of France. She explains: “We want to provide meaningful value for our customers, society and the planet. For us, sustainability goes beyond reducing CO₂. It involves respecting ‘Time,’ preserving our heritage while also bringing innovation to craftsmanship to create products that deliver value and appeal to our customers.”

Lexus sensory luxury evolution

It began with the first Lexus. In 1989 the LS, the original Lexus limousine, introduced an authentic Japanese flavour to luxury motoring. Finest soft leathers, rich wood trims and calming tones were all applied with a minimalist aesthetic.

The approach has evolved with the times. Colours, materials and finish have been used to help give cars a stronger emotional quality and, more recently, an edgier feel, while remaining true to an essentially Japanese concept of luxury.

“We are now in an era of CMF design that uses sensory experiences to create personalised and immersive luxury,” says Viviana Hohenstein. “Today, the role of CMF is not limited to visual and surface aesthetics. It is also about sound, touch and smell, using all five human senses to optimise the user experience.”

Concept

The CMF design process breaks down into two principal areas: Concept and Execution.

In the Concept phase, we define our mission statement and design narratives, then explore inspirations and research.

In the Execution phase, we curate different physical materials and colours we want to use. Software is used for digital visualisation, then we move to sensory design development before creation of the actual physical design.

Execution

In the execution phase, Lexus transforms CMF concepts into reality through a structured, multi-sensory design process. This phase is where inspiration, research, and narrative are translated into tangible materials, colours, and finishes that define the look and feel of each vehicle.

Innovation with tradition

Japanese textile traditions have developed over more than 1,200 years.  Today, Lexus’s CMF designers explore how long-established materials and techniques can be used to create something new in contemporary design.

It’s another example of how Lexus applies its Time principle to preserve heritage while bringing innovation to craftsmanship to create appealing products for today.

Bamboo – a sustainable option, rooted in culture

Bamboo has been a familiar part of daily life in Japan for centuries, used for many different purposes, from furniture and storage to tools and transport.

Lexus has been pioneering the use of bamboo in its cars as a versatile and sustainable material that has less environmental impact. As a raw material, it can be transformed into a great range of materials, from an alternative to leather and plastic to composite materials and carpet textiles.

Using bamboo contributes to a circular design principle, while delivering something that feels luxurious while being responsible. It is featured prominently in many of Lexus’s latest advanced car concepts and production models. Promoting its use also reflects Lexus’s commitment to society and its desire to “give something back” to the communities in Japan that produce and harvest bamboo.

GIVAUDAN, A WORLD LEADER IN FRAGRANCE

Givaudan is a world leader in fragrance, beauty, tastes and well-being, making it an ideal partner in Lexus’s exploration of new sensory experiences.

Givaudan celebrates the beauty of human experience by creating for happier, healthier lives with love for nature. Its Fragrance and Beauty unit crafts inspired fragrances to perfume lives and memories and develops innovative beauty and wellbeing solutions that make people look and feel good all over the world.

Drawing on more than 250 years of creativity and innovation, nature is both Givaudan’s responsibility and most precious muse. Givaudan is just as committed to sustainability as it is to creating innovative products that satisfy consumer needs and anticipate their desires.

With a collaborative approach that favours co-creation, Givaudan has built a diverse portfolio across personal care, fabric care, hygiene, home care, fine fragrances, and beauty, reflecting its multidisciplinary expertise.

The power of smell

Smell is a critical element in our sensory experiences. It’s one of the first senses we develop from birth and one of the most sensitive.

There are 20 million receptor neurons in our noses, giving us the ability to detect around 1 trillion different smells. Every day, smell will trigger up to three quarters of our emotional responses.

A creative partnership

With a shared commitment to craftsmanship, creativity and passion, Givaudan and Lexus are working together to create in-car fragrance systems which can add another dimension to every journey.

This partnership focuses on: –

• Authenticity
• Sustainability
• Innovation
• Emotion

Givaudan has produced a new bamboo accord that has been tailored specifically for Lexus to create a signature element in five new fragrances developed for use in its future vehicles. It is designed to express a unique perfume that captures the atmosphere of Japan’s bamboo forests. 

Using bamboo as a natural source connects with its wider use by Lexus as a sustainable material with the potential for multiple applications – from in-car trims to textiles and alternatives to plastic and leather.

A sensory concierge for your journey

The upcoming all-new Lexus ES luxury sedan will be the first model to offer a Sensory Concierge*, a system that seamlessly co-ordinates the car’s climate control, interior lighting and fragrance options to create an appropriate mood. That might be calming, refreshing, energising or relaxing, according to personal taste or the purpose of the trip.

This innovation is a demonstration of Lexus’s commitment to “making luxury personal”. It also aligns with its principle of omotenashi, using the finest traditions of Japanese hospitality to deliver complete comfort and convenience for every driver and passenger.

 *Initially to be made available in China

MARK LEVINSON: THE RECIPE FOR AUDIO EXCELLENCE

The world’s finest chefs will tell you that successful recipes are about the best balance of ingredients, flavours and textures. The same approach can be applied to achieving the finest sound reproduction from a prestige audio system.

Partners for more than a quarter of a century

Mark Levinson, part of the HARMAN International Corporation, has been Lexus’s exclusive premium audio partner for more than 25 years. Today, every new Lexus model gives customers the option to enjoy exceptional on-board entertainment from bespoke systems, specifically tailored to the shape and size of the car’s interior.

In fact, Mark Levinson acoustics specialists work alongside Lexus’s designers and engineers from the early stages of new car development to be sure of delivering the best results.

And performance must be consistent, whatever style of music or performance you prefer. Whether it’s the grandeur of a symphony hall, the intimacy of a jazz club or the thrill of stadium show, Mark Levinson’s systems for Lexus are designed to give you the sense of being at the heart of the event.

Full-blooded, balanced and clear

The near-silent LBX cabin provides the perfect setting for the new custom-engineered 13-speaker Mark Levinson^® Premium Sound audio, including a 22.4 cm subwoofer beneath the load space floor.

Using the new Mark Levinson Quantum Logic Surround Technology with Clari-Fi®, this array creates an accurate and full-blooded sound stage with smoothly balanced frequency characteristics and high clarity and definition.

GOURMET TASTES BROUGHT TO THE ROADSIDE WITH OMOTENASHI-ON-THE-GO

Lexus is taking its principle of omotenashi supreme hospitality beyond the car to serve up a unique take on the roadside food truck.

Omotenashi-on-the-Go offers taste sensations with haute cuisine presented by a sleek and stylish mobile kitchen.

This is no conventional vehicle. Measuring more than six metres long, weighing two tonnes and finished in an elegant, black and copper Lexus livery, it is an innovative interpretation of the brand’s aesthetic DNA.

“We didn’t simply want a food truck. We wanted an authentic piece of automotive design, where every curve, texture and finish speak the Lexus language,” the Lexus Europe design team explains.

The interior displays all the attention to detail you would find in a Lexus luxury car. It has been conceived working with professional chefs and includes high-performance stoves, precision cooling systems and ergonomic preparation stations.

It has the capacity to serve more than 50 guests simultaneously.

As well as being a highly functional space, it is finished in fine quality materials with copper, wood and ceramics integrated in a countertop that’s inspired by the grille featured on Lexus vehicles.

The sensory experience is not confined to the taste of top-quality dishes. One of the most distinctive elements of the interior is the “Iris” lamps. These were created by German designer Sebastian Scherer, who won the Lexus Design Award in 2014.

Evoking the beauty of soap bubbles, the lamps have delicate blown glass spheres. These emit iridescent reflections that change colour according to the angle of view. Each unit is a suspended sculptural piece that transforms the space and generates a warm, enveloping light.

There are great sounds to enjoy, too, with a Mark Levinson audio system that has been integrated in the food truck’s interior.

“It’s about recreating the sound experience of a Lexus in a completely different environment. We want people not just to listen but to also feel the music,” the development team explains.

ENDS