Sitting across a table, talking to Derek Jenkins, Mazda North America's Director of Design, it isn't hard to get relaxed. The Californian peppers his conversation with generous doses of 'man' and 'awesome' and you'd expect that the corporate-issue Mazda suit that has been inflicted on him for the day will be quickly dumped later for a t-shirt and board shorts.
The Andre Agassi look-alike is the new boy at Mazda Design having been appointed the Design Director of Mazda North America some 15 months ago.
With more than 16 years of experience, the designer comes with a pretty impressive résumé, having been chief designer of Volkswagen North America.
Prior to that, he spent eight years with Audi, serving first as lead exterior designer, then assistant chief designer for Audi Design. The Audi A2, Audi A8 and Volkswagen Scirocco are all Jenkins handiwork.
Having spent so long with the German brands, who have a reputation for exhaustive levels of approval of designs from one board member to another, is there a greater sense of freedom now that he is with a Japanese brand?
"Working with the German companies is a very disciplined process and obviously just as design orientated, but I think the difference with Mazda is the freedom of expression and the degree of expression is much higher," says Jenkins. "You can be much more dynamic and expressive with the character of the vehicle. I like working in both realms but this is a fresh experience for me."
Mazda is undergoing a change of design language at the moment, and the new Shinari concept car (expected to point towards the look of the next Mazda6) heralds the new 'Kodo' design mantra, which takes over from Laurens van den Acker's Nagare vision.
"Kodo is really a development that the Mazda team has come up with to express our next big step in design. It is a progression. We want to have continuity with our past work, Nagare, but the big difference is now that while it was inspired by nature Kodo is more inspired by moving, living things such as a predatorial cat or a bird," explains Jenkins.
Jenkins lists Giorgetto Giugiaro as one of his main influences, as he represented true innovation during a progressive design period in the 1960s and 1970s.
"The vehicles from this period really laid the groundwork for some of the modern car proportions that are still relevant today. I loved the LP400 Lamborghini Countach as a child and it still looks like it landed from another planet and I admire the Porsche 911 because sometimes the Countach can be a little over the top."
I can't resist asking this cool Californian one of my favourite questions and it is what car from the past would he like to see made today? His answer both surprises and delights. "I'd quite like to see the Renault 5 GT Turbo made again. That was a cool car."
We'd be inclined to agree and if this latest member of Mazda's design team can actually help the brand produce some of the radical concepts we have seen over the last few years, then there are exciting times ahead.