Senior Design Manager, Nissan Design America (NDA)*
Diane Allen is a senior design manager at Nissan Design America in San Diego. She manages design programs for the Nissan brand assigned to NDA by Nissan Global Design Center in Japan. Her work ranges from advanced exploratory work on future products to production vehicle design.
Recently, Allen managed the design development of the entire, all-new, TITAN full-size truck lineup, including the TITAN XD with the Cummins 5.0-liter Turbo Diesel V8 engine. Allen managed the design process of the new TITAN family of trucks, from design concept and sketch development to the production sheet metal, as well as designing and prototyping of all parts, wheels and accessories.
Since joining NDA in 1984, Allen also has managed Nissan 350Z and 370Z sports coupes, Rogue crossover SUV and first-generation Nissan Titan full-size truck and Infiniti QX56 SUV.
Allen has received a number of design awards including the Gold Award for Industrial Design Excellence, the Silver Industrial Design Excellence Award, and the Apex Product of Excellence for Angeles Base Line Furniture. Allen also holds a number of patents, for features she designed such as the innovative Utili-trackTM bed channel system available on Nissan's truck lineup.
Allen earned a bachelor's of science degree in transportation design from the Center for Creative Studies.
*NDA is a division of Nissan North America, Inc. and part of Nissan’s global design organization headquartered in Atsugi, Japan.
Driving Design: Women in Automotive Design
Diane Allen will discuss her experiences as an auto designer. She has managed several exterior design projects including the Z series of sports cars as well as full-size trucks for Nissan Design America. Allen says that “although women are still rare within the industry, our growing impact on product is powerful.”
