Michelle Christensen: Driven by Design

When Honda Motor Company unveiled its Acura NSX concept car at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, the company promised it was building a sports car that would be both head-turning and fun to drive.

As the reimagined version of the NSX that had been discontinued in 2005 after 14 years in production, this new sports car had a lot riding on it. In order for the car to live up to its promises, Acura knew it had to build a car that was as beautiful on the outside as it was bold under the hood. To create that attention-grabbing exterior, Acura also made history by bringing in the first female lead exterior designer for a supercar.

Michelle Christensen was 34 years old and already working with the company when she was offered the chance to design the car that Acura general manager Mike Accavitti would later call, "the ultimate expression of the Acura brand."

Up until that point, Christensen had worked on designs that were much more conservative, such as the Acura ZDX crossover and the Acura RLX sedan. The NSX offered her a chance to not only stretch herself as a designer, but also to pay homage to the kinds of cars she had admired for years.

Drawn to Cars

Growing up in San Jose, California, Christensen loved to play basketball and draw. She had an eye for fashion and spent much of her time sketching designs for prom dresses. In school, she excelled in art; branching out to draw horses, nature and the human form, but she also had another passion: cars.

That passion wasn't surprising, given that she grew up in Northern California, steeped in a car culture that revolved around hot rods and muscle cars. Her dad was a huge car buff and brought home an endless cycle of iconic muscle cars like the Plymouth GTX, the Dodge Dart and even a 1932 Ford Roadster. She was particularly smitten with the 1967 Chevelle, and the timeless lines of that classic later guided some of her design choices.

With such a passion for art and design, it was natural that she chose to study art in college. Two years later, when she learned that Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design offered an automotive design program, she leapt at the chance to change her course of study. It didn't take long for her natural design talent and her passion for cars to land her an internship with Volvo.

By her last year of college, Honda had already recruited her to work as a designer. Even though she had already worked on Honda's premium Acura line, the NSX presented new challenges and opened the door for her to break new ground.

Inspired Living

Working in Los Angeles – where there's no shortage of beautiful high-end automobiles – Christensen is regularly surrounded by innovative automotive designs. She also draws inspiration from other elements, such as the work of Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi-British architect known for his curved, flowing lines. Additionally, she looks to shoe designers to find inspiration for her sleek looks.

With the NSX, she pulled together disparate influences and seamlessly integrated them into a gorgeously contoured car. With a broad, angular grille flanked on either side by a row of LED lights, the wide-bodied car has an immediately distinctive look.

When it was unveiled in 2015 (2016 model), it received exactly the kind of enthusiastic response Honda had envisioned. For 2017, Road & Track named the NSX its Performance Car of the Year, dubbing it the ’Ferrari-killer’ and declaring, ’This is the future of speed.’

Acura was looking for a home run with the NSX, and it found one, due in no small part to the unique approach Christensen brought to the exterior.

After the success of the NSX, Christensen lent her creative mind to the team at Nissan Design America as their Senior Design Manager, influencing the design of the sleek INFINITI QX60 Monograph in 2021.

More recently, her talents extended to the luxury electric vehicle company Karma Automotive as Vice President of Global Design. Where her automotive designs take the world from here is something that's yet to be discovered, but it's sure to be impressive.

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