And different is exactly what Lexus needed to make itself remarked in the luxury market as its chief designer said this year at the Detroit Motor Show."We have a challenge," Lexus’ chief designer Yasuo Kajino said. "Lexus is a young brand and our line-up is still very small compared to those of our rivals. We need to get noticed, and the way to do that is strong design."And let’s be honest now, how many people stopped in their tracks to stare at a Lexus model before the spindle grille was introduced? Probably five or six, the rest were more focused on its build quality, quiet and comfortable interiors. Being a new brand, Lexus didn’t find a design style that would make them really stand out. Most of its vehicles were redesigned Toyotas, which weren’t famous for their looks either.Those people that chose Lexus for its quality over design were the key element for the introduction of the whole spindle thing as Kajino-san further explained. "We ask the customers," he says. "It's true that we have been told by our bosses to be bolder and more challenging, but the most important people to listen to are our customers - and they love what they see."So, the designers took the company’s best-looking car at the time, the Lexus LFA V10 supercar, and tried to come up with something new out of its lines that could be applied to the whole range.Just take a closer look at an LFA’s front end and you will see the spindle vaguely contoured by the lines of its hood and the lower grille. That along with those squinting headlamps were some of the most important lines that made it instantly recognizable by anyone.Then the designers started to build more on those shapes, cutting deeper lines and bulging the hood upwards to enhance the spindle and make it obvious. The effect is further enhanced on F Sport models that come with a full black mesh grille which hides the traditional impact-protection bumper.But this is not the full story, as the spindle grille is also responsible for creating other interesting design cues - the diamond shape you can see if you look at the LF-NX from the top and more importantly, the L-shaped LED daytime running lights, which are now also seen like a Lexus trademark.Just coming with these two elements and putting them on a vehicle that doesn’t have a “design centralizer” where lines could merge or align would have been plain dumb. Kia’s new “tiger nose” is one of the best examples regarding misfit lines. That’s something that screams “we’re trying to come up with a new design but we haven’t fully figured out, so let’s take a trapezoid, cut off its lower corners and ad two indents in the middle.” And look at the 2014 Kia Cadenza, looking out like it has been through a failed rhinoplasty.On the other hand, I don’t see why so much hating on the spindle design is going on, since those lines were used on cars for a long time, only they were a bit hidden for an untrained eye. I mean, most of the modern cars come with a V-shaped hood bulge or indent and a trapezoidal-shaped lower grille. So what Lexus did was just to point out the obvious - these lines have been used on modern cars for more than 15 years and nobody said it was wrong. Check these rides bellow and see how the V-shaped hood and upper grille lines are accompanied by the trapezoidal lower grille.I think no one made a fuss when BMW decided to have two rounded grilles instead a full one and call it a “kidney grille”... How can two kidneys be more correct than a spindle, a symbol that takes you right at Toyota’s roots when it was making looms?And did Lexus’ new face influenced sales? Well, in December 2013, the automaker had its best sales month in seven years , while in Europe 2013 IS model sales rose by 65 percent compared to 2012. So yeah, despite what people believe, Lexus' spindle and other new design elements did manage to make a big change.