The Golden Age Of Automotive Industry

Jaguar Head of Design, and extraordinary automotive artisan, Ian Callum, was once asked, “How important do you think your job is?” His reply was quite telling. “I can ruin this company in four years,” he said.

Fortunately, he has no intention of doing so – not voluntarily anyway! But that’s how important he feels design is to the fate of an automaker. And Jaguar Land Rover is a case in point. One could argue that the record profits they’re posting currently is due – in large part, and without belittling the contribution from the other departments that are undoubtedly equally skilled – to the talent of the teams led by Ian Callum at Jaguar and Gerry McGovern at Land Rover.

This issue is bursting at the seams with coverage from the recently concluded – and quite successfully at that – 12th Auto Expo. But, if you only get the chance to go through one portion of the coverage, make sure it’s our interaction with Jaguar’s Ian Callum, Nissan’s Shiro Nakamura, and Ford’s Ehab Kaoud, as they talk about the importance of design, how they started out sketching cars, and what they look towards for inspiration.

It’s very insightful to get three different perspectives to the same question, which – in many cases – gravitates towards the same point of view from all three. For instance, when asked what car design has inspired and influenced them, both Callum and Nakamura pointed towards legendary Italian designer Giugiaro from the 70’s, and visionary GM designer Bill Mitchell from the 60’s. When quizzed about their design philosophies, both Ian and Ehab said it was crucial to first get the proportions of a car just right – with that done, the details would take care of themselves. All three look towards architecture for inspiration, and each of them started out by sketching cars as children. And while they admit that designing around the various safety regulations of today can be quite a challenge, they each feel that we’re entering another golden age of design. Ian points to the sheer aesthetic diversity of the cars on our streets, Ehab senses that innovation is making a comeback, and Nakamura feels that design is scaling new heights.

Ian and Nakamura both point towards the Koreans for making the biggest strides in car design. No surprise, then, that Hyundai-Kia has been the fastest growing automaker in the past decade!