Design Talks

Observations on design

Ian Callum talks Jaguar I-Pace electric car design

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Nargess

Meet Jaguar‘s first all-electric proposition. The I-Pace, revealed in November as a conceptual study at the LA Auto Show, is one of the most important Jaguar cars to be released since the E-Type. It represents a big step for the marque too, for it is the company’s first pure battery-powered electric product. This isn’t just a design study either – Jaguar is promising a production electric I-Pace based closely on this car with all-wheel drive, 394bhp, four seconds to 62mph, a range of 220 miles and on our roads in 2018. I caught up with Jaguar’s director of design Ian Callum post show to find out more.

It’s very exciting to see your vision for an all-electric Jaguar. Why the decision to kick start the Jaguar e-mobility family with a car based on the F-Pace SUV?

The F-Pace is our most successful car by a long way. Electric cars are still a relatively niche market therefore to capitalise on its success made sense. The SUV also offers less constraint, make-up wise, as we were able to use our ‘skateboard’ platform (the flat battery that sits between the axles with an electric motor at either end) allowing for a lot of design freedom.

The bespoke architecture and electric drive system really have allowed you to exploit every millimetre of this car for a cabin that can comfortably carry five people…

The concept is developed on a new architecture designed to optimise electric vehicle performance, aerodynamics and interior space. With an SUV you also have the natural height. So with the batteries sitting beneath and with no engine we could really maximise cabin space.

I suppose with the absence of a conventional engine, it didn’t make sense to design a long bonnet, as is the case with the more classic performance Jaguars.

I wanted to create a design which reflected this change in the mechanics of the car. This is what led to the sporty cab-forward profile rather than a car with a bonnet and an engine. The layout positions the driver further forward, increasing the space for second row occupants. This also allows the 530-litre luggage compartment volume without compromising the dramatic silhouette.

Is it also a nod to the futuristic 2010 C-X75 concept?

Yes. When we went for a cab-forward look, an exotic design I think, it immediately reminded us of the C-X75. So you could say the reference evolved in an organic way. I also believe that if you do this kind of Jaguar you have to be bold in the design. So here we also exaggerated the front wheel arch for a strong handsome front of car.

You have kept the Jaguar grille design. Would you have considered a more distinctive, perhaps radical face to differentiate this as an electric car?

On the one hand my view was that the car is so different that you almost shouldn’t have to define it, yet at the same time it has to carry on the current Jaguar look. So yes we included the radiator grille. It is very important for Jaguar today to be recognisable as a brand and this can be done through the face. Our design needs to be consistent. That fact may change but at this stage it is very important to us.

Also a lot of people think electric cars don’t need cooling so they don’t need a front radiator whereas the battery does need cooling.

This being an eco-car, you must have had to work hard with the sculpture’s aerodynamics to reduce the drag coefficient figures to a remarkably low 0.29 from the F-Pace 0.34.

The biggest problem for us was at the rear where it needed to be very aerodynamic but this then meant it would look blunt and harsh. So we worked hard to refine it and make it more Jaguar, more elegant.

You have used some novel sustainable material here such as carbon leather. We’ve spoken a great deal in the past about your enthusiasm for exploring new materials that can define luxury going forward. Do you see the I-Pace production car as an opportunity to explore further these ideas?

Yes absolutely. We will be looking at working with different types of material, with wool, silk, man-made leather, going forward on the production car. Probably not straight away, more so down the line. Saying that, we are aware that the UK and California will be our biggest markets and we will respond to these trends.

What are you most proud of with the design?

The silhouette is very different but not vulgar – it is a good balance of the unusual and elegance. Also I like the tail lamp graphic. It is an indication of our future design.

I saw that Jaguar has compared the importance of the I-Pace to the E-Type, a groundbreaking car for the marque. Do you see this car starting a family of unique Jaguar e-cars?

This will be our first-ever battery-powered electric vehicle and it opens a new chapter in our history. I believe electric cars are here for the next 100 years and will eventually replace the combustion engine. So yes.

Nargess Banks

Read my road trip in the latest Jaguar F-Pace in Forbes.

Jaguar explores new territories with F-Pace

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Nargess

The F-Pace is Jaguar‘s first sports utility in its 70-year history. Designing an SUV was not an easy task for a marque associated with a low, long and sleek vernacular, and with such a rich sports car heritage. ‘The customer wanted one,’ admits Ian Callum, ‘It is a practical car but with the spirit of Jaguar,’ adds the design director.

We’re in Frankfurt at the biannual international motor show. The previous evening the F-Pace proved its claim as the ‘sportiest SUV’ by breaking the Guinness world record, and defining gravity, on the largest ever loop the loop completed by a road car. Witnessing stunt driver Terry Grant race inside the 19.08m tall, 360-degree circle was pretty spectacular.

The F-Pace unveiled at Frankfurt is a production car closely based on the 2013 C-X17 concept study. It’s underpinnings are the marque’s lightweight aluminium architecture which has allowed the design team the freedom to create a car with ‘latent poise, a svelte car with attitude,’ smiles Callum.

‘Of course a crossover is vertically more challenging,’ admits Al Whelan as we caught up with him on the Jaguar Land Rover show stand, ‘but in many ways the intensive aluminium architecture helped us set up the building blocks,’ says the chief designer, adding, ‘You get this right, and the Jaguar traits follow from that.’

It also allowed for a roomier cabin. The F-Pace can accommodate five adults and there is a versatile 650/1740-litre cargo space. The doors come alive with Jaguar’s signature blue ambiance lighting, and the optional panoramic roof expands almost the entire length of the car suggesting a more spacious cabin.

This is a highly intelligent car too, featuring the marque’s latest 8-inch touchscreen and infotainment system, with an optional 10.2-inch InControl Pro system, which can connect up to eight devices to a wi-fi hotspot in the car.

Whelan sees most of the competitors in the small crossover category producing quite similar proportions, ‘long overhangs and short rear overhangs, and balanced looking side views,’ he says.

So, when two years ago the team came to envisage a Jaguar crossover with the C-X17 concept, Callum insisted on taking the marque’s most recent designs, in particular the DNA of the F-Type coupé, as inspiration.

Whelan explains they set out to create a unique typography with the F-Pace ‘with a long bonnet, lots of tension on the side view, and of course big wheels,’ he smiles. ‘The key was to keep it sleek and exciting and I think we have achieved this.’

The F-Pace is handsome in the metal – subtly translating the Jaguar form language to a car that by nature should defy this. Callum had asked his design team to embrace Jaguar’s sporting heritage, extract some of the theories from the evocative cars in the company’s rich back catalogue, and apply it to the F-Pace.

The overall vision was ‘for it to be softer, more refined, and more muscular interpretation,’ notes Whelan. ‘We introduced the two strong character lines from the F-Type coupé, the long front fender and the rear haunch… and it all started to work.’

Nargess Banks

A full report from the Frankfurt Motor Show was published in Wallpaper*.

Design review: New Jaguar XF

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Nargess

Jaguar was in the process of reinvention when design director Ian Callum sketched his first XF in 2007. It was to be an entry-level car, attracting new customers and debuting the marque’s new design.

The sporty coupé body was an unusual proposition for premium business car at the time, as was the bold interior design. It grabbed our attention and succeeded in presenting a new, confident Jaguar brand. Now, and with a small XE in production and a family of cars that include the F-Type sports car and F-Pace crossover in the horizon, it was time for a new XF.

The base of this second-generation model is Jaguar’s lightweight modular architecture. The design team worked closely with engineering to harness this and conceive a car that is lighter yet stiffer, highly aerodynamic, more compact in proportion yet roomier inside.

So at 4,954mm long; the car is 7mm shorter and 3mm lower than the previous model, yet the shorter front overhang and stretched wheelbase has allowed for 15mm more legroom and up to 27mm more headroom. The XF boasts exceptionally low aero drag of 0.26cd, achieved through a range of interesting design tweaks.

Furthermore, the fusion of light aluminium for the body panel, and a mix of high strength steel in key structural areas, means the car is now stiffer and lighter by some 190kg than the previous car for a much smoother ride as we were to discover on the Circuito de Navarra and the Navarran Pyrenees where we put the car to the test.

This expansive and hugely dramatic landscape in northern Spain can instigate a compelling story for most vehicles, yet the XF, though essentially a business car destined for less exotic locations of urban settings and motorways, almost ‘owned’ these empty roads that snake high into the lush green uplands.

In terms of design, the XF is very much an evolutionary one that continues exploring the distinct silhouette of the original model whilst introducing a more vertical assertive mesh grille, shorter front overhang and the distinctive power bulge that now runs all the way up the elegant long bonnet.

Callum points to the waistline which sits at a more horizontal level now, ‘the strongest element of this car visually,’ he calls it. ‘We’ve worked very hard to create a shoulder line that is much more elegant, stronger yet relaxed in many ways sitting underneath the window graphic of the car,’ he says explaining how it ties the whole car together.

There are extra rear windows, which, coupled with the optional panoramic sunroof, really improves the feeling of spaciousness at the cabin. The car’s behind has also been given a distinctive look with an interpretation of the LED tail lights first featured on the recent F-Type, replete with a rather lovely chiselled boot line, thus creating a narrative between the siblings.

The brief for interior design was to retain the sense of theatre introduced in the original XF but improve the materials and textures so that it evidently sits above the entry-level XE. The layered instrument panel now swoops the width of the car merging into the doors emphasised by singular stitching and it featuring the XJ signature Riva Hoop design.

This is a hugely connected car too, digital yet at the same time offering high levels of quality and craftsmanship and plenty of tactile surfaces – soft leather, warm wood and shinny chrome elements. There is a reconfigurable TFT instrument cluster, a 10.2-inch touch screen containing all the infotainment and entertainment information, and laser head-up display for convenient navigation.

‘One of the things that is great about the interior is the theatre of it,’ muses Callum. So the rotary shift control and air vents magically spin open when you turn on the engine. ‘It’s a wonderful moment when they spin up to say hello to you. It gives you that sense of occasion.’

With the XF, Jaguar has shown that it can propose an alternative in an otherwise crowded and often conservative executive car market. This product is a perfect blend – infusing elements of the marque’s sports car knowhow with sprinkles of quirkiness for that added bit of magic.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

The new Jaguar XF is on sale from September.

Read our previous articles on Jaguar.

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Trends in car design from Paris

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Nargess

Earlier this month we attended the Paris Motor Show, one of the most important annual international exhibitions (it rotates yearly with Frankfurt). These shows are intense… they are loud, bright and pretty exhausting yet it is a great place to spot the latest trends in car design, and generally catch up on industry news.

This year most of the pavilions displayed pretty bland products – your mainstream hatchbacks, saloons and sports-utilities… and increasingly the crossover which is basically a hybrid of SUV/family car/hatchback, and whatever else the designers can incorporate. I am still waiting for a single design to inspire.

There were some concept and production cars to take note of though. On the Jaguar and Land Rover, the smaller SE Jaguar and Discovery Sport are pretty intelligent production cars coming from a car company that seems to be going from strength to strength.

Elsewhere, we loved the stylish Superleggera Vision Concept on the Mini stand (read our interview with Adrian Van Hooydonk, BMW Group’s design director here).

Here are our highlights from the show which appeared in Wallpaper*.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

Clerkenwell Design Week 2014

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Nargess

This week saw Clerkenwell Design Week gather international companies, individual designers, and emerging young artists in one of London’s oldest neighbourhoods creating a striking contrast between the local historic architecture and contemporary design. The three-day event, now in its fifth edition, sees some of Clerkenwell’s landmarks transforms into a large exhibition space.

You enter CDW through St John’s Gate, where this year the young design collaborative Russ + Henshaw worked with Turkishceramics to create Tile Mile, a site-specific installation that references Islamic art and architecture. The combination of the 7200 colourful ceramic tiles and mirrors, incorporated into the passageway beneath the 16th-century medieval arch, created quite a dazzling start to the show.

The fair’s hub was once again at the Farmiloe Building, which formed the backdrop to an installation by car marque and main sponsor Jaguar and light designer Foscarini. One of the fair’s highlights, the giant cascading structure features dozens of Foscarini’s Tuareg totemic LED lamps suspended from a crane attached to the dramatic atrium descending upon a Jaguar F-Type Coupé. The idea is to represent the sparks coming off from the back of this powerful sports car, and to express the lightness of the aluminium structure in both the car and the lights.

The imposing Victorian building also staged Design Factory showing work by international design studios including Artemide, Anglepoise, Folkform, Note Design Studio and Stellar Works. Here too there was a celebration of light, with some similar themes running through such as hooded hanging lamps and hand blown glass lights that celebrated the process of making.

Particularly notable were the light designs by French designer Marine Breynaert. Inspired by the contents she found in her grandfather’s old car garage, the former fashion designer utilises industrial screws and bolts for her new collection that she says is a marriage of ‘industrial heritage and a sense of contemporary poetry’.

CDW also saw a focus on design for usage rather than pure aesthetic value with tables, chairs and sofas that transform into various shapes for different functions. Additionally, craft was celebrated throughout the exhibition space. On the top floor of the Farmiloe Building, following a talk on the value of making in the age of digital printing, carpenter Barn The Spoon carved his way through a piece of log transforming it into a wonderful organic stool.

Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, The Order of St John hosted an exhibition of decorative designs; the House of Detention showed craft, and Crypt on the Green was dedicated to lifestyle objects. CDW also sees local studios open their doors to the public. This year Tailor my Tom Vac at Vitra dedicated the entire exhibition to industrial designer Ron Arad‘s chair with 23 architects and designers asked to re-interpret his iconic piece.

With the art and design festival season in full swing, it is pretty much impossible to keep up with all of the activities around the world. Each fair brings something unique to the table, and they each have their own regional charm. What they mostly do, though, is allow for a shared sense of creativity – even if just for a few days. This was particularly noticeable at CDW this year where established design studios rubbed shoulders with up-and-coming young artists and local crafts people. During these festival communities are created based on a shared interest in making our world a richer space through creativity.

Nargess Shahmanesh Banks

Read our reviews of previous Clerkenwell Design Week here. Also read about the new Jaguar F-Type Coupe here.