The Designers Pt 11: Gerry McGovern, Land Rover
“When I started out all I wanted to do was draw cars, but you get more respect from the business if you understand the bigger picture”
“When I started out all I wanted to do was draw cars, but you get more respect from the business if you understand the bigger picture”
Sometimes I hear myself speak and I sound more like a businessman than a designer, but I have deliberately tried to make design more business-like. To understand we’ve got to create things that will sell and make the business successful. You need to think about how you are going to take it to the market and manufacture it. That way you take more people with you. At the end of the day we are commercial designers.
In the past I was not interested in the marketing, I was very intransigent. I used to get frustrated years ago when I’d come up with a solution, whether at Land Rover, Lincoln or wherever, where we’d come up with what we thought were viable propositions, great designs that were right for the business, and they didn’t get accepted. So I wanted to understand why.
Range Rover Evoque convertible
There are a lot of people who think I’m the antichrist but the thing I’d turn around and say is that I’ve never been responsible for a car that hasn’t made money. Ultimately, who’s the judge of good design? It will be the consumer and the success of the product. That can be down to other reasons, but we know the Evoque was successful because of its design and its engineering and integrity.
We know that the Range Rover we have now is more successful than the previous one. Why? Because it’s desirable. It is the same with the Range Rover Sport. We are living in a world where image is everything. Range Rover in particular has an incredible amount of equity and I don’t think we have yet tapped its full potential.
Range Rover SVAutobiography
We have studio engineers who have a very good view on how to develop a vehicle from an engineering standpoint, but you’ve got to have a starting point and create something tangible so that people can look at it, particularly if it’s what I would call ‘white space’, something you haven’t done before. I’ll give you an example: Bentley is doing an SUV, why can’t Range Rover do a luxury car? I’m not saying we are, but those are the types of debates we have.
You know I’m a Modernist, and I do have a philosophical view when it comes to car design, that it is about volume and proportions. It is about reduction. Every line should be there for a reason. There should be visual logic. I’m not a great advocate of what I’d call the Zorro school of design where there will be a slash here and a slash there, trying to be different for the sake of it. Land Rover has never been that way.
Land Rover Discovery Sport
What I want to see is a comprehensive family for each of our three segments, Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. At the moment most of the focus has been on Range Rover but there are still opportunities and you’ll see more ‘white space’ vehicles coming. We’ll start to do the new family of Discoveries – we’ve only got one of the new ones so far. Then we have the new-generation Defender. I’m not going to be happy until we have all of those out there and I want them to be compelling in terms of their design leadership and engineering integrity.
We are always looking for good people. I want to see more female designers, designers that want to do interiors and people that are entrepreneurial. A design team is a collective, you don’t want everybody to be the same. You want people who are great at detail – who can design a great seat or fascia – and exterior designers that really understand overall form, volume and proportions. You’ve got to get a team that can play in all the right positions.
Gerry McGovern, chief creative officer, Land Rover
In the past everyone wanted to be an exterior designer. Nobody wanted to do interiors or the grind of production, they just wanted to do all the creative stuff. You need design-literate people right through the process, even if they are programme managers. People that represent the design, that go to all the meetings and protect the design, and understand how you bring it to fruition.
Our cars need to have the latest technology but not just for the sake of it. Technology that enhances. There are connectivity businesses that are much quicker and more nimble and a car should be a conduit to carry those devices that change every year. Having said that, we are putting more emphasis on the technology in our vehicles, particularly in terms of connectivity. There is a lot that can be done but I always remind people that they’re driving a machine. Lots of things can be a disturbance. How much information do you actually need there? How do you create an environment that you want to be in? It’s a bit like certain visionary architecture.
Land Rover Discovery Sport
Generally, Modernism had the ability to make you look at things in a different way. Create things that were truly great to be in. The thing about research is you don’t know how the world is going to change in 20 years’ time. We’re generally thinking five, six, seven years ahead. Some of my frustrations could be simple things like wanting small cameras not big mirrors, or getting flush handles and glazing. I want that to be implementable quickly. Recently, we re-organised our design research team. Rather than thinking about the art of the possible in 10, 15, 20 years’ time, there’s a list of all the things I want for the next-generation vehicles. Find me a way of getting to that.
Gerry McGovern
Role Chief creative officer, Land Rover
Age 59
Nationality English Location Coventry, UK
Education Coventry University and RCA, UK
Gerry’s cars of 2015
Concept
1. Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6
2. Porsche Mission E
3. Suzuki Air Triser
Production
1. Alfa Romeo Giulia
2. BMW 7 Series
3. McLaren 570S
Car Design Review 3
This interview is taken from the Car Design Review 3 yearbook. Published annually by the writers of Car Design News, the book rounds up all of the major car-design trends seen in the past 12 months, counts down the best production and concept car designs of the year and features interviews with 18 of the best car designers working today, plus an in-depth interview with Syd Mead, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner.