Page 15 - PROTAGONIST 118

Every day I attempt to try new or different things, which is

the purpose of any good designer . . . Creativity has to

involve taking risks, especially at the early stage.

MM: How do you organize, plan, and prioritize your work? MM: What do you predict for the future of luxury
IC: I look after nearly 400 people, so most of my prioritization automobiles?
is driven through a calendar of events each week. However, I put IC: I predict that the luxury market will embrace the electric car
aside at least one and a half days for pure creative study, to work before most do, as I believe that new luxury is as much about sustain-
with my team and to make sure I have personal input into what is ability as it is about indulgence. New luxury is about intelligence, un-
happening within my design world. My priority will always be the derstanding, and efficiency. With autonomy there is certainly a case
product. This is what I will be judged on, so that has to be my pri- for many cars to become a commodity, to be used by many on de-
ority at all costs, regardless of what else might be pressuring me. mand, but I absolutely believe there will be a market for individuals
who will still want to have their own luxury product in their posses-
MM: Do you learn as much from the failures as you do sion and on their driveway. This will not preclude the technology of
from the successes? autonomy, but simply offer the owners more flexibility with the use
IC: Every day I attempt to try new or different things, which is of the car. I also see a much greater focus on an intelligent use of ma-
the purpose of any good designer. Of course, in that process some terials, not just from a technical point of view, but also from a sense of
things won’t work. From each of those discoveries you gain an tactility and ambience. I really feel that the opportunity for bringing
insight into what does work even better. Creativity has to involve new materials into the luxury lifestyle is one that we should develop.
taking risks, especially at the early stage. However, I would never
allow the idea of a failure to move forward beyond a certain point MM: The way we interact with our technologies has evolved
in the process of designing a car. It’s a judgment I have to make to a lot over the years. How will the automotive interface design
ensure that every car is successful and so far, everything seems to and driving experience change?
have worked well. IC: The automobile industry is about to go through some of the
biggest changes it has seen in the last one hundred years. We are
MM: How do you plan on maintaining the Jaguar Heritage moving from the internal combustion engine to electric, we are mov-
in the future? ing to a digital world where communication is everything, not just
IC: Jaguar heritage is fundamentally based on values and within the car, but outside the car as well.
principles, rather than specifics. The heritage of Jaguar is to create People will be communicating from within the car as if it is their
something that is exciting, desirable, and with a sense of perfor- own personal space, cars will be communicating with each other and
mance and beauty. These values should never change, regardless of course communicating to the greater environment around them.
of whether it is from fifty years ago or fifty years into the future. On top of that, all tied together in this is the autonomous world where
If you look at the design of each Jaguar through the years, they cars will eventually drive themselves without any intervention from
are actually quite different in so many ways, but the fundamen- a human being. These will all happen in stages, they are actually mu-
tals of beauty and the story of performance underlies every sin- tually exclusive, but they are all happening about the same time, so
gle car. Regardless of what the future may demand, those values in other words we have the perfect storm of change looming on us
must prevail. Innovation is very much part of Jaguar’s DNA. The and we need to know how to deal with this.
I-PACE, Jaguar’s first electric car, was designed from the ground So overall I foresee the motorcar changing quite dramatical-
up with absolute integrity, creating a new type of vehicle. The ly in its use, in its purchase, and probably even in its shape because
skateboard platform allowed us to create a whole new aesthetic electric cars offer us further opportunity for design than the internal
and proportion never seen before, while still remaining true to combustion engine car did. However, the fundamental layout of a
the values of Jaguar design with beautiful lines, simple forms, car will probably always remain the same because it is based on the
and an assertive presence. shape of the human being.

12 Cars Protagonist