JAMES OGILVY

Gerry, I know you have to answer a lot of technical questions about the vehicles, but I wanted to take a step back and talk about what lies behind the design, in fact more about art and philosophy. And to set that scene, you are called the ‘Chief Creative Officer’ rather than ‘Chief Designer’. What does that mean for you?

GERRY MCGOVERN

A Chief Creative Officer is a unique role in the automotive business, but common in the luxury world. Generally chief designers in the automotive world are very much focused on the design of their products. When it comes to the brand creation – the brand world and all its channels – that is the remit of the marketing team and creative agencies. The downside of this approach is that there is not a singular creative narrative. In other words, the creativity behind the products is often out of sync with the creativity that communicates the brand. However here at JLR we approach our ‘house of brands’ – Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar – in a completely different way where I take responsibility with my teams for the creative approach for both the products and the brands. Consequently, I’m overseeing the design direction of the products – all exterior, interior and materiality design – alongside the creative development of our brands.   

JO

When I look at the large Range Rover, particularly the way it's presented in some of the beautiful advertising, I see a piece of sculpture, a really beautiful object. Can you talk about the importance to you personally of art, architecture and sculpture and how that has informed your design?

GMcG 

My visual sensibility has been informed by 40 years of doing this job. My continuous curiosity around art, architecture, product design, photography and culture really inspires me from day to day. 
 
I grew up in Coventry, which was virtually rebuilt as a consequence of having been bombed in the Second World War. Coventry was the first place to have a dedicated City Architect – Sir Donald Gibson. He was a Modernist who developed a vision for Coventry that was not only modern but artistic. When I was young, there was a famous café called the Round Café and it was all glass and set on an elevated plinth. It was like one of Saarinen’s Space Age designs or the famous LAX structure by Luckman. As a child I used to gaze out of that building and to me it was like being in the future. Ever since then, I have admired architects like Mies [van der Rohe], Neutra and Corbusier. But I also wanted to be a painter – I've always loved painting – and particularly Abstract Expressionism: the likes of Rothko, Pollock, de Kooning, Krasner and Frankenhaler as well as the sculptors like Moore, Giacometti and Hepworth. When I first went to the Royal College of Art, some of these had gone there before, so I felt I was following in their footsteps. It was hugely important for me.

JO

Is Modernism still something that informs you as a design philosophy?

GMcG 

‘Modernism’, as a term for me, is a particular philosophy that is reductive in its nature. Think of the early Modernists, like Corbusier, Breuer, Mies and Schindler, and their work is all about reduction and taking things away, but not an overall limitation of detail. I believe that when it comes to any sort of design, particularly for a car, it should be proportion first, then balance, then surface and then finally you get into the detail. For me personally, car design is about that reduction. Each of our vehicles has developed its own codes over time, so a Range Rover should always have a floating roof, a continuous belt line, a level of visual formality at the front, a boat tail effect. But every line that's on a car should be there for a reason, doing a job.  
 
If I look at the Range Rover, that's how it has evolved over five generations – it’s got that lineage, that visual DNA. Compare the previous generation Range Rover with the latest, and what is it that makes the new one more modern in its approach? It's literally that we have reduced the lines, with technologies like flush glazing and handles. Once you take away the frame of a door aperture – like in a building – it becomes more reductive, and it looks more modern, cleaner and more attractive. And when you look at the technology of the lamps, it has allowed us to get what looks like a slim, simple lighting system, although in fact it's incredibly complex. I'm not saying you shouldn't celebrate detail, but when you do celebrate it, execute it well. For me, a luxury interior, particularly in the Range Rover, should be calming and should elevate the spirit. And it should be intuitive: with the whole UX connectivity issue, a lot of design is now all about technology rather than the experience. You've got to get the balance right because if you go too far with Modernism and you reduce too much, particularly on interiors, it can start to look too sparse and unconsidered. So it's about striking the right balance.