Jaguar sketches Le Mans cars at Clerkenwell Design Week

Some of Jaguar's advanced designers sketch out future Le Mans cars among other models at special design evening in London

Jaguar designers were tasked with sketching a future Le Mans car

Some of Jaguar’s advanced designers have sketched out a whole series of conceptual models as part of a special event at London’s Clerkenwell Design Week.

Jaguar is a sponsor of the annual Clerkenwell event, and in an evening to round off the week’s displays Jaguar’s advanced design director Julian Thomson oversaw five of his design team sketch models including several Jaguar Le Mans models, a reborn XJS and an XF. 

Thomson oversees the design of Jaguar models far into future, his team currently working on models from 2018 and beyond. Five of the Jaguar design team – exterior design chief Adam Hatton, senior design Simon Tovey, creative specialist Dominic Najafi, advanced designer Hitesh Panchal, and creative specialist Hugo Nightingale, – were tasked with sketching out future Jaguars from a brief set by Royal College of Art director Peter Stevens.

Most designers chose their own interpretations of a Jaguar Le Mans entry, although audience members tasked designers with their own briefs including the reborn XJS.

Thomson said that sponsorships like the one Jaguar has with Clerkenwell are important as it allows the car maker direct contact with premium design brands it might not otherwise encounter.

“Jaguar is the sort of brand that can connect with any designer,” Thomson told Autocar. “Events like this allow us to tap into what’s going on in other markets, see what other designers are up to, and tap into future trends.”

Sketches like the ones his designers were undertaking at Clerkenwell are important for “creating an ideal version of what we’d like to do”, according to Thomson, and said they “were an expressive vision of what we’d like to do before we work back to the production car”.

Thomson says that around one third of the design influence on models in the distant future came from data analysing where key future markets would be, what the customers would be like, their age and wealth, and future legislation, CO2 and safety legislation.

But the bulk of the work still comes from “thinking of Jaguars relevance in the future, the attractiveness of future luxury and performance models, and predictions on how the premium automotive market will change”.

“Still, the most important part of what we do is what we feel passionate about,” said Thomson, adding that further influences came from discussions with city planners and architects in expanding ‘mega cities’ in the likes of China, the Middle East and North America.

Thomson believes that Jaguar is well placed to exploit growth in these three aforementioned markets in particular as there is a current and indeed future trend towards more expressively designed cars.

“People are wanting more emotional cars again,” said Thomson. “They want more exotic and individual cars, they don’t just want something dry. They want craftsmanship, spontaneity, artistry, bright colours – and this bodes well for us.”

Jaguar also used Clerkenwell to show off two specially created versions of the F-type coupe. One was installed in a special lighting sculpture in collaboration with fellow Clerkenwell sponsor Foscarini, while another showed off a special paint finish.