Legendary industrial designer Frank Stephenson talks about his historical past with the world’s high automotive producers and his more moderen ventures in revolutionary design.
Written by: Zheran Chen
Frank Stephenson has his imaginative and prescient. Along with his title to designs from the long-lasting New MINI to the thrilling McLaren P1, at 62, he’s nonetheless keen about design and inquisitive about all issues pure. He has risen to change into some of the influential automotive designers over the previous three many years.
Frank Stephenson sketches on a regular basis, it’s nearly a convention for him to select up a ballpoint pen and let his creativity movement over any floor he can discover. Even throughout this interview, Frank sketches, it didn’t take lengthy for a clear sheet of paper to change into one thing actually exceptional.
Frank lives in an attractive, quiet nation home in England and can be the design director of a studio in London that bears his personal title. Some would say it’s nearly onerous to match Frank’s previous and current persona, from the illustrious design boss who ran Ferrari and formed McLaren’s future, to the frankly talking founding father of Frank Stephenson Design (no pun supposed), and even YouTuber. He’s now utilizing his creativity in nearly the whole lot: futuristic eVTOL plane, revolutionary child safety seats, and even a supercomputer.
However there’s a connection. For many individuals, Frank’s work has been in contact with their lives for a few years, whether or not it was love at first sight for the stunning Fiat 500, the sheer pleasure of driving a MINI by means of the countryside, and even the surreal feeling of seeing a McLaren P1 for the primary time. Right now, wherever you go, there’s sure to be a product with which Frank has some type of involvement.
He was born in Casablanca, the identical place the place Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman shone on the massive display. Camels, fragrances and the colourful but romantic tradition of Morocco influenced Frank’s upbringing in some ways earlier than the household launched into a collection of strikes, first to Turkey after which to Spain, diversifying his understanding of various cultures.
It was within the yr he completed highschool that his life took its first flip, which, surprisingly, had nothing to do with automotive design. Anybody who has come into shut contact with Frank will discover his muscular construct, which comes from years of motocross racing in his early days. Sure, he was once an expert motocross rider. First, he received the Junior Championship in Spain and started racing within the Nationwide Collection.
However when he turned 22, his father instructed him to search out one thing else to do for a residing. “It was unhappy to finish it, however my father had a degree. I used to be good however not profitable, there’s an enormous distinction between being good and profitable. I didn’t need to be executed at 30, I wanted to search out one thing else I used to be higher at”.
When Frank first heard in regards to the Artwork Middle Faculty of Design (ACCD) in Pasadena, California, he instantly determined it was the place he wished to go. “A college devoted to automotive design; I utilized with out hesitation”, Frank considers his faculty years to be probably the most memorable regardless of the every day pressures.
“I’ve misplaced monitor of what number of nights I’ve stayed up, it’s simply so onerous. You’ll at all times suppose you’re gifted, however there are such a lot of gifted folks there, so I’ve a variety of respect for my classmates.
I believe I discovered extra from my classmates than I did from my lecturers”.
Frank isn’t exaggerating, there have been 30 younger college students enrolled with him in 1983, whereas solely six graduated in 1986. Frank was supplied a Ford scholarship throughout his sophomore yr at ACCD, which ultimately turned a job alternative.
He selected to work for Ford Europe in Cologne to be close to his household, and what was his first job at Ford? Designing the wheels of the brand new Sierra!
BMW was his subsequent goal. In July 1991 he took his portfolio to Munich and so they employed him on the spot. It was an awesome transformation time for BMW, which had a lot potential for a younger designer like Frank.
A line-up of solely 3, 5, 7 and eight Collection was not sufficient for BMW’s ambitions. Since their acquisition of the Rover Group, the German large was contemplating an unprecedented enlargement with new additions corresponding to Land Rover, MINI, Triumph and Wolseley.
Frank’s supervisor on the time requested him to current an off-roader prototype utilizing the expertise of the just lately acquired Land Rover in six weeks. From the present viewpoint, it’s nearly unimaginable.
“Time is just too quick, you possibly can’t make a full-size prototype from scratch in six weeks, at the least not in Germany, as a result of we now have to work additional time on weekends and the union received’t permit that”, Frank stated, “So my design boss despatched us to Turin, the place there are a selection of studios who can flip design sketches into clay fashions in a really quick time and can work continuous day by day”.
With willpower, expertise and a few all-nighters, Frank obtained the job executed. “It turned the X5”, Frank says proudly, “It laid the foundations for the design language of the longer term BMW SUV, or SAV, Sports activities Exercise Automobile”.
It’s the MINI that basically pushed Frank to the head of design, alongside different legendary designers of all time. Recreating an icon isn’t a simple activity, such strain can be an excessive amount of for many individuals. However not for Frank. “Actually? I wasn’t harassed in any respect”, says Frank, “as a result of there have been 15 proposals from designers and I didn’t realise I’d find yourself profitable the bid”.
Like the unique Mini, the brand new MINI is taken into account to be a contemporary icon. “BMW didn’t place any restrictions on the design on the time, it didn’t say that the brand new MINI needed to appear to be the previous one from 1959, so your work ended up being your interpretation of the ‘MINI of the twenty first century’. As a substitute of beginning immediately with the 1999 MINI, I designed a automotive that by no means existed, the 1969 MINI. If the MINI was to be revamped in a 1969 facelift, what wouldn’t it have appeared like, based mostly on the expertise and tradition of the time? Then within the second week, I designed the 1979 mannequin, within the third week the 1989 mannequin and within the final week I designed the brand new 1999 MINI”.
The success of the X5 and MINI naturally led many to imagine that Frank would rise by means of the ranks of the BMW Group, till issues modified someday with a cellphone name. It was from Italy, and the job was the Director of Design for Ferrari and Maserati.
“Ford and BMW are all nice and dandy, however Ferrari is up there. Ferrari hires new design director, quits after two months, I don’t need to be that man”, Frank stated. Fortunately, he had sufficient ammunition in his armoury, and never solely did he resist the strain of the position, he additionally designed a number of legendary fashions, such because the F430, FXX and Maserati MC12.
4 years later, he was seen because the lifeline of Fiat, the struggling Italian firm that wanted a brand new mannequin to outlive, and his Fiat 500 turned one other on the spot hit.
In 2008, McLaren discovered it more and more tough to run an F1 crew, and with out a street automotive, they’d quickly not have the ability to maintain their operation. Frank joined McLaren in 2008 because the Design Director. Then got here the 12C and P1, the muse of Ron Dennis’ well-known three-pillar technique — an entry-level 911 contender, a Ferrari competitor, and a McLaren hypercar. The P1 is a milestone not just for McLaren, however for all hybrid hypercars by way of design, aesthetics and engineering.
Frank left McLaren in 2017 and arrange his personal Frank Stephenson Design studio in 2018.
Through the years, this impartial design firm has carved out reality-changing options with world-class dynamic expertise and purchasers from all over the world.
As with Frank’s earlier work, FSD’s design philosophy emphasises using innovation by means of the fusion of artwork and science, utilizing the most recent expertise whereas caring for the surroundings. With the assistance of digital actuality, autonomous driving and mobility, Frank Stephenson Design is shaping the longer term
of industries.
“I like designing supercars, however on the finish of the day, solely a small proportion of individuals even have entry to them. By way of Frank Stephenson Design, I not have constraints and am capable of higher use my creativeness in order that extra folks could make their lives higher by means of improved designs”.
Within the final 5 years, Frank’s creativity has not been restricted and he has arrived on the golden age of his design profession. He has labored throughout completely different industries to share his imaginative and prescient by means of a wide range of merchandise to make folks stay higher along with his design and new applied sciences, corresponding to Atmo, a climate forecasting supercomputer with a smooth, metallic form and a spatial processing energy of 500Km²
per minute.
Atmo builds AI-enabled {hardware} and software program techniques that resolve climate prediction for any metropolis, state, or nation. Mixed with Numerical Climate Prediction strategies (NWP) and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), Atmo creates a next-generation structure for climate forecasting. It appears like an outside sculpture however has the flexibility to foretell the climate for 4 billion folks and 180 nations, can function wherever from -30°C to 45°C and doesn’t require an information centre, or perhaps a roof, to supply forecasts.
Frank Stephenson Design is working onerous to create a powerful model by providing an totally new expertise and absolutely the highest customary of merchandise. One in all their newest initiatives is the BabyArk, the world’s most secure little one automotive seat which depends on patented, state-of-the-art expertise which is able to probably save lots of of youngsters’s lives all over the world.
“We achieved security for BabyArk seats primarily utilizing the expertise known as military-grade spiral expertise. That expertise permits us to soak up vitality in a method that no different seat to date has ever executed”, Frank added, “My inspiration at all times comes from the science of biomimicry. The form of the BabyArk is just about impressed by the form of the egg, and the egg is in itself a protecting kind”.
Biomimicry stays the important thing to Frank Stephenson Design, capturing the knowledge of nature and staying related by means of innovation. “Biomimicry is my design philosophy and I at all times have nature in my thoughts after I design”, Frank stated, “Nature’s creations have gone by means of lots of of hundreds of years of evolution and are nonetheless round, and therein lies the fantastic thing about perfected design”.
Take Lilium’s eVOTL Jet for instance, one in every of Frank Stephenson Design’s newest initiatives. It’s an electrical vertical take-off and touchdown jet supposed to accommodate six passengers and a pilot, and makes use of the illustration of how nature approaches the design of organisms mirrored in industrial design.
“The hammerhead shark is fairly intimidating when it’s coming towards you”, Frank says, “it’s obtained these wings within the head design that makes it extremely environment friendly in turning, and the way in which its head comes again to a impartial place, that’s influenced plane and race automotive design with canards and wings on the very entrance of the car”.
“It additionally has the magnificence and the movement of a manta ray”, Frank added, “Why not use that because the inspiration for the rear wing and rear fuselage construction? Whenever you see it, and we’ve developed it rather a lot additional than what folks have seen up till now, it’ll take your breath away”. Archer Aviation from Palo Alto simply took a billion-dollar eVTOL order from United Airways.
From eVOTL plane to child seats, the creativity by no means ends, and vehicles is not going to be absent from Frank’s imaginative and prescient. Frank Stephenson Design is working with Praga Vehicles, a Czech automotive firm initially established in 1907, and manufacturing race vehicles since 2011.
Frank has just lately sketched a by no means heard of hypercar from the yr 2030. “It will likely be like nothing you’ve ever seen earlier than”, says Frank excitedly, “It’s a supercar designed with 2030 in thoughts. How will the expertise evolve? What sort of vitality ought to the automotive use and the way will aerodynamics play its half? It’s all intriguing to unveil. It’s not science fiction, it’s actually taking place”, exclaims Frank, “That’s why I like design, to place one foot within the current and one foot sooner or later”.
Speaking about placing one foot sooner or later, Frank Stephenson Design can be planning to construct the Frank Stephenson Automobile Exploration Centre within the Metaverse. Watch this house!
Frank’s YouTube channel has gained over 200,000 subscribers since 2020 with over 12 million views. His design tales and design opinions are properly acquired by completely different generations in numerous nations, and have been translated in several languages.
On the finish of the interview, Frank was nonetheless with the ballpoint pen, sketching. It was the Praga hypercar from 2030. Ferrari, McLaren, Maserati, BMW, MINI, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and now Praga, Frank has created so many iconic merchandise, and he has a method of making designs which at all times endure the check of time.
