Jaguar Design Chief Ian Callum Is Leaving After 20 Years With The Company
Ask someone to name a few car designers, and there’s a good chance the first they’ll come up with is Ian Callum. He’s become a household name, and for good reason - his CV includes work on one of the prettiest cars ever made, the Aston Martin DB7, plus a multitude of Fords such as the Mondeo, Puma and Escort Cosworth.
His biggest achievement, however, can’t be pegged to a single car. Rather, it’s his efforts to drag Jaguar design into the 21st century. He joined as director of design in 1999, when Jaguar seemed to have an obsession with looking to the past, with mixed results.
His first production effort at the British company was the XK, followed up by the S-Type-replacing XF and an all-new XJ. During his tenure, the F-Type, XE, a second-generation XF and the Pace family of SUVs were all launched. An eventful career, but one that’s now come to an end, with Callum departing Jaguar at the end of the month.
From 1 July 2019, current creative design director Julian Thomson (below) will take his place. He’s been in the company almost as long as Callum, joining Jaguar in 2000. In other words, a safe pair of hands to ensure Jag products continue to be the attractive, understated and thoroughly modern vehicles we’ve come to know and love.
Looking back on his time at Jaguar, Callum - who’ll continue to work with the company as a consultant - said:
“One of my biggest highlights was creating XF because it represented the beginning of a new era moving Jaguar from tradition to contemporary design - it was a significant turning point in our story. Designing the F-TYPE was a dream come true for me, and I-PACE was an opportunity to create something hugely innovative that would really challenge the perception of Jaguar.”
Meanwhile, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Prof. Dr. Ralf Dieter Speth said:
“The contribution Ian Callum has made to Jaguar’s industry-leading design reputation cannot be over-stated.
“Ian stands for the most forward-thinking, rule-breaking and emotive approach to automotive design. He has created a new Jaguar design language – and his passion for Jaguar has seen the range completely transformed during his 20 years in charge.”
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I’m not crying you’re crying
But I wish him well on his new projects and will forever thank him for all he’s done for Jaguar
They need to find someone who can be the next Ian Callum…..they have to keep his designs coming out we definitely dont want Jaguar to fail….
The Jags have been have been sexy under his control as designer, and it’ll be sad without him at Jaguar, knowing he served 20 years for the brand. Hopefully, the next designer will be replicating the same level of sexiness, if not adding more on the new Jaguars and making them more desirable. We need more people in the automotive industry like Sir Ian Callum. The more cars have personality, the better.
I would hope so they need to find someone to channel the same sort of design flow that he provided, it would be quite interesting to see what would happen if they dared to be different and gave it to a woman to design a Jaguar, get a new flow on the old design
Hes the man that saved Jaguar wasnt he with the XF series of cars?
XJ actually
but he did design those as well
as well as the XK and the F-Type
And now on Jaguars will be ugly.
Unless someone like him cares really much and follows up his designs with similarly good looking ones
Respect to this guy.
The Callum bros. are Legends, Ian designed some of JLR’s best cars and his brother Morray designed the 2nd Gen Ford GT