Frank Stephenson (http://instagram.com/frank.stephenson.official) is a renowned automotive designer having directed the design departments at BMW, Ferrari, Fiat, Maserati and Alfa Romeo before heading to McLaren to head up the new road car division.
He has designed:
New Mini, New Fiat 500, BMW X5, Maserati MC12, Ferrari FXX, Ferrari F430, McLaren 12C up to 720s and P1 and the list goes on. A really interesting guy and a lover of all things design, we have a great chat about his journey before finishing off with some of his current projects outside of the automotive realm.
Frank also makes videos on his youtube channel talking about how he designed various cars, worth checking out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0prFtEeFBIRwm57wu2lBpQ
Make sure to check out the film about Frank's life on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81184189
Hope you enjoy the Podcast.
Thanks, Sam
00:00 Intro + Backstory
03:09 = What does a design director do?
09:09 = Is it difficult to maintain that initial form and design direction throughout a project?
13:55 = Are you an innately curious person?
15:16 = Starting a new design language at McLaren
17:13 = How do you create a design that will look good today but also in the future?
22:20 = The McLaren P1 and how McLaren has shifted to performance led design
27:04 = Manufacturers creating cars to fill niches without creating desirable products.
33:42 = Do you think we'll see some radical changes in car design with driverless cars?
36:30 = Autonomous flying vehicles and the future of mobility
44:29 = 5 Questions
55:23 = The Cybertruck
