Jaguar World Magazine A DESIGN DECADE Dec 2009 Back Issue

Clichéd it may be, but how many young
motoring enthusiasts didn’t dream of
being a car designer when they grew
up? I know I did, but while my designs
never got closer to reality than a pencil drawing
on the back of my maths exercise book, Ian
Callum saw his dream through, and he’s a
designer of Jaguars too. Not many people can
say that…
Now, while Ian’s journey to be a car designer
in the fi rst place would be worthy of a feature in
its own right, in this issue we’re celebrating the ten
years he has spent at Jaguar, and ten signifi cant
years they have been too (see pages 24-30).
When Ian joined Jaguar its model range was
(X100) XK, S-TYPE and (X308) XJ. The latter’s
replacement, the X350, was all but signed off , and
the X-TYPE was a done deal too. Fast forward ten
years and all of those models have gone, today’s
range comprising the all-aluminium XK, the XF, and
the recently unveiled new XJ which will go on sale
early next year. As Ian reveals, however, getting those
three cars into production has not been the idealistic
and simplistic process that young would-be designers
dream of. As well as determination and belief in his
ability to wield a pen creatively, it’s clear that Ian has
also needed to be a diplomat, negotiator, manager,
and possess excellent presentation abilities to see
his visions through to production. He’s also needed
to be quite a strategist.
For those that think concept cars are a waste
of time, think again.