Frank’s Imaginative and prescient – Supercar Driver
10 min read
Legendary industrial designer Frank Stephenson talks about his historical past with the world’s prime automobile producers and his newer ventures in modern design.
Written by: Zheran Chen
Frank Stephenson has his imaginative and prescient. Together with his title to designs from the enduring New MINI to the thrilling McLaren P1, at 62, he’s nonetheless obsessed with design and interested in all issues pure. He has risen to develop into one of the crucial influential automotive designers over the previous three a long time.
Frank Stephenson sketches on a regular basis, it’s nearly a convention for him to choose up a ballpoint pen and let his creativity stream over any floor he can discover. Even throughout this interview, Frank sketches, it didn’t take lengthy for a clear sheet of paper to develop into one thing actually exceptional.
Frank lives in an attractive, quiet nation home in England and can also be the design director of a studio in London that bears his personal title. Some would say it’s nearly exhausting 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 all the things: futuristic eVTOL plane, modern 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 via the countryside, and even the surreal feeling of seeing a McLaren P1 for the primary time. In the present day, 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 large display screen. 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 automobile 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 gained the Junior Championship in Spain and started racing within the Nationwide Sequence.
However when he turned 22, his father instructed him to seek out one thing else to do for a residing. “It was unhappy to finish it, however my father had some extent. I used to be good however not profitable, there’s an enormous distinction between being good and profitable. I didn’t wish to be performed at 30, I wanted to seek out one thing else I used to be higher at”.
When Frank first heard concerning the Artwork Middle School of Design (ACCD) in Pasadena, California, he instantly determined it was the place he needed to go. “A college devoted to automotive design; I utilized with out hesitation”, Frank considers his school years to be probably the most memorable regardless of the each day pressures.
“I’ve misplaced observe of what number of nights I’ve stayed up, it’s simply so exhausting. You’ll at all times assume you’re gifted, however there are such a lot of gifted folks there, so I’ve a number of respect for my classmates.
I feel I discovered extra from my classmates than I did from my lecturers”.
Frank is just not 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 grew to become 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 Sequence was not sufficient for BMW’s ambitions. Since their acquisition of the Rover Group, the German big was contemplating an unprecedented enlargement with new additions akin 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 lately acquired Land Rover in six weeks. From the present standpoint, it’s nearly unimaginable.
“Time is just too brief, 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 time beyond regulation on weekends and the union gained’t enable that”, Frank mentioned, “So my design boss despatched us to Turin, the place there are a variety of studios who can flip design sketches into clay fashions in a really brief time and can work continuous day-after-day”.
With dedication, expertise and a few all-nighters, Frank bought the job performed. “It grew to become 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 actually pushed Frank to the head of design, alongside different legendary designers of all time. Recreating an icon is just not a simple job, such strain can be an excessive amount of for many individuals. However not for Frank. “Truthfully? I wasn’t careworn 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 seem like 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 automobile 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, primarily based 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 consider that Frank would rise via the ranks of the BMW Group, till issues modified in the future with a telephone name. It was from Italy, and the job was the Director of Design for Ferrari and Maserati.
“Ford and BMW are all high quality and dandy, however Ferrari is up there. Ferrari hires new design director, quits after two months, I don’t wish to be that man”, Frank mentioned. 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 grew to become one other prompt hit.
In 2008, McLaren discovered it more and more tough to run an F1 workforce, and with no highway automobile, they’d quickly not be capable of 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 when it comes to design, aesthetics and engineering.
Frank left McLaren in 2017 and arrange his personal Frank Stephenson Design studio in 2018.
Over time, this unbiased design firm has carved out reality-changing options with world-class dynamic expertise and shoppers from around the globe.
As with Frank’s earlier work, FSD’s design philosophy emphasises the usage of innovation via the fusion of artwork and science, utilizing the newest expertise whereas caring for the setting. With the assistance of digital actuality, autonomous driving and mobility, Frank Stephenson Design is shaping the longer term
of industries.
“I really 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 via 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 via quite a lot of merchandise to make folks dwell higher together with his design and new applied sciences, akin to Atmo, a climate forecasting supercomputer with a modern, 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 seems to be like an out of doors sculpture however has the flexibility to foretell the climate for 4 billion folks and 180 international locations, can function anyplace from -30°C to 45°C and doesn’t require a knowledge centre, or perhaps a roof, to supply forecasts.
Frank Stephenson Design is working exhausting to create a powerful model by providing an totally new expertise and absolutely the highest commonplace of merchandise. One in every of their newest initiatives is the BabyArk, the world’s most secure youngster automobile seat which depends on patented, state-of-the-art expertise which can probably save a whole bunch of youngsters’s lives around the globe.
“We achieved security for BabyArk seats primarily utilizing the expertise known as military-grade spiral expertise. That expertise permits us to soak up power in a approach that no different seat thus far has ever performed”, 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 type”.
Biomimicry stays the important thing to Frank Stephenson Design, capturing the knowledge of nature and staying related via innovation. “Biomimicry is my design philosophy and I at all times have nature in my thoughts after I design”, Frank mentioned, “Nature’s creations have gone via a whole bunch 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 among 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 bought 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 automobile design with canards and wings on the very entrance of the automobile”.
“It additionally has the magnificence and the stream of a manta ray”, Frank added, “Why not use that because the inspiration for the rear wing and rear fuselage construction? While 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 won’t be absent from Frank’s imaginative and prescient. Frank Stephenson Design is working with Praga Vehicles, a Czech automobile firm initially established in 1907, and manufacturing race vehicles since 2011.
Frank has lately sketched a by no means heard of hypercar from the yr 2030. “Will probably 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 power ought to the automobile use and the way will aerodynamics play its half? It’s all intriguing to unveil. It’s not science fiction, it’s actually occurring”, 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 also be planning to construct the Frank Stephenson Automobile Exploration Centre within the Metaverse. Watch this area!
Frank’s YouTube channel has gained over 200,000 subscribers since 2020 with over 12 million views. His design tales and design critiques are nicely acquired by completely different generations in varied international locations, and have been translated in numerous 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 approach of making designs which at all times endure the take a look at of time.
