Jaguar sculpture by RCA design students is a minimal beauty

Fri, 24 May 2013

With its well-deserved reputation for high design, it is not particularly surprising to see Jaguar reaching outside of the automotive realm for future inspiration. To that end, the British automaker recently enlisted the talents of students at the Royal College of Art to create a piece of forward-looking, automotive-inspired sculpture.

The result of this project can be seen above; a sculpture created by RCA students Claire Miller and Ewan Gallimore, and unveiled to a small audience to kick off London's Clerkenwell Design Week. The spare and rather elegant form created by the talented pair absolutely harkens back to coupes from Jaguar's past as well as its present (read: F-Type) without aping any one model particularly.

In a press release, the artists had this to say about the work: "Our form relates to the Jaguar brand through its sculptural volumes, bespoke materials and visual lightness. These elements helped us to create a sculpture that aimed to display a seamless transition between interior and exterior space." Get a better look at the Jaguar artwork in the gallery above, or read through the press release, which follows.

JAGUAR-INSPIRED ARTWORK UNVEILED AT CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK

IN BRIEF

Stunning new art installation, inspired by Jaguar design, takes pride of place at Clerkenwell Design Week (21-23 May 2013)

Installation created by Royal College of Art (RCA) students in conjunction with Jaguar Advanced Design
Winning design chosen from nine exceptional entries submitted by RCA students to Jaguar Advanced Design

Producing the art installation pushed the students' creativity and introduced them to the complex processes involved in bringing ideas to life within a global design studio

IN DETAIL

(Whitley, Coventry, 21 May 2013) A stunning new art installation, inspired by Jaguar design and created by Royal College of Art students Ewan Gallimore and Claire Miller, was unveiled to an exclusive audience at the opening of the Clerkenwell Design Week, which runs in London from 21–23 May 2013.

The installation was created by RCA students in association with Jaguar's Advance Design team in Whitley, Coventry, using many of the technologies and facilities employed in the creation of Jaguar concept cars and production designs.

Jaguar, which is the primary sponsor of Clerkenwell Design Week, approached both the MA. Vehicle Design and MA. Textile Design Departments of the Royal College of Art with a brief to create a joint exterior and interior form study which expresses their vision of future Jaguar Design Language in either a sports or luxury context.

Teams comprised of students from both vehicle design and textile design backgrounds were asked to consider the proportions, surfacing, line interactions and aesthetic beauty when expressing their vision of Jaguar's future design language.

In the end, nine different teams each presented their outstanding proposals and after much deliberation on the part of the Jaguar Advance Design team, the submission of Ewan Gallimore and Claire Miller eventually emerged as the favourite.

According to Ewan and Claire, "Jaguar has a long history of ground-breaking design so we knew we needed to create something truly special to catch the eye of Jaguar Advanced Design Director, Julian Thomson. We began the project by looking at light, specifically the way the light falls within the space at Clerkenwell. We thought about how our form could accentuate this light and convey volume through its use of materials and our knowledge of how these materials react with one another.

"Our form relates to the Jaguar brand through its sculptural volumes, bespoke materials and visual lightness. These elements helped us to create a sculpture that aimed to display a seamless transition between interior and exterior space."

In addition to pushing their creative boundaries, the students were also able to experience the tight schedules and strict deadlines that are part of working in a global design studio. The students had just two weeks to conceive and present their design proposals and within three days of announcing the winning submission, Ewan and Claire were in the Jaguar Advanced Design studio meeting the design team, and discussing how best to proceed with the development of their installation before handing over to digital modeling in preparation for manufacture.

Julian Thomson, Jaguar Advanced Design Director said: "Jaguar enjoys a successful relationship with the Royal College of Art and several Jaguar Designers, including myself and Ian Callum, are RCA Alumni.

"This has been a fantastic opportunity to once again work with the best car design students in the world and challenge both ourselves and the students with a view on how expressive Jaguar design can become in the future."

By Seyth Miersma