Peter Stevens and Julian Thomson lead a discussion on the past, present and future of car design

As part of its sponsorship of London's Clerkenwell Design Week, Jaguar and the Royal College of Art brought together three generations of the design school to discuss the past, present and possible future of car design.

Held in a suitably grimy warehouse in east London – with the sculpture by RCA students Ewan Gallimore and Claire Mille's we showed you earlier this week sat outside – Professor Dale Harrow, dean of the School of Design and head of its Vehicle Design program introduced Professor Peter Stevens, Julian Thomson, Jaguar's advanced design director and Alexandra Palmowski project designer advanced colour and material at Jaguar took the audience through their careers.

Charismatic as ever, Peter Stevens kicked off proceedings that moved chronologically through the decades by explaining how he first became interested in "the art if car design, allied to the science of how they work" through his artistic parents and uncle – journalist and motoring adventurer – Denis Jenkinson during the 1950s and 60s.

The trio walked through the decades thus:

1970s
Stevens was the first student to graduate from the RCA's then-new Vehicle Design program. At the time the idea of being a professional car designer was in its infancy, and he was rather discouraged by his father to pursue it as a profession. It was the start of Peter's illustrious career during which Italian car design, through the carrozzeria, was at its peak. It was a clear influence on both Stevens and Julian Thomson, who was a young man doodling in the margins of his school exercise books.

1980s
The start of Stevens' illustrious career, designing predominantly British cars for the likes of Lotus. He also worked on the design of racing cars during the Group C Sportscar era, during which he was as much an aerodynamicist as a traditional ‘stylist'. He designed the iconic Parmalat liveries for the Brabham Formula 1 team amongst others.

Thomson was a student of Stevens' at the RCA during this period, which Julian described as "deeply conservative", illustrated by the similarities of mainstream cars such as the Ford Granada and Audi 100.

At the time only around six students from the RCA and 15 from CCS graduated, meaning all were guaranteed jobs, while now, as Julian points out, there are around 800 grads each year - far more than there are positions. Julian joined Peter at Lotus, where he was working on the M100 Elan and redesigned Esprit. One of Julian's first projects was the 1989 Isuzu 4200R concept was featured as Concept Car of the Week earlier in the year.

But, while the cars they designed were fascinating it's their stories of rudimentary, yet highly skilled presentation techniques, limited resources and lack of power within their companies.

Alexandra Palmowski was born in this decade.

1990s
Stevens' most celebrated work – the McLaren F1 – hails from this time. Meanwhile Thomson's career really took off with the Lotus Elise. However the industry was changing, with major manufacturers buying up smaller brands "and I wanted to be a part of that, rather than hanging around at Lotus another 11 years before I got the chance to design another car," says Thomson. And so he moved to the VW Group's Barcelona advanced studio, working across every brand. The Seat Formula concept of 1999 was one of his projects. "However, while Lotus was too small, VW was too big for me," he explains. So he moved to Ford, then owner of Jaguar, where he has stayed since.

2000s
While still consulting, Peter Stevens becomes the newly-independent MG/Rover as its design director, which he describes as "interesting". If you're ever in his company, his anecdotes from the period are both hilarious and rather depressing. Since the company folded he has worked on numerous projects as far afield as India, the US and Japan.

Thomson was also in disarray at what he found in the other Coventry-based company, Jaguar. "When I arrived, every designer had a moustache, they all wore suits in the studio and their latest creation was the X-Type. I can only imagine they knew something I didn't," he quips.

Today
As the auto industry's focus shifts towards emerging markets, "so when a brand enters a market, they can position themselves wherever they want [due to the lack of historical baggage. So companies such as Bentley can not only build an SUV, they have to." His other example was the Mercedes CLA, which illustrates how the German brands are plugging every single niche "the big three Germans are extremely strong, and extremely competent, but, in a search for identity, they are doing some pretty strange things." However he identifies Korea and, increasingly, China as the great design powers.

As a Textile Design graduate of the RCA, Alexandra Palmowski was spotted by Jaguar as part of a previous project between it and the college and she represents the extreme breadth and depth of in-house design teams.

Future
Dale Harrow neatly sums up the future role of car designers in these testing times: "designers can really make a difference in a way that no other personal in a business can. Design is such an important aspect of the motor industry in terms of identity and brand that designers play such a fundamental role and the responsibility that goes with that is tremendous – you get it wrong and the result is a loss of jobs. Once designers were just ‘coloring in'; sent to a corner and told to play with their crayons, which shows how much the industry has developed."

Stevens concludes: "Julian and I are lucky in that we've worked for companies that really listen to their designers. A lot of major manufacturers in Europe still don't listen. If designers are any good at their job they will be much more in tune with the contemporary role [than the management]. If they don't listen they will fail."

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By Owen Ready