Ian Callum modernized Jaguar design with eye on classic past

When Ian Callum arrived at Jaguar 20 years ago he joined a car company saddled with a traditional design and an outdated brand image. Callum's challenge was to modernize the look of the cars while still linking them to the classics of the past such as the E-Type sports car and Mark 2 sedan.

Callum retired from Jaguar this month, but one of his final appearances in his role as the brand's design director was in May at the Automotive News Europe Congress, where he explained that his legacy was managing to fuse Jaguar's past with its future in designs such as the full-electric I-Pace.

The problem was the XJ. Jaguar's flagship sedan was praised when it launched in 1968 but it was so successful that every subsequent model referenced the design right up until 2010.

"That, unfortunately, gave Jaguar the reputation of being a traditional car company, when in reality it is a very modern and innovative car company," Callum said.

Instead of repeated references to the XJ's quadruple round headlights, Callum defined Jaguar design as flowing lines, a sense of speed, elegance and exaggeration.

"Jaguar invented truly beautiful proportions probably before any other car company," he said.

Where in the past Jaguar beauty was typified by the E-Type's iconic, elongated hood, now it's represented by the I-Pace's short hood, cab-forward design. "It has all the values of a Jaguar. It has proportion, stance, beautiful lines, excitement, it has exaggeration," Callum said. Not least in its 22-inch wheels (he had wanted them to be 23 inches).

During his time overseeing Jaguar's studio, Callum was strongly against over-design, something that gave his cars a quieter presence compared with their German rivals.

"I often spend time taking lines off the car. When some young guy has spent a lot of time on a line, I say, 'That's a lovely line, but let's use it next time.' There are already enough lines on the car," he said. "Some cars on the road have so many lines you don't know where to look. The lines don't tell a story, they just say confusion."

One of Callum's greatest triumphs at Jaguar was also his biggest regret: the mid-engine C-X75 hybrid supercar that Jaguar developed but axed just before production was due to start in 2012.

"The one that got away!! My greatest sadness while at Jaguar," he tweeted recently. He described the C-X75 as "aesthetically the most exciting car we could possibly make" unshackled to any previous platform or model.

Callum initially shook up Jaguar styling with the successful first-generation XF that debuted in 2005 as a rival to the BMW 5 series. His reign also coincided with the brand's move into SUVs, first with the F-Pace then the smaller E-Pace.

He stayed faithful however to the sculptural properties of clay. He and his team created a clay model when they started designing the I-Pace to keep as a reference point.

"A clay model is very important," he told the Congress. "This is done by hand, by artists, by craftsman who create beautiful things for you to enjoy. Never forget that in your digital world."