What is a tough job in automobiles? We are not asking for the real thing. It is mental. It is the redesigning of a lovely car already paying a visit to the market and had got a huge fan base. This can be the most challenging task that design chiefs will ever face.
In the cases of the Ford Mustang, F-150, Chevrolet Corvette, or Jeep Wrangler, there practically nothing for designers to perform, keeping the fan base happy, And on the other hand, it may be a grieving thing if the design doesn’t change too much, or changes too much a rigorous job, and no one will stick around it.
The brands chief designer, Gerry McGovern admitted that it would never have been a stress free job for them to replace the design of the Land Rover Defender, after making the look similar to the first one. “the iconic status has been achieved by the vehicle, and it rules the hearts and minds of people,” rightly said by McGovern for the new Defender at Frankfurt Auto Show. He further added that the toughest job for his designers and engineers was to produce a valuable thing, a thing that could fit perfectly for today’s market. And it must have the essence of the previous one, more but no less. And finally, they got something to say like, the new Defender respects the old one, but isn’t harnessed by the previous one.
There have been successful spy shots, teaser photos, works of art, and guesses that give us ample clues to define the design of the car under the microscope since the last version had been discontinued. The Defender ancestors have been real icons of their time, like in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a tough terrain to built upon, and they did. Though the originals were never too comfortable, they got the unstoppable, durable, and reliable thing on them, and it worked perfectly for them.
The perfect and rudimentary design made all paths for the Defender to be an icon like the Volkswagen Beetle or the Mini Cooper. They had said that no new model would get as much as the classic, but now things seem different once worked upon. The vehicle styling, technology, comfort, capability had to pay off, and it did.
