Rajesh Kutty is an MA Automotive Design from Coventry University (2004). He currently works with Bentley. He is involved in designing and modeling trains, aircrafts and cars. He has undergone Studiotools training at IED, Turin (Italy). At Coventry University he was the winner of ‘The best Model of the Show’, and runner up for ‘Best Concept Design’ at the Graduate show held at the British Transport Museum, Coventry in 2004.
Scroll down to know more from the designer himself,
1. What do you have to say regarding the present ‘retro-design trends’?
Rajesh: It has been mixed in their success story. BMW have done well to use the MINI brand with the new MINI and now have recreated the brand and may soon have estates and SUVs from the brand! The Fiat 500 is sure to turn out to be the next best success story yet.
2. What exactly do these ‘retro-styled’ cars seek to achieve?
Rajesh: They seek to echo back at cars of previous generations which were big during its time, and get it back to present day and age while making it fit with contemporary design language. The Fiat500, which has just been launched, is a very good example of this, and getting back the whole cult back along with the lifestyle it attracted.
3. How is the Benchmark Escort Mk-I Concept different from original Ford Escort?
Rajesh: In one line, they are 2 different eras.
4. Do you think there’s something you’re most proud of so far, one particular project that came off really well?
Rajesh: Fortunately for me there have been quite a few projects that have turned out really well in the end. But unfortunately some of the better ones have not been able to see the light of the day due to many reasons that may not necessarily be production feasibility alone. I’ve been happy with the diverse projects I have been fortunate to work on from a farm tractor to a Train for London Olympics 2012, an Eco Jet for Easy jet Airlines and cars.
5. At Coventry University you won ‘The best Model of the Show’, and runner up for ‘Best Concept Design’ at the Graduate show in 2004, how has this kind of recognition benefited your career?
Rajesh: It paved the way for an interview with MG, which was then taken over by the Chinese, and so I never ended up working for them. It also caught the eye of some cars magazines, to which I would supply with my articles and design sketches over the next couple of years. Not to mention the personal sense of pride in my work, a real booster.
6. What are some of the emerging trends that you see in automotive designing?
Rajesh: One that comes to mind is that of a corporate identity. That seems a high priority with the designer. It’s like making the form of the car as a brand identity. So that ‘a’ brand is distinguished from another, what with all cars lending design cues to each other!
7. What is innovation to you - design, technology or the creative processes itself?
Rajesh: In almost all cases it would be more than one of the above. Sometimes technology would pave way for an innovative idea other times it may be a novel idea that may or may not demand technology to fulfill its role. Yet other times during the design process, certain requirements either by the end user or the production engineer would mean taking an all-new route that could be innovative in itself.
8. What work are you seeing right now that’s blowing you away?
Rajesh: It is difficult to point a finger at any in the Car Design field. But I must confess when I saw the Citroen C mettise I was thoroughly impressed.
9. Where do you see yourself, after, let’s say, five years from now?
Rajesh: Simple answer is ‘Designing’. At the moment I am working at Bentley’s studios in Crewe and this should hopefully be a good spring board for the future.
10. Any words of wisdom, you’d like to give to our readers?
Rajesh: I can only mention this to people pursuing a career in car design, that it is a very competitive field, and one has to be well determined if one’s got to succeed in it, passion may not be the only thing required. But it’s fun.
11. Finally, we would like to have your thoughts on the Instablogs News Network and all its related sites. Which one is your favorite?
Rajesh: To be honest, I barely surf the Internet as much as I used to in the past, and with the information on it changing so fast I would not be in a position to opine on this one.
I’d like to conclude by thanking Rajesh for sparing out time for this wonderful interview and would like to wish him luck for all his future endeavors.
