COVENTRY University has celebrated 50 years of its Automotive and Transport Design course – which helped big names on the road to success.
It is one of the longest running Bachelor’s programmes at the university and has seen nearly 3,000 students pass its undergraduate and 500 from the masters.
Nick Hull, associate professor on the course, has curated exhibition ‘Coventry Connections’ to celebrate the success of the past five decades.
“There are automotive design centres all over the world which has meant that this course has always had a global reach.
“We couldn’t be prouder that many Coventry alumni now head up these studios across the world.
“The memories of the course – the students, graduates, staff and the buildings, the pubs and bars – are a powerful bond that connects those alumni together and provides a natural conversation when new recruits join a design team, whether it be in San Francisco, Shanghai or Stuttgart.”
Alumni’s of the course include: Gerry McGovern, JLR’s chief creative officer, and the firm’s former Director of Design, Ian Callum; Matthew Weaver who graduated in 1997 and is now the vice president design at Nissan Motor Corporation; Lisa Reeves, who is head of interior design at Volvo Cars in Sweden; Robin Page who graduated in 1995 and is now the design director for Bentley Cars; Klaus Busse who also graduated in 1995 and is now head of design at Maserati and Stellantis in Turin; Miles Nurnberger, the director of design for Aston Martin; and David Imai, Tesla’s director of design in California.
Alongside the exhibition Nick has co-written a book with another graduate Andy plumb, on the legacy of the course.
The public exhibition and will be open until June 28 in the School of Art & Design’s gallery in the new Delia Derbyshire Building.
