The man behind Jaguar’s new look on artist collaborations and daring to be different
“I’m not your typical car designer,” says Gerry McGovern, Jaguar’s artistic director. “I don’t collect cars. I collect art. I am much more interested in the concept of creativity, whether it is sculpture, portraiture or natural architecture. It’s art week in Miami, where the Design Miami and Art Basel fairs and their satellite activities merge into a dynamic total in the city. We spoke a day after he revealed Jaguar’s ambitious new identity in the Design District, of which he is to blame. Together with artists, musicians and friends of Jaguar, McGovern unveiled the manifestation of this new identity, the Type 00 concept car: one in “Miami Pink” and another in “London Blue. ” They embodied an intention: to stand out from the crowd and attract a new audience. “You have to start from the logo and from there the product emerges,” he continues. “For me, art influences everything, if it is necessary to be a luxury logo. ”
The unveiling was a big statement. The brand film had already been released a month ago in November, a 30-second visual ode to the cult of difference, youth and vibrancy. It encapsulated its new ethos to “copy nothing”, a nod to the words of its founder William Lyons that “a Jaguar should be a copy of nothing”. In his speech to launch the concept cars and the new philosophy of “exuberant modernism”, McGovern cited the works of David Bowie, Vivienne Westwood and the architect Richard Rogers, whose design for the Pompidou Centre was seen as controversial at the time, in light of the desire to be unique.
Miami had always been on the cards: a deliberate choice of location to launch. “I don’t want to turn up at motor shows. They’re boring,” says McGovern, frankly. “And where are our potential customers? Here. So that’s why we wanted to be here, to celebrate creativity.” McGovern plans that the cars, which will be sold from 2026, to be showcased in boutiques in Paris and London initially, rather than dealerships.
Color played a key role in the rebrand and grew out of McGovern’s love of artists like Bridget Riley, Jackson Pollock and Patrick Heron. “Jaguar is a birthday party of color,” he says. “It enriches you, it makes you feel alive. The automotive world is a bit positive. When it came time to design the concept car, I said, let’s go to Miami, then it will be Miami Pink. In fact, the area we’re talking about (a parking lot remodeled into a sort of gallery area) is saturated with hues that reflect the city’s Art Deco architecture. The car’s internal brass will also take on color as it ages. London Blue, for its part, is animated through the brand’s “Opalescent Silver Blue” models from the 1960s. “Some of those artistic influences, like James Turrell, are ingrained in me. There are so many artists who have influenced my visual sensibility and the iconography we have created here. Jaguar, in his prime, was very artistic.
To mark the moment, Jaguar collaborated with four well-known artists and cultural commentators (Campbell Addy, Yagamoto, Ibvia Njoya and Patience Harding) to create works that were featured at the launch. All the creators took the Jaguar codes and transmuted them into sculptures, films and installations. Yagamoto, the London-based director of the movement, created a film with Campbell Addy, animated by Jaguar’s new strike-out design. The resulting work, titled “Impermanence,” explores the concept of transformation, combining intimate moments with hardcore storytelling, beginning quietly before “awakening to rebirth through a series of movements,” on the tape with the sound of a beating heart.
“We were inspired by the understanding that nothing is fixed and everything is in constant flux,” says Yagamoto, who cast and choreographed the group of dancers within the work. “Our process, too, was ever-evolving; each moment presented an opportunity to begin anew. These narratives tell a tale of reinvention and self-discovery, urging us to move boldly toward the future.”
For McGovern, the artists add “bravery” to the conversation: “I love their courage. They are genuine characters, and they are exclusive in the same way that we seek to be exclusive. We told them: Jaguar is evolving. ” It’s not over yet. How would you interpret this in your discipline? They bring freshness to the story. To me, it’s a genuine artistic endeavor.
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