Car Design Review 7: Hartmut Warkuss – Lifetime Achievement Award
By Car Design News2020-10-28T09:17:00
Hartmut Warkuss is awarded the Car Design Review Lifetime Achievement Award. In an exclusive interview, he talks about his career and offers some advice for the next generation of designers
Hartmut Warkuss might not be as high-profile as some of the more ‘showbiz’ late 20th Century car designers. But in an automotive career that started in the 1960s at Mercedes and Ford he went on to oversee the designs of seminal cars for Audi, VW and Bugatti from the start of the 1970s right through to the early 00s. During that time he also mentored numerous young designers that have gone on to have their own stellar careers as heads of design across various major global brands – including J Mays, Martin Smith and Thomas Ingenlath – and briefly became the VW Group’s first ever head of design in 2002. His combination of great designs, strong judgement and inspirational management is the reason he has been honoured with this year’s Car Design News Lifetime Achievement Award.