Le Car Design Talks: Bentley Design Chief Robin PagE On What Makes a Car Cutting Edge
Robin Page has a long history with the Bentley brand that shapes his present role as Design Director. Page is charged with defining Bentley’s design language for the future, while preserving its elegant past. Page first started with Bentley in 1995 and later led interior design for Bentley on landmark cars including the Bentley GT and Queen Elizabeth’s state limousine. Page left Bentley in 2013 and spent the next decade at Volvo. He returned to Bentley two years ago. His most recent public work is evident in the massive Bentley EXP-15 design concept unveiled this summer, inspired by one of its most gorgeous, historic vehicles, “Blue Train,” a 1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting Sportsman coupe. The concept was on view at Monterey Car Week. We spoke with Page at one of car week’s marquee events, “The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering,” where a handsome collection of Bentleys debuted for the US market — including the Continental GT, Continental GTC, the Flying Spur Azure, and the Bentayga Speed.
It’s interesting to be involved in something and then come back. What has remained the same and what has changed?
What's remained the same is the team spirit at Bentley, that kind of family feel. Half the site has remained the same, but the rest of the site is super modernized. It's twice the size, which was nice to see because it was a huge investment from the company too. We've moved from the temporary studio we were in into a brand-new design studio, which was the original HQ building. That's one big symbol of investment into design into the future. Bentley is very good at looking after what they've got in terms of traditional buildings and modernizing. That goes for the projects as well. We're very good at looking after our DNA and our heritage, but doing something modern as well as we go forward.
The evolution of what has happened in design in that time is astonishing. What a car designer is has changed. How do you think about the future as we're moving into a whole new era?
When you come to events like this, you really understand that customers love craftsmanship, detailing, the stories behind the cars, and the stories behind the people that make the cars. That's super important. We’ve integrated it with modern technology, but doing it in a beautiful way. Bentley can stand alone in terms of how we integrate things extremely well, rather than put it on an iPad in the interior. We actually look after things, craft them properly, and present them well.
Can you talk about what that working relationship is like between departments? It was more siloed before, right?
It's always been a good relationship between engineering and design. What's changed is the recognition of the importance of design to the customers.
“We’re seeing light as almost the replacement for chrome.”
What are some of the features that you're most proud of, that you’re seeing evolve?
The delightful features, certainly the rotating screen is something our customers love. It rotates from just a clean material, to then three dials, then to the technology, so it’s that emotion of something happening. It’s not easy to do, if you talk to the quality team, it’s one of the big challenges.
In terms of going also into too much screen, it seems like there's a real intention to be become more holistic.
At the moment there's an overload of screen technology and we've got to be very careful that especially our cars are timeless as we go forward. Imagine being here (at Pebble Beach) in 20 years and there'll probably be a few cars where you think, oh my god, do you remember the big old screens? We're very conscious that we integrate them extremely well and we don't let them dominate the interior, but let the technology come to the surface.
When people think about an event like Monterey Car Wee and what will be a future collectible, is that something you consider in the process of making cars?
We have over 80% of our cars still on the road. You've got to be aware that it's not something that is chucked away in seven years' time. It's going to last the state of the time. Even now, the original GT still looks modern on the road, and you can always upgrade some of the technology. That's the beauty of the over-the-air updates is to keep things modernly updated and timeless in their design.
Walk me through where we are at now and from a design perspective, what electrification is going to be like.
Electrification at the end of the day is a technology of powertrain. We don't say okay now we start designing an electric car. It's still a Bentley it's just a different powertrain. Obviously, we've been talking about our first electric car coming relatively soon. But we've also got a strong plan to keep the (plug-in hybrid) V8 engines going, because our customers love those cars. Electrification gives you some opportunities, so you don't need the big air intake in front of the grille, but we want to keep it really graphic. You also have more space in the interior, more storage space which is good. At the end of the day, we're designing Bentley whether it's electric or not.
When I think about electrification the role of a car designer has changed. When you're putting together your team, how do you think about this shift?
It's massively changed. When I started, the department was actually called the styling department. It was almost the attitude of after its engineered you look after the key lines and the surfaces of the car, and let's also put an interior into it. That was where we were in 1995. Now, what we call it is holistic design, so it's not just the car. It’s interior, color, materials, but it's also the UX design and then we have beyond that to the holistic design. We're going into success by design, which means that every touch point to the customer, whether it's from an app all the way to maybe a residency in Miami, which we're building at the moment, there's a whole spectrum of design influences everything that goes on. That's an important part to the brand now, because customers expect that. They don't just expect a team to design a car, it's a brand experience. We've built up quite a big team now to support every activity that we do.
You touched on brand. Brand also comes more a part of design too then, because you have charging stations or home charging stations, or accessories.
We have a design principles and strategy for everything that we do. On some things we do work with professionals, for instance architecture, product design, or there's elements like the Bentley furniture, but it's a set in the vision the principle so everything then is realistic.
When you say Bentley furniture, do you feel like that ends up impacting the cabin space?
It's quite interesting because with the Bentley furniture we're playing a lot. You can be more playful with materials, but we also get influence from the furniture industry that then helps us be more creative as well. Every year we do a launch of the Bentley furniture at Salone and that's becoming a bigger event.
You mentioned materials. What are some of the materials that you're most excited about other than traditional woods?
We're looking at Fox Brothers, for instance, which is a wool blend, and is a historic brand that goes back 275 years. We're integrating that into our next cars. Of course we're look at sustainable materials, but they need to be beautiful and very valuable. We've been playing recently with things like acrylics. We put a material set within the material, so you have an acrylic casing and then a silk inside it with light coming through. It's using light as well with materials to give it that dimension. We've got some really cool things going on there.
Tell me about how you’re using light.
We're seeing light as almost the replacement for chrome. I mean, chrome work is a traditional bright ware, but light actually gives that movement and detail. We've substituted some of the detail work with crystal and light, which is interesting.
What about the human hand in design? Is there a role for that in your studio?
Absolutely. We’re still working full-size, but we also work digitally as well. It speeds up some of the processes, but at the end of the day, you need to see the car full-size, and you get that last-hand touch, because we're never getting it quite right with the computer. We need that last step in the process to really refine the surfaces and the human eye as well.