Wolfgang
Kraftwagen König
News: Mark Fetherston, Mercedes-Benz exterior designer.
Still only 36, Mark Fetherston has designed some of the most respected cars in the current Mercedes range. His breakthrough was the ‘gull-winged' SLS supercar of 2009 and he's had a hand in most of the company's significant exterior projects since, from the 2011 Concept A-Class and 2012 Concept Style Coupe (and the production CLA that came after) to the 2013 Concept GLA that prefaced the GLA production car.
CDN: Do you have any advice to aspiring car designers?
MF: Be good at drawing. Everyone's got a Wacom tablet to sketch on the computer and traditional skills have got watered down to the point where – and I say this as I also teach at Pforzheim University – designers are coming up with very clinical work where the uniqueness of the artist is lost. I've never given up sketching by hand. I'll scan stuff in and work it up if it needs to become a rendering
CDN: Do you have any other ambitions outside of work?
MF: I had my first flying lesson last year and bloody loved it. My instructor told me to calm down and stop pulling stunts in the Cessna. I live next to Stuttgart airport but lessons are very expensive. One day I'd love to give it all up and fly a seaplane in Canada taking people from lake to lake.
Source: cardesignnews via fenoria
Still only 36, Mark Fetherston has designed some of the most respected cars in the current Mercedes range. His breakthrough was the ‘gull-winged' SLS supercar of 2009 and he's had a hand in most of the company's significant exterior projects since, from the 2011 Concept A-Class and 2012 Concept Style Coupe (and the production CLA that came after) to the 2013 Concept GLA that prefaced the GLA production car.
CDN: Do you have any advice to aspiring car designers?
MF: Be good at drawing. Everyone's got a Wacom tablet to sketch on the computer and traditional skills have got watered down to the point where – and I say this as I also teach at Pforzheim University – designers are coming up with very clinical work where the uniqueness of the artist is lost. I've never given up sketching by hand. I'll scan stuff in and work it up if it needs to become a rendering
CDN: Do you have any other ambitions outside of work?
MF: I had my first flying lesson last year and bloody loved it. My instructor told me to calm down and stop pulling stunts in the Cessna. I live next to Stuttgart airport but lessons are very expensive. One day I'd love to give it all up and fly a seaplane in Canada taking people from lake to lake.
Source: cardesignnews via fenoria
