Martin Smith (Designer)

Martin Smith ( born 1949 in Sheffield, United Kingdom ) is a British car designer. He is currently an Executive Director design employed by Ford of Europe.

Work

After he had made at Liverpool University a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and then at the Royal College of Art in London, a master's degree in automotive design, he began in 1973 as a designer at Porsche AG.

Audi

In 1977 he moved to Audi, where he led the Advanced Design Studio in Munich in 1984. Here he designed, among other things together with J Mays the Audi Avus quattro. In 1991 he became head of the interior designs and among other things, the design of the interior of the Audi TT in charge.

Opel

In 1997 he moved to Opel, where he was responsible for the series of the compact class as a product designer, and among other things, the design of the Opel Speedster and the Opel Astra G designed. He then became the Executive Director of Design for the Opel and Vauxhall brands at General Motors Europe.

Ford

In 2004 he joined as chief designer for the European arm of Ford, where he also gradually in the entire European model range of Ford introduced the Kinetic design, first at several concept cars, from 2006, and thus replaced the somewhat dated New Edge design. Since 2006, Smith is not only responsible for the design, Ford of Europe, but also for Ford Asia Pacific and Africa.