Tom Karen

Tom Karen (* in Vienna, Austria ) is a British designer of Czech origin. Karen designed both automobiles and consumer goods. From 1962 to 1999 Karen led the British studio Ogle Design. Among his most famous designs include the three-wheeled Bond Bug and the Reliant Scimitar GTE Shooting Brake, which he realized for Ogle and regarded as a trendsetter.

Life

Karen was born in Vienna. In the 1930s, his family lived in Brno, Czech Republic. After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Karen's family fled to Spain and Portugal to the UK and settled in 1942 in Bristol down.

Karen trained to become an aerospace engineer at Loughborough College and worked in the British aircraft industry. From 1955 he was employed by the British Ford plants. Here he won a design prize of the Institute of British Carriage to the Automobile Manufacturers of the styling concept Rascal. In 1959 he moved to Ogle Design and a year later to Philips. After David Ogle was killed in a car accident, Karen went back to 1962 Ogle Design, where he was Chief Designer and Managing Director. In the following years, Karen designed numerous vehicles for the British compact and sports car manufacturer Reliant. With the presented in 1967 Scimitar GTE Karen established the concept of the three-door sports estate ( in English usage: Shooting Brake ) in the market segment of the upper middle class. Many other European manufacturers picked up on this idea later on your own models. Karen's Scimitar GTE applies accordingly as a conceptual forerunner of the Volvo P1800 ES and the Lancia Beta HPE. About the company Reliant, which carried out numerous development contracts for the Turkish automotive manufacturer Otosan, some of Karen's designs arrived on the Turkish market.

Karen worked for Ogle to 2001. In February 2011, Karen's work has been cross-section like shown in an exhibition in Cambridge.

Work

Automobile

  • Anadol A1
  • Bond Bug
  • Ogle Sotheby Special
  • Reliant Kitten
  • Reliant Robin
  • Reliant Scimitar GT
  • Reliant Scimitar GTE

Commodities

Karen designed in its comprehensive five decades of professional activity radios, including the Bush TR130, the best-selling British radio der1960er - years, also toaster, washing machines and bicycles. His works also in Germany under the name Chopper became known Raleigh Chopper belongs.

Gallery: Tom Karen's works

Bond Bug

Reliant Robin

Reliant Scimitar SE4

Reliant Scimitar GTE SE5

Reliant Scimitar GTE SE6

Raleigh chopper

Raleigh Bicycle Company
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