After a mere twenty years, Ian Callum has decided to clock in the last time at the Coventry-based business. During his time with the Big Cat from the British Midlands, he was credited with having moved the company’s design philosophy into the modern age and helping the marque to become one of the world’s most admired brands.
Callum once described the job of designing Jaguars as his lifelong dream and was particularly proud of the Jaguar XF, which represented the beginning of a new era for Jaguar in 2006 and also was the first car that really bore the Callum design stamp. Critics would universally agree that it marked the turning point for the company.
Although famous for its 1960’s E-Type and of course the MK2 Saloon, the marque had very much lost its way by 2006, when it launched the X-Type Saloon; it was basically a slightly improved Ford Mondeo, having been built on the same platform.
Until India’s Tata came in and bought Jaguar from Ford, it did look like it was all over for the Big Cat from Coventry. With the financial clout of Tata breathing new life into the company, Callum got on with the launch of the XF.
Here’s a video of him from 2015 explaining the design of the XF:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9JWHqOPyj0
But Jaguar has always been as much about sports cars and with the launch of the F-Type Callum marked the return to two-seater motoring, something that Ford seems to have forgotten about.
There were other milestones in Callum’s career, not least of which were the introduction of the company’s first SUVs, the F-Pace and E-Pace, and the first all-electric cat going by the name of the I-Pace. At present, it is not known if Mr Callum will be going on to greener pastures or just going out to pasture, but it is highly likely we have not seen the last of the man that really did save Jaguar from the scrap heap—well, at least in terms of design.
