Summer Interlude - Drawing on the Past

Summer is here in the UK, during the day people smile more easily, toddlers laugh more, gardens are glorious and the evenings are beautifully balmy.

Relaxation is on many minds, for many the chance to escape through a foreign holiday, for others of more limited means perhaps a day out further afield or just having the opportunity to go to the local park.

Mental relaxation also necessitates avoiding digital screens to reduce stimuli, distraction and reactiveness. It means doing things from the 'centredness' of one's own being - mentally and physically - so as to feel at one with yourself; whether that be taking a walk, gardening, a sport or any other meaningful leisure activity.

Unfortunately, in today's world it seems that old fashioned drawing has become a lost art. Something that was a substantive past-time for yesteryear's 'middle-class', and much appreciated by portions of the self-improving 'working class' (such as the quintessentially naive efforts of 1930s Miners), has for the greater part been forgotten by many.

So although the 1960s brought us Comprehensive education and the possibility of Further Education for the masses - including the 'Art School' for much from Fine Art to Advertising - even that today appears lost to many of the most recent generation.

In what was possibly the last true liberal era, the 1995 song 'Common People' by Pulp provides a wonderful insight via reference to St Martin's College: the iconic destination that represented the hopes and dreams of thousands of aesthetically orientated teenagers looking for entry into a intellectually absorbing life.

It conveys the then still very obvious wealth gap between new cohorts of foreign students compared to the rafts of highly intelligent yet necessarily state assisted British students in a prestigious place of learning. That story repeated in extremis again today but across many British Universities,

(With it seems deplorable mismanagement of student accommodation schemes that have created over-capacity and hollow promises of high yield returns...both students and investors finding themselves let down by the worst of private sector operators; from 'jerry built' accommodation blocks to over-estimated returns).

Critically, whilst the Humanities subjects became extended and overtly exaggerated with uber-Liberal agendas, we have also seen the decline of simple Drawing skills, which has likely been detrimental to the self development of hundreds of thousands.

Since the very act of drawing requires observation and/or imagination...the best melding the two...such as seen by the semi-psychedelic Automotive rendering and Advertising art forms of the 1960s that helped depict the zeitgeist.

Although The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy reflects the remnants of that increasingly lost mid 20th century social perspective - of which often only a few items demonstrate truly great technical, interpretative or imaginary skills - it alone cannot recast the mentality and imagination of the nation. And whilst the likes of David Hockney and Grayson Perry offer different sides of artistic popularism, neither capture the best formative use of art for the layperson in their own life.

At the very beginning drawing should be play - as children do - to simply 'get a feel' for whichever medium used; whether pencil, cheap ball-point 'biro', or expensive draughting pen.

The very act inter-connects the the mental, the spiritual and the physical.

And whereas at the beginning the process is about replicating on paper an object in 'still life' - long before combined objects, people, animals or landscapes.....later that initial concentration on objects plus imagination leads to self-creation and with learning of the material world and technical improvement, the ability to increasingly self-create...to effectively design, and the more done design effectively.

The day Maurice and Spencer Wilks considered recasting the American Willys Jeep in a British mold, it was mythologically done by drawing a layout in the sand on an Anglesey beach.

The initial prototype built had central-steering, which although highly functional, ultimately (in the real world) was thought too unorthodox, given its novelty. This and all the rest now well documented in Land-Rover and British history.

In 1997, 50 Years on from 'Anglesey' Land-Rover was again - as a lower priority project - considering re-making the (only ever periodically and slowly updated) Defender in the modern idiom; for improved quality, reduced cost, manufacturing ease, etc, but was still beholden to its Meccano-like simplicity for maintenance, repair, adaptability and re-configurability.

And so new exploration at Gaydon Technical Centre began, from repeated Centre-Steer and new 4 wheel steer ideas in the Concept Studio (inspired by the radical Judge Dredd City Cab film vehicle and extreme 4WD competition buggies), to Advanced Engineering's Composite-Bodied proof of concept Mule, to the quick 10-minute sketch shown here by myself.

Created one weekend when in Business and Technical (ie Product) Strategy, exploring core principles and possible innovations; to strengthen the brand and grow new business streams.

This sketch with accompanying others of the time focused on the necessity of 'Intelligent Modularity' with easy-swap and plug-and-play parts for the plethora of customer types Defender sold to. And was as concerned for the 4th owner's ability to re-configure with Land Rover approved items, as the 1st owner's. So as to re-strengthen the heart and soul of the brand; as it was becoming somewhat diluted by more lifestyle orientated Discovery and Freelander.

Thus obviously contemporary considerations such as improved fuel efficiency through reduced CdA drag, reduced mass via mixed materials (steel, aluminium, composites), increasing cabin / shoulder width at B post (so full width body and no wheel arch 'eyebrows'),  better all round visibility (per original Range Rover and Discovery 1), the future-proof packaging for potential 48V for Hybrid drive and 'ETO' - Electrical Take Off) etc. And

And critically, the potential creation of a new aesthetic that had much design purity pertaining to form-follows-function 'Modernism' that was so vital to the original .
Rather than simply applying the Retro look that was simultaneously (and for target buyers and so profits rightly) being created by BMW for MINI;  and as would be later seen with Toyota's fashion led reborn  FJ.

Land Rover had had a Design Template that had been evolved to cover the marque, but Defender was a special case in its own right, from the honesty of construction seen in its rivets to the line and proportion ratios that defined its presence).

It was to finally be the vehicle it should have naturally evolved into, had Land Rover's  profits not been diverted into propping-up British Leyland in the 1970s, Austin-Rover in the 1980s and Rover Cars in the 1990s.

Any new Defender had to be of itself, something utterly honest and utterly practical  for true task orientated Defender owners (farmers to utility companies to Defence forces to Overland campers, Boat owners and even surfers) who needed and appreciated rationalist purity.

From a NAS90 successor at the leisure end (is true SUV - sports utility vehicle, not just a trendy acronym as seen elsewhere) to a capable mobile platform at the bespoke fitment 130 end (from MoD 'Pulse ' Ambulance to Cherry Picker to drop side workshop). An Everyman vehicle as at home on a snowbound Scottish hillfarm as an inland lake on Fraser Island, Australia.

(NB Though of course for some status-conscious 'Town-Trendies' Defender has latterly become the very pastiche and so cliche of the wholly style driven 'urban warrior', and so ironically in it's last gasps of production the very opposite of its original essence and archetype)

This sketch was one of three roughly considered for the '90' (shown here), the '110' and '130', notionally given the names Huey, Louie and Dewey. The names obviously drawn from the first production run 'HUE 166' mated to the brilliantly assistive robotic work-mate drones of the 1971 film 'Silent Running'; itself about Eco concerns, which the new vehicle also obviously had to satisfy.

The intent was to make the new vehicle as sympathetic as possible to nature, as the original had been to agriculture as the farmer's friend.

But as with so much in the Automotive world, it effectively stayed upon the 3M Post-It note upon which it was initially conceived.

To do the project justice would have absorbed a level of cost that was unfeasible , since company self funding and BMW's parental funding was being stretched across so many other more important immediate replacement and new pipeline programmes that had greater synergies and promised greater cash generation.

[NB Though 20 years later the idea of that 'Intelligent Modularity' with the 'MMM' nomenclature did underpin the general philosophical concept described in a previous extended web-log: for much needed creative public-investment thinking regards long-life-span Emergency Service Vehicles. Utilising alternative architectures and power-trains for a 'deconstruct / reconstruct' approach. So as to reduce and even-out the long-term annual expenditures from the public purse over a 50+ year timespan].

Those singular and combined efforts at Land Rover in 1997 are - in corporate terms - long forgotten; almost as much as David Bache's efforts in the 1970s that saw radical simplification of the then Series 2A with plastic 'Mehari' type styled outer skin.

But, as they say, "the past is another country".

But so much consideration and exploration into New Defender has gone on in so many sporadic bursts over the decades, that even from inside the Auto-Industry, let alone outside by Defender and 4x4 enthusiasts, an enormous amount of anticipation awaits the final reveal of New Defender.

And whilst its origins are not quite that of those simplistically drawn lines in the sand in Anglesey; it must like the original vehicle take its cue from its spiritual predecessor.

[NB There is a humorous irony here, in that New Defender is set to arrive 22 years on since those quick Post-It Note sketch drawings in which I used a euphemistic sign-off name-tag deploying the number 22.

Hence, I sincerely hope it takes its cues from the 'Intelligent Modularity' approach and the Huey, Lewey and Dewey metaphors and robotic 'personifications'].

However, ultimately the central point to be made here is that it is the very process of sketching and drawing - when done in the right relaxed mindset - that provides a type of spiritual flow for a person.

One that in turn allows that person to ultimately incorporate so many other forms of knowledge; from materials science to facets of sociology.

Thus, in a very over-simplified manner, we should see ourselves as apprenticeship devotees of Leonardo da Vinci. So gradually but powerfully enhancing one's own cognitive ability.

Its a basic but wonderfully 'complete' activity of morphed mind and hand.

Hence over the Summer, Britain could well do with more people picking up sticks and drawing creative lines in the sand.

All good and well to spend time and money in Marks and Spencers, since the high street, the broad retail sector and country's economy needs it.

But also be like Maurice and Spencer Wilks, who even as adults played in the sand, and dreamt of bigger things.

So if you do and have inspired thoughts, later that same day get those thoughts down on paper, in whatever rough and ready form, from a Post-It note to a napkin.

In 1947 the Wilks Brothers did more than create a vehicle, they were a component part of manufacturing a major contribution to British culture, that has been with us ever since. Itself reinterpreted to be re-manufactured as a modern icon today.

Drawing from the past is useful, especially when not done slavishly, but from original philosophical intent....

...But the ability to draw and create so as to exercise the mind for logical. deductive critical thought....is far more useful as a skill.

Pick-up a pencil or pen and start without worry or concern of social embarrassment...since the very process will solidify thoughts and put you eventually directly into the ethereal flow of self-creation.

For 50 weeks of the year the hard heads of investment need to be concerned with Corporate Revenues, EBITDAs, DCF, Growth Rates, Balance Sheets, P/E ratios, Enterprise Values, ROI,  etc since it certainly does not pay to follow the path of the starving artist.

But for the remaining 2 weeks find the heart and soul of the artist, craftsperson, designer and ultimately 'imagineer'.

Yes we live in the digital era, but Britain needs a combination mindsets to substantiate its Industrial and Services Strategy; and the more people who can encompass and unify the left-brain, right-brain mix - as 'Renaissance People' - the more secure the future of Britain.

So when on holiday...scribble away....it will bring a joyousness that little else can provide, as your thoughts materialise in front of you.