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Hello and welcome to the BCU Alumni Podcast. I'm Bethan from BCU’s Alumni Team and in each episode
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we welcome a different member of our alumni community back onto campus, to chat all about what they've been up to since they graduated from BCU.
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Today we're joined by Patrick le Quement. Hello. Born in France, Patrick came to school in the UK when he was just 11 years old.
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He soon decided that he wanted to become a designer and he arrived in Birmingham in 1962 to study industrial design
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at the Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts. One of the colleges which ultimately became BCU.
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After graduating in 1966, Patrick was keen to become a designer for a top automotive company, as he had already grown incredibly passionate about cars.
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He secured himself a role at Simca, which was later bought by US based Chrysler as an automobile designer.
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Patrick soon moved to Ford, where he worked for 17 years for both Ford of Britain and Ford Germany.
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Working his way up the ladder to become Head of Design in Germany. At Ford, Patrick was responsible for the designs of the likes
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of the Ford Cargo and the Ford Sierra, which is a vehicle that had a significant influence on the automobile industry.
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The alumnus joined the Volkswagen Audi Group in 1985, two years before he was given the opportunity to take charge of design at Renault.
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He arrived as the Vice President of Design, but eventually worked his way up to become the Senior Vice President.
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Patrick's first major project at Renault was the Twingo. This year marks 30 years since the Renault Twingo was launched
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in continental European markets and it is now in its third generation. It is a four seater city car that was designed
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under the direction of Patrick, who took an unusual approach and added a front end layout to the car that resembled a smile.
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As well as the Twingo Patrick spearheaded Renaults' campaign to build the image of innovation and quality that it still enjoys today,
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leading on the designs of the likes of the Scenic, Espace, Spider, Kangoo, Laguna, Avantime, Megane and even zero emission vehicles
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Twizy and Zoe, as well as the low cost Dacia range. From his time at Ford to Renault, and everything in between,
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Patrick has now been responsible for an incredible 60 million cars in his career, and he has won several major industry awards.
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Since leaving Renault in 2009 Patrick has also designed over 30 luxury yachts
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as well as co-founding Besign, the Sustainable Design School in France. In this episode will be exploring more about Patrick’s career,
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how he has made his mark in his chosen industries, and how he's become one of the leading designers in history.
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Patrick, thanks so much for coming into the studio today. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
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So what's it like to be back at BCU, and when was the last time you were in Birmingham? Gracious me. Well, it feels terrific.
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A bit of a journey in nostalgia, of course. And with regards to my last trip to Birmingham, that's in fact, 26
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years ago, where I came on a flying visit to
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to be awarded a doctor Honoris Causa. So I haven't come back since.
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So it's just wonderful to be back. So you studied here in Birmingham in the 1960s then.
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So what was it like to be a student in Birmingham at that time?
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Well, I think I was extremely fortunate to have come to Birmingham,
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but to have been in England at that time as well, because design education in France was nowhere near as good as
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the one in Britain. When it came to fine arts or perhaps textiles and so on for sure, or fashion, let's say.
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But product design, industrial design, no, this was the place to come.
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And so, yeah, I feel that I made the right choice.
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So over 60 million cars. That's obviously nothing short of remarkable.
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What was it about cars that made you want to work in the auto industry in the first place?
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Well, I was a kid, as a kid you know, I was I loved cars.
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And when we drove with my family,
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my father had a very large car and we sat in the car. There weren't that many cars on the road.
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And each of the member of the family was given a brand. And I, being the youngest, I was privileged and I was given the name,
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I was given Renault. So I would win on every journey. And I became, absolutely fell in love with Renault and fell in love
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with cars, basically, and remained so for many, many years,
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even though perhaps not so today. But yes, it's been a long, long love love affair with motor cars.
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I suppose, because motor cars in those days represented a symbol of freedom.
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The notion of going from point to point, going from a specific place to another.
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And that's it was also an industrial product where the designer could play a major role in
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in shaping it in to give it a certain character
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So after completing your studies, then, you worked for Simca before getting a job at Ford. So what was it like working for Ford?
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You were obviously there for 17 years, so you must have made a significant contribution?
5:42
I worked indeed, a long time. 17 years began in Great Britain.
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Then moved a few years later to Germany, back to Britain, back to Germany.
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Then I, I made a last period in the United States. The I just went up the ladder basically.
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It was a highly competitive environment and
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interestingly enough, I met one of my former student friend
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in Ford named Trevor Creed, who later became vice president of Chrysler Design and retired.
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It was, as I said, highly competitive. And when I joined Ford,
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I was looked upon as being a kind of an advanced designer.
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I didn't never seem to actually win anything, really.
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But people thought, well, this guy is a bit way off. I mean, he's he's doing stuff which maybe in ten years time or 15 years.
6:54
Mm hmm. But I was very lucky that I. I had for a chief designer a German called Uwe Bahnsen,
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bit of a legend, who loved to talk. And we talked to each other.
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And that one spot, I mean, I think a couple of years or maybe even less than that, he offered me to continue my study.
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And so I, I worked and also studied at what is today called Anglia Ruskin.
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And I did an MBA and it was all very much falling in line with my wish
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that design should be recognised and not be just, you know, little artists,
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but that we should be looked upon as managers, people who thought and not just
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came up with nice pictures or to illustrate the marketing positioning.
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So these had very, very formative years in Britain. I went on to
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to Germany with a promotion and stayed there a few years, worked on quite a few cars
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like the Granada and Taunus and so on.
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And I was appointed for a very much senior
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job in Britain, where I became an executive designer in charge of vans and trucks.
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And this is where I had this wonderful experience of working on a truck called the Ford Cargo.
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And I think the Ford Cargo is a there is a parallel between the Ford Cargo and later at Renault with the Twingo.
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In both cases, I had it had to do with a boss who was brand new to the world of product development.
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Knew, had no experience with design. And when we presented this
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very modern design, he just thought it was quite normal and he felt a bit, you know, as if you
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he was a bit surprised and startled to a certain extent. But basically our design intent was respected and we came up with a truck,
9:02
which not only was Truck of the year, but also was manufactured for 40 years.
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You know, and I have really this is in my mind,
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one of the two vehicles that I would put in my list of the vehicles that I'm proud of.
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Yeah. So then I moved on to Germany, remaining an executive designer, sort of number two, Ford Germany involved
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and very closely to the to the Sierra, which was which was really a program
9:37
which was a bit of a revolution in the automobile world. And and
9:45
that the vehicle I had a bit of a tough time when it arrived in Britain because British buyers
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were maybe a little more conservative since the car it was replacing was the Cortina, which was a
10:00
very, very conservative, nicely designed vehicle and that the Sierra just didn't correspond
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exactly to to what they they liked. I mean, they got used to it and it turns out the Sierra was,
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was a highly successful vehicle. Anyway, I, I got a promotion. I was then put in charge of the design center
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in, in Germany and earmarked to become the next vice president.
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And I was sent to the US, didn't like what I saw and
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and decided to yeah. To to to actually hand in my resignation and then I moved out.
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But in any case I learned enormous amount in Ford. So I have lots of very fond memories at that time.
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So I think I had the opportunity of a lifetime Renault then. Can you talk me through how that came about and why you were the perfect fit for them?
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First of all, because I love Renaults and I have to say I applied 11 times,
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sometimes not receiving an answer and so on, so forth. And it so happened that within Renault, the design organization
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was called Styling at the time, and the head of the styling organization
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had a health problem and he asked for an early retirement.
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And so they wanted to appoint an engineer.
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The fellow appeared to be a good candidate because he dressed funny and
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and he could draw caricature. And I think his father was a gallery owner. So all of that is just absolutely perfect to replace a designer.
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But the directors of the styling department refused. They said, No, we can't accept that.
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We accept that none of us are good enough to become the next head. But no, we will not accept an engineer becomes our head.
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Why don't you go and get a real professional like Patrick, like him? And this is how
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you know I was. I was contacted. I had an interview with the president
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of the of the company in his home because of, you know, the fact of being recognized and so on.
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Yeah. And I rang the bell and I went upstairs and I arrived in this very bourgeois like interior.
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And this this man asked me to come and sit. And he said, Oh, I know nothing about design.
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He said, Well, no, yes, I do know something about design. I went to a fair in Paris last year and I bought I bought a toilet brush
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and they told me it was very design and and there was a smile on his face. You know, the guy had a fantastic sense of humor.
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But anyway, I left his office. I think, you know, one must remember that Renault was close to bankruptcy.
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Okay? And I didn't actually negotiate my my salary. That was that was not my thing. But
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basically I left and he asked me if he wanted to hire me and he wanted to he gave me carte blanche to total free
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hand to do what I would I wanted to do with the design department, but make sure that I get back innovation into Renault,
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which had been producing very highly conservative vehicles.
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And I said the one of the first thing that I would like and that's the only condition that I will basically impose
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is I do not want this new organization, which I intend to call design to answer to engineering.
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It has to answer to the product development group. At the same level as in gang or or product planning.
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And he said, Fine, we've got a deal. And so that's how I joined
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Renault under excellent conditions with a cut in my salary of 40%, which they made up within two years.
14:08
So yeah, that was just perfect. So your first major project to Renault was of course
14:14
the Twingo, now celebrating its 30th birthday. You stonewalled into many issues whilst designing the Twingo.
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So can you tell me about them and how it could have been a totally different car?
14:28
Yes. In fact, before leaving, the former head of the styling activity gave me two keys
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and he said, okay, this is the these are the keys of the models which are shut up in garages somewhere in western of Paris, in the suburbs.
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And it's a program that you might really be interesting to to to look at.
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And so as soon as he left, you know, I'd been in the in the company maybe less than than a month.
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I had these two models brought back to to the design center
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and they opened the boxes and I saw these two models. One didn't interest me too much,
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but it was this funny little car, which I thought was very interesting because it was a one box design
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by one box it means one silhouette, not, you know, a broken windshield. And then the hood,
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it was smallish, probably too small to almost close to one of these city cars.
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So these fancy cars that they have in France, which people at 16 can drive all, you know, young 16,
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but they don't have a license and they're bloody dangerous, too. But
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and it had a not a very nice front end, really,
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really a sad sad but but also a grumpy.
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Yeah. A grumpy look and I organised a meeting with the president
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and I had no I had I knew that this car had been got rid of
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or stopped because it wasn't making any money. And, and I said, yes,
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but you know, you've given me this assignment of innovation and this car really has enormous
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potential for me, represents the the DNA of the company.
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And he agreed to give me a small group of engineers and we reworked the package, made it just just a little bit bigger
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so that it could become of a size that people would use it even to go on motorways and go away on a vacation.
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And I set the team to, you know, to improve the car and of course, to try to find a front end,
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because the front end was just really the poorest part of the car. And as time went by, there was no answer.
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I just couldn't get something that I was happy with. And what I wanted to do was to get a car which
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was happy, you know. I called it well after after the drawing that I'm going to talk about
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now, ‘la voiture du bonheur’ the car of happiness, and time was going
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by, you know, and we were coming close to this presentation. And then finally I did something which I never did.
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Namely, I did myself a sketch, you know, to just to convey the idea gave it to the director of exterior design after the car.
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And it was very simple sketch of front end of the car and, and the car had a smile
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and inside was a fellow driving it also with a huge smile. I said, This is what we've got to do.
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It's got to have eyes and you've got to you've got to be able to recognise. It's got to be almost have a human feeling, you know, And
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and we immediately worked on that, you know, very quickly. And
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then came the day of the presentation. And I recall there was, first of all, the economic you know,
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the meeting on the economics of the car. And basically they had made huge improvements, but the car was still not satisfactory
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for a company that was in dire straits, you know, So
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they said, well, yeah, maybe we just go and have a look at the car. So we went down the stairs to the showroom.
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It was covered, had the car uncovered, and the car
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smiled at the president and the president smiled at the car. And, you know, you must remember I was just brand new in the company
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in that company, people who, you know, some of them had been there 30 years or whatever.
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And I said to the president, this is not this is not a car. You know, it's like a pet.
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And in fact, when you go when you drive it home, if it's very cold outside, you don't leave it outside,
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you don't park it outside. You put it under your arm and you take it upstairs and put it in front of the chimney.
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And the president understood my humour and so on, so forth,
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Yeah. But the rest of the of the directors, you know, they thought this guy is mad
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and we soon are going to see blood all over the place.
19:30
But it didn't happen. So president says, well, you've really got to make efforts on this.
19:36
This is not from a financial standpoint and then we'll do the market research.
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Okay. So here goes all the work is done and then the time comes to
19:49
to do the market research, and market research, just like in Ford was
19:55
David Ogilvy had a very good expression. He said that market or companies use market research
20:02
like a drunkard uses a lamppost, more for support rather than illumination.
20:07
Anyway, the results were presented. The president wasn't there, but it was just all the senior members
20:14
outside of the president and maybe the executive committee. And the result was that 25% people just loved the car.
20:23
You know, the people had seen the models and they saw our model and they just loved it. But the it wasn't just appreciate.
20:30
They didn't just appreciate. They loved the car. 25% said, yes,
20:37
we like it, but we wouldn't like to be the first on the block to drive. Yeah. And 50% hated the car.
20:44
I mean actually loathe the car and said this is not a car. It's not serious. It's you know, it's a caricature.
20:51
It's been designed by Walt Disney and so on, so forth. And an enormous amount of pressure
20:58
put on me to change the car, to change the front end, to wipe off the smile and then just give it a serious
21:04
look, you know, And there was no one who actually defended that.
21:11
You know, everybody agreed that I had to change the car. I went on a long, it was a long weekend.
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And I went to the south of France and I was thinking about this. This was before, you know, emails existed.
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And when I came back, I sent a small note to the president and I wrote
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and this was already taking a risk because he was not my boss. I had somebody in between, but I sent a note and saying
21:42
the biggest risk for the company is not to take any risk. And I ask you to choose between instinctive design and extinctive marketing.
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And he wrote back on the note, I completely agree with you, mon cher directeur my dear director, let's go.
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And that's how the car was approved. But of course, today, you know, when you when history is told, including in books,
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and they never tell that part or they try not to, except that the president
22:12
Raymond Lévy, in the preface of the book, he told the story. And so now, you know, if you go on Internet
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and you put instinctive design versus extinctive, then you'll find the story.
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So that's the story of the Twingo. So what do you make of the auto industry now then?
22:31
And do you think more creativity is needed in the cars of today? I don't feel at ease
22:39
with the automobile industry today. I, I think first of all, I, I did have a
22:50
just before the year 2000, I really had serious doubts
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about what I had done. You know, you made reference to 60 million cars, but, you know, just to make it graphically
23:05
more visible, were you to put these 60 million bumper to bumper, no space,
23:11
just bumper to bumper, they would go down 6438 times around the world.
23:18
Okay. That's one hell of a traffic jam. And of course, I became more and more conscious of
23:29
the planet. Yeah. And all that is related to
23:34
just saving ourselves, you know, from from the woes that is, that we are facing.
23:40
Um, I feel the automobile industry today. I understand they’re moving towards,
23:47
you know, electric vehicles fair enough, except that the making of electricity is, is made,
23:55
you know, the electricity made comes from charcoal burning
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central, whatever is called. And I find also
24:07
that there is a lack of imagination and we are surrounded
24:13
with SUVs, which I refer to, as such uninteresting vehicles, and they all look very much alike.
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And I, I don't see much of identity
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and I don't see much change happening. And I fear that
24:35
in the automobile industry, the design world is not present enough that we've reverted back to just styling, basically.
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But I don't see a sort of a politically committed or politically not in the sense of the, you know, the party, but engaged
24:54
world on the side of design. You know, it's as if we're just accepting, designers are just accepting the message given to them and just,
25:03
you know, no, I don't want any arguments. Just do it, you know, And they come up basically with very similar stuff.
25:09
The world over. Yeah, right. So in recent years then you've been designing yachts,
25:15
so can you tell me more about how that opportunity came about and what you've achieved in this new step in your career?
25:21
Well, I learned to get back into drawing just before I left Renault
25:29
because I participated in a in an article which asked for us to have designers or senior designers
25:37
to come up with a drawing. And in that it should be something that we consider to be iconic.
25:44
I chose a laguiole knife, which is something very traditional,
25:49
even though it was revisited by Phillip Stark, and I did a
25:55
rather nice drawing and I felt that, you know, getting back into drawing seriously, I mean, of course I continue to draw, but seriously
26:04
was like, you know, getting back on a bike, basically. And I did this nice drawing and it was just fluke,
26:11
you know, because the next drawing I did was just awful. And the one after that was even worse. So basically it just tells you that you never get a free lunch.
26:19
It you really have to work very hard. I got back into drawing and then I was contacted by a company,
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a big group, who contacted me for a quality oriented
26:32
project because in Renault I was also for four years the corporate quality man, and they asked me to,
26:41
they made boats and could I help them to improve the perceived quality of their group.
26:47
So I got involved, established processes, they accepted all those. And then at one point, one of the bosses said,
26:56
How would you like to, you know, design a boat for us? I said a boat? but I've never designed boats.
27:02
I mean, I know nothing about boats. He said, Oh, don't worry, you'll be working with a a really good team.
27:08
Yeah, you know, give it a try. So I worked on this very first boat, which was the
27:13
Outremer 5X, which is a catamaran sailing boat. Okay. I’m into sailing boats,
27:20
even though I'm not a sailor, you know, but okay. And the first boat did very well. It was
27:26
voted the elected European Boat of the Year and Multihull of the year and in the United States.
27:35
And then, you know, then there was another and then another and now sort of I’ve got to, as you said in the introduction, 33 boats.
27:41
and I’ve got right now, this very day, this day, uh, two boats being launched at the Cannes Yachting Festival.
27:50
So I got into the yacht by absolute pure accident. And what I did know is that when I left Renault,
27:59
I banned the word, I’ll say it softly retirement, okay? And I just didn't want to
28:08
I mean, I, I just didn't want to just go cycling or learn something new or what I wanted to do
28:15
is start as an apprentice into a something I knew nothing about. I didn't want to be a trophy designer, so I just
28:24
wanted to start at something right at the bottom. Well I didn't really, but
28:30
I had to learn everything. And then yeah. And so now I've been, you know, working about 12, 13 years in this in this business.
28:39
And I just just love it, you know? I'm just so happy to to be
28:46
so busy. Really busy. So you've also co-founded
28:51
your own design school, so what inspired you to set it up? And also what do the students at the school get out of it?
28:59
Yes, I think it's very much based on what I was saying about feeling
29:05
starting to feel ill at ease about that I had been a product, or participated as a productivist, you know,
29:15
producing, mass producing vehicles without having this concern about natural resources,
29:25
about about the environment and so on, so forth. And it so happened that I met up with a couple of people
29:34
who felt very much in the same way. One was already the head of a very large
29:42
French design school called Strat College, and the other was a very famous,
29:47
very, very world famous naval architect. So the first one was called Maurille Lariviere and the second Marc Van Peteghem.
29:56
And we had discussions for a couple of years and we elected to
30:02
create a school, an international school on the French Riviera, because it's much nicer than, you know,
30:09
close to the Belgian frontier, nothing against Belgium, but, you know, the weather is a little bit nicer and
30:15
and it's unusual in the sense that it's in English, the tuition is in English and it's totally international.
30:23
So we have 29 nationalities in the school and
30:30
we base our teaching on the United Nations, recognition of the points
30:38
associated with sustainability. It's in the brief and we have a lot of students
30:49
who will come to our school maybe to do the Masters, or maybe they will go to Licentiate and then move to another school.
30:59
It's clearly very much oriented towards sustainability
31:04
and we're very involved with with industry, with institutions.
31:11
We have a continuously projects, you know, with companies, various companies or, you know, hospitals or many, many different things.
31:21
And yeah, it's, it's something which we really felt we wanted to do and that we had to do.
31:30
And I felt as a, as an individual that it was a bit of a small payback, you know.
31:38
So yeah, I'm very happy to have participated in that. And it's, it's,
31:43
it will celebrate its 10th anniversary in October.
31:48
So you've been selected as one of our industry icons at this year's alumni festival.
31:54
So what does that mean to you? Well, it's a big word, you know, and
32:03
well, I'm not sure how I can answer that. You know, of course, I'm very proud to know. But,
32:10
um, I think more so, I'm, I'm, I'm proud that it actually comes from BCU, you know, because
32:19
basically I'm ever thankful for the education I had here.
32:25
I feel it's far better than what other people were getting in other universities at the time
32:33
taking, not taking anything away from, you know, the RCA where I was.
32:38
I also taught at one time. But I think as a as a course in what was in my days
32:45
called product design engineering, it was really one of the very, very best. And I can I can say that I learned all the fundamentals here.
32:54
It was a damn good experience human wise as well.
33:00
And so I can't think of a better place to receive such an honour as being called an icon of industry.
33:08
But yeah, I can't say any more than that. And final question then, if you could go back to your very
33:15
first day here at BCU, what is the one piece of advice you would give yourself?
33:24
I think it's opening out, keeping your eyes open. It's very much a message that
33:32
I've tried to transmit to all the designers that I've worked with. I've hired hundreds of designers in my time
33:41
and to all the young designers that I'm, or students,
33:46
and I ask them to keep their eyes open. And the worst thing
33:53
is to become a specialist in one field. And I think designers need to have a broad culture,
34:02
they need to travel, they need to work with
34:07
people from various nationalities. And there is a saying from Enzo Ferrari, the, you know, the
34:14
founder of the Ferrari Motorcars, who said that teamwork has replaced the solitary genius.
34:23
And I think this this is probably the key factor, this notion of working with people.
34:29
And I'm delighted to continue to work in that way with even today, you know, I work with
34:37
with groups of people and with people coming from various countries.
34:43
So, yes, that would be my advice. Thank you so much for popping by today Patrick and coming on to the podcast.
34:49
Hopefully we'll see you again very soon. Thank you.
