Rolls-Royce Hires Jaguar Designer to Maintain its Winning Ways

Rolls-Royce, which has been winning design awards for its new Ghost, has hired Giles Taylor away from Jaguar.

It’s a major loss to Jaguar because Giles Taylor was a well-regarded design manager at Jaguar. He will become the director of exterior design at Rolls-Royce, which is owned by BMW.

While at Jaguar, Taylor was the designer in charge of the well-received redesigns of the XJ and the new XF. During his tenure at Jaguar, Taylor also oversaw the design of the iconic XK, a model that consistently defines the Jaguar brand.

Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group design, said, “Giles brings with him exceptional design skills and a comprehensive understanding of British values and heritage that are so crucial to Rolls-Royce. His appointment will further strengthen the extraordinary Rolls-Royce team headed by Ian Cameron.”

Of course, Rolls-Royce is now a German company. Jaguar is owned by the India company Tata and prior to that was owned by the All-American company Ford. However, Rolls-Royces are still built in England.

Rolls-Royce is coming off a record sales year. Sustained demand for Phantom and the additional momentum of the Ghost resulted in sales growth of more than 170 per cent over 2009.

Taylor leaving the Jaguar design team makes sense in light of Rolls-Royce winning the “red dot: best of the best” award for the Ghost. The red dot award is one of the most important awards in the world for product design. Previous winners include the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé, which was acknowledged for outstanding design quality in 2008.

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