Frank Stephenson: An Automotive Design Podcast

Most people have never heard the name Frank Stephenson. Most people have also walked past his work every day without knowing it. The MINI, the Ferrari F430, the Maserati MC12, the Fiat 500, the McLaren P1, all one person, across four decades at the top of the industry.

In this one-off episode, myself, Conor Rowe, and Conor Galligan dig into the career and design philosophy of one of the most influential automotive designers of our time. How do you redesign an icon without ruining it? What does biomimicry have to do with a hypercar? We get into all of it.

If you want to go deeper after listening, Frank has an active YouTube channel and features in the documentary Chasing Perfect, available on Amazon Prime.

Frank Stephenson

A Note on Making This

Frank was already someone I knew going in, but the MINI redesign is one of those things that the more you look at it, the more interesting it gets. Taking a car that's literally in MoMA and making it feel fresh without touching what people loved about it, that's a harder brief than it sounds.

We booked the recording room in the UL library for this one, which was a first. Having a proper episode guide meant we actually stayed on track for once. Enjoyed it a lot, definitely want to do more of these.