An insight into Morgan's design future

​If Morgan’s chief designer Jon Wells had his artistic way, the venerable British brand’s future products would include a hot rod, motorcycle, tractor, aeroplane, 4x4, sailing junk and more...

Yet, as Wells explains, while such outlandish concepts are never likely to make it off the drawing board, they do represent the sports car company’s recent design renaissance and new-found open mindedness, which will be reflected in future vehicles of both the four and three-wheeled variety.

It all started with last year’s Mog Rod, a Morgan-based, V8-engined chop-top special Wells drew for the marque’s official publication Mog Mag. It was never meant to be a serious design study, but it proved a massive hit with social media fans – and so Wells went on to produce a whole stream of drawings of unlikely vehicles, all sporting Morgan’s unique design cues. The freethinking styling sketches were equally well received by marque lovers and management alike.

“Most of the designs were just fun,” says Wells, “and none of them will ever be built. But a few have a hint of serious content; a detail or a point of interest we might one day take forward.”

It all goes to prove how design conscious Morgan has become in recent years, putting well behind it the days of 10-year waiting lists, a limited range and growing slowly older with its customers. Now, Morgan has the capacity to meet the demand, and embraces new technology so that its cars appeal to young as well as old.

Wells explains that, far from being a constraint, Morgan’s century-old traditions “bring us freedom. Aesthetic design is still relatively new to us. It’s only about a decade since professional designers started to change the way the cars look. Now we’ve reached the stage where we can start to evolve the company”.

He cites the arrival of new management and marketing manpower as having brought much more clarity about the future of the Malvern-based brand. “We’ve proven we can do technology,” he says, “what with our electric powertrains, Superformed alloy panels and modern lightweight construction. But I don’t believe our cars should simply become modern. Our business model is based on nostalgia. The look of our cars in the past has been related to influences of the 1940s and ‘50s. As time passes, that will become the 1950s and ‘60s – and later – and then you’re into beautiful, clean forms with a lot more aerodynamic considerations.”

He continues: “However, we won’t be constrained by purist classic forms. Their job is to inspire, not dictate. We’ll walk the line between old and new, as we’ve started to do with the EV3 electric three-wheeler. I believe future Morgans have a wonderful opportunity to become beautiful as they move forward. They should be all about proportions and perfectly executed detail, and that’ll make them unique.”

He says his design team is currently working on a pair of “very exciting” stand-alone products that will put all these principles into practice. Could one be a large, low, classically styled fixed-head two-seater? The signs are subtle but undeniable…

Wells did work experience at Morgan and TVR while studying vehicle design at Huddersfield University, where he topped his degree course. He arrived at Morgan full time about a decade ago, working initially on such projects as the first Morgan pedal car, the production Aeromax and the Aero Supersports.

A styling ‘natural’ whose grandfather designed key electrical components for Concorde, he drew bicycles and motorbikes from a young age before falling in love with the car-design process, and particularly the way clay and computer modelling could make sense of sketched ideas. And today, creating actual vehicles is only part of his job, as he and his team also take care of Morgan brochures, letterheads, logos, show stands, car badges and whatever else needs designing.

It’s a versatility that can be found in staff across the board at Morgan. Wells explains: “So many of the people here are incredibly talented. It’s one of the reasons I love working here. I’ll have an idea for a dashboard or a piece of leatherwork, but it’s not until I’ve shown it to the guys who’ll actually make it that it comes to life. I’m not just saying this; they have as much design input as I do.”