Building legacies, not just cars
Mark Butler has always been passionate about designing cars and trucks. At age six, he sent his first sketch to a major automaker — a bold move that foreshadowed his successful career in the automotive industry. Today, Butler is Creative Director of Interior Design at Land Rover. He’s designed the interiors of some of the brand’s biggest sellers, always aiming to create harmonious, intuitive driving experiences. But perhaps none have been more personal than his most recent project.
“I used to have an old Land Rover Defender, and when my kids were young, they liked nothing more than climbing all over it,” Butler says. “When we decided to bring the Defender back, it was very important for us to stay true to the original spirit: strong and durable — something my kids could still climb all over if they wanted to.”
Historically, the Defender is Land Rover’s go-anywhere, do-anything workhorse, which earned a certain cachet among adventurers and explorers in its 68 years on the production line. In 2019, Land Rover felt the time was right to reintroduce a new, relevant Defender to the market, to the delight of many fans. The goal was to reinvent the iconic vehicle for the 21st century audience while staying true to its rugged spirit.
Once a design for the new Defender was selected, the team built a full-size exterior clay model — painted to give it a realistic look — to help further the creative development.
“When I joined Land Rover over 20 years ago, the internal design of the Defender was clean and simple, with no screen,” says Butler. “There has been a seismic shift toward digital, and that’s had an enormous effect on the way we design cars.”
For Butler, it was an exciting challenge offering a chance to reimagine the driver and occupants experience in the Defender using all the latest tools and technologies. Given the company’s design philosophy, that meant designing clean, harmonized interiors with durable and beautiful materials. It also meant building an entirely new user interface (UI) for the digital touch screen on the dash — one that would integrate naturally into the vehicle's interior.
For that, Butler looked to the expertise of his highly skilled design team, including Interface Design Manager Phil Higgs. Higgs joined Jaguar Land Rover in 2008, when the UX design team was just forming. In the years since, his team of designers have made the most of increasingly sophisticated screen technology for an enhanced customer experience.
“When the iPhone came out in 2007, it was a game-changer that transformed how people interact with screens,” Higgs says. “It opened up a new world of possibility for designers, and we’ve been pushing the limits of what we can do ever since.”
Together, Butler and Higgs were ready to take on the interior of the new Defender. It promised to be a meaningful and fulfilling task for everyone involved.
“The Defender plays a crucial role at the heart of our product portfolio, and it provokes a lot of passion and emotion in people globally,” says Professor Gerry McGovern OBE, Land Rover’s Chief Creative Officer. “For many auto designers, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine one of the automotive world's last iconic vehicles.”
