Bentley Celebrates 70th Anniversary Of Design Center With A Look Back At Its Greatest Hits

Despite being over 100 years old, Bentley waited until 1951 to open the first design center at its headquarters in Crewe, U.K. Surprisingly, the process of design hasn’t changed all that much in the 70 years that have transpired since then.

As ever, the design department‘s responsibility in 1951 was to communicate ideas with engineers. The process, though, didn’t involve computers or photoshop. Instead, designers used watercolor paintings to convey the ideas they were ruminating.

These were then reproduced at scale using full-size technical drawings that depicted the front, rear, plan elevations, and sectional views. Model makers then used these technical drawings to create a full-size model of the car out of a metal framework covered in wax to ensure that what was being imagined by the designers worked in three dimensions.

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Today, the process uses clay instead of wax, measurements can be taken much more quickly and accurately thanks to measuring arms and scanning equipment, and computers are providing new ways to visualize design. Fundamentally, though, the same steps are being taken today as were being taken in 1951 when the first car was designed in Crewe, the R-Type Continental.

Designed by John Blatchley, the head of design was poached from coachbuilder Gurney-Nutting, the house responsible for the “Blue Train” Bentley and others. Today, designers face the new challenge of envisioning the company’s first fully electric vehicle.

Bentley’s first EV “must translate and reshape those classic forms and details to a truly future-facing design,” says Andreas Mindt, Bentley’s current director of design. “Getting this design absolutely perfect will help guarantee the next chapter in this astonishing history of Bentley Design.”

To achieve that, Mindt will have access to a much larger design team than Bentley has ever had before. Over the last 20 years, the department has grown tenfold. Though that’s good news, it means that the team is now looking for new accommodations.

The design department’s new home will still be historic, though. Moving to Pyms Lane, the focal point of Bentley’s Crewe headquarters since the factory was first designed in 1938, the team will still have a strong link to the past.