THE DREAM JOB
He's the man behind some of the most memorable cars of recent times. Aston Martin Chief Creative OFficer MAREK REICHMAN talks about his dream job...
MAREK REICHMAN, Aston MARTIN's CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, talks ABOUT his Dream job
Not many people end up doing their dream job and for me my job as the chief designer at Aston Martin is the job I only dared dream about.
Even my initial interview for the job on the phone with the then Chief Executive Ulrich Bez was a bit surreal, because he just asked me to bring a sketch of a four door Aston Martin to my full interview.
And at the interview the first thing he asked was to see my sketches and as soon as he saw them he said “You have the job”.
That sketch became the Rapide Concept show car that turned into the full production car and my career with Aston was underway.
Mt first production car was the DBS and I can still remember being asked to show it to two visitors: Daniel Craig and Barbara Broccoli.
At the time Craig was just an actor I had heard of, but I had no idea he was the next James Bond and that he and Barbara were looking at the car to be 007’s car in the next movie ’Casino Royale’.
But I was very happy when Daniel’s reaction at seeing the car was ’That’s bloody awesome’. Very few people get to design a Bond car.
And that’s what I love about my job at Aston we build cars that get everyone passionate and excited, even James Bond. Most people have an opinion about a new Aston Martin, which puts pressure on everything we design, but I thrive on pressure.
I was only 12 when I decided I want to be a car designer, I had always wanted to make things, like my Dad who was a blacksmith, and cars have always been in my blood from an early age.
The first thing I designed was as a student. I did the bar with the words Discovery across the spare wheel of the original Discovery, and then I learnt my trade at Rover, BMW and Ford before I came to Aston Martin.
I’ve been here for 12 years but I am still as passionate as the day I arrived. There are so many new challenges because Aston Martin is still the most untapped car brand in the world.
My job is to make every new model at Aston Martin very different, but always beautiful and instantly recognisable as an Aston.
My next big job is delivering Aston’s first SUV and my challenge is simply to deliver the most beautiful SUV in the world, and I think we've done that.
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Comments (4)
Thank you. Simply thank you for giving us passion in tangible form.
www.driveandride.org/news/k6lm8zf39rsc3t6l5ehn9f5gcaae9k
i wonder what his favorite aston would be if he had to pick just one
I've read in an article that his favorite is the DB5. The car from Goldfinger if I'm not mistaken.