Volvo Cars is undergoing a transformation since Thomas Ingenlath took over the role as senior VP of Design in July last year. The most recent addition to the fold is 34-year-old Maximilian Missoni, who has been appointed exterior design chief.
Missoni, an Austrian native who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002, previously worked with Ingenlath at Volkswagen’s Advanced Design Center in Potsdam, Germany (near Berlin). Joining VW’s main design studio in Wolfsburg following his studies, Missoni rose through the ranks to become senior exterior designer in Potsdam. Clearly Ingenlath liked his work.
“Max is a very talented designer,” Ingenlath told Form Trends. “On the one hand he will sketch with an incredible vibrancy, and then he’ll go listen to classical Opera.”
Musical taste aside, Missoni has a gift for coherent design, having worked on the 2003 Volkswagen Concept R — the precursor to the VW Eos — as well as the second iteration of Volkswagen’s 1-liter car, the XL1 concept revealed in 2011.
His new role will enable him to ratify Ingenlath’s vision for the brand’s design language through exterior design director Fedde Talsma.
