Conquest Vehicles specializes in the design and manufacturing of ultra-luxurious, fully armoured, handcrafted sport utility vehicles for the civilian market. As the design lead for the company, I was tasked with overseeing the design as it evolved from its military origins to a niche super car market.
As part of the R&D team, I was responsible for overseeing all design activities, including:
• Complete exterior & interior design development.
• Competitive market research.
• Provide design direction to the team of engineers, drafters and fabricators.
• Successfully introduced design and prototyping procedures for engineering development.
Conquest Vehicles design aesthetic is rooted in its military heritage. The lack of surface curvatures and its pronounced angled exterior result in superior projectile deflection. Small arms fire against the vehicle are much more likely to glance off at an angle or be defeated outright.
One of the most successful improvements I was able to oversee was the introduction of in-house model making and prototyping capabilities. No longer reliant on 3rd party vendors, our process consisted of creating quick iterative prototypes from foam, sculpting clay and fibreglass, and 3D printing to create high fidelity part mockups.
These improvements resulted in a significant cost and time reduction for the process of designing and fabricating vehicles and parts.
I sought to create a design language that would improve the overall vehicle aesthetic, increase fabrication efficiency, create a reliable fit and finish and reduce manufacturing time. In addition, my responsibilities extended beyond vehicle design to include overseeing mould construction, providing design direction to team members & fabricators, delivery of custom requests from clients and to lead internal concept development for future products.