Kia Design Chief Schreyer honoured by Royal College of Art

Kia Motors Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Britain’s pre-eminent school of art and design, the Royal College of Art, in recognition of his contribution to automotive design.

The man behind the stunning ex_cee’d cabrio concept car shown by Kia at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year and charged with developing Kia’s future design direction is only the third automotive designer to be honoured by the RCA.

The RCA, celebrating the 150th anniversary of its foundation and the 40th anniversary of its Royal charter, awards its honorary doctorates sparingly and only Sergio Pininfarina and Giorgetto Guigiaro have been recognised in the automotive sector before. Established in 1967 the list of honorands reads like a who’s who of art and design and at the same ceremony in the Royal Albert Hall Brit artist Tracey Emin and artist and musician Brian Eno were also installed by the College.

Professor Dale Harrow said: “The Honorary Doctorate is the highest award that the RCA can bestow and is given to individuals that have contributed significantly to their subject. It has only been given twice before to automotive design.

“In Peter Schreyer’s case it is recognition of the outstanding contribution that Peter has made and the enormous amount of influence he has on modern car design and students at the RCA. Peter’s controlled and intellectual approach to car style has redefined the car for the 21st century,” he added.

During the ceremony Schreyer was acclaimed for “raising the art of automobile to a new level” and it was said he “led a revolution in brand and style” before he was presented with the certificate by College Provost, Sir Terence Conran.

Peter Schreyer, 53, studied Industrial Design at the Fachhochschule in Munich. Before joining Audi in 1980 he studied at the Royal College of Art in 1979-1980 under an Audi scholarship. He continued to work at Audi and Volkswagen producing designs for vehicles such as the Audi TT and the new VW Beetle. He left VW group to join Kia as Chief Design Officer in 2006.

He commented: “I am very proud and delighted to be honoured by the Royal College. It has a world renowned tradition for encouraging the finest work and among its honorary doctors are some of the greatest names in the art and design world. To be included amongst them is possibly the greatest accolade I could wish for.

“This only serves to encourage me to produce the very best work of my career for Kia. Kia has given me the opportunity to shape its whole brand design and character and seldom does a designer have such a clean sheet to work with. We have started this journey with ex_cee’d to show just where we might go and at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September I think we will surprise the entire automotive world with what we are planning for Kia’s future,” he added.