Murat Günak (born 9 August 1957,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

) is a Turkish car designer and former head designer of

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

and

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

Career

Günak studied design at Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

and then studied at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

under Claude Lobo and

Patrick Le Quément Patrick Gilles Marie Le Quément (born 4 February 1945) is a retired French car designer, formerly chief designer of Renault. Born in France but brought up in the United Kingdom, Le Quément holds a BA Hons. degree in Product Design from Bir ...

where he was awarded Master of Automotive Design and was sponsored by Ford. After graduation he worked at Ford in Germany for two years and then moved to

for 8 years. Gunak moved to

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

to become Head of Design in 1994 and then returned to Mercedes-Benz and

DaimlerChrysler Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacturers. Daimler-B ...

in 1998 as Vice President for all passenger cars. He joined the

brand as Head of Design in April 2003 and took over as Head of Design of the

Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxon ...

on 1 January 2004, responsible for the design activities of all brands in the Group. He was replaced at Volkswagen by his former employee,

Walter de'Silva Walter Maria de Silva (born 27 February 1951) is an Italian car designer and former head of Volkswagen Group Design, until 2015. Since beginning his car design career in 1972 as trainee car designer for Fiat's Style Centre, De Silva has also wor ...

in 2007. Through his consultant company ''MGMO GmbH'', he was CEO of Mindset AG between July 2008 and January 2009. He moved to a new electric vehicle project called " Mia electric" in France, which was produced between 2011 and 2013. Günak then moved to Tretbox, now Ono, to develop further electric vehicle designs. After 2018, Murat Günak worked with Togg to design the

Togg T10X The Togg T10X is a fully Electric car, electric Compact sport utility vehicle, C-segment SUV produced by the Turkey, Turkish car manufacturer Togg. Togg started manufacturing the T10X in 2022, which is the first of five Electric car, electric c ...

with the contribution of

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (; ; short for Pininfarina Società per Azioni) is an Italian automotive design, car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 ...

Car designs

Mercedes-Benz C-Class (W202) Mercedes-Benz W202 is the internal designation for a compact sedan/saloon manufactured and marketed by Mercedes-Benz between 1992 and 2001, as the first generation of the C-Class, now in its fifth generation. Replacing the 190 series/W201 in ...

* Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class (R170) * Peugeot 206 CC *

Peugeot 307 The Peugeot 307 is a small family car produced by the French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën under their Peugeot marque, from 2001 to 2008 in Europe, and was the successor to the Peugeot 306, which was discontinued in 2002 after being in product ...

Peugeot 607 The Peugeot 607 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from September 1999 to June 2010. The 607, along with the smaller 407, were superseded by the 508 in March 2011. History The 607 was launched in October 1999, to ...

* Volkswagen Passat CC *

Volkswagen Scirocco The Volkswagen Scirocco is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive, sport compact hatchback manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen in two generations from 1974 to 1992 and a third generation from 2008 until 2018. Production ended without a ...

III * Volkswagen Golf V Variant (station wagon) * Mia electric *

References

External links

Der Schneider von Wolfsburg (Die Zeit 11. Dezember 2003)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070126155421/http://www.designophy.com/article.php?id=18 Murat Günak interview (designophy) 1957 births Living people Turkish automobile designers Volkswagen Group designers {{Turkey-bio-stub