Murat Günak (born 9 August 1957,

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) is a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

car designer and former head designer of

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

and

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

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 northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

and then studied at the

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

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

under

Claude Lobo Claude Lobo (20 August 1943 – 3 June 2011) was an automotive designer who served in various design positions at Ford Motor Company over 32 years, playing a prominent role in designing Ford automobiles including the Ford Capri (Mk I), Merc ...

and

Patrick Le Quément Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

where he was awarded Master of Automotive Design and was sponsored by

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. 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 brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

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

DaimlerChrysler The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...

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 multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...

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 in Lecco, Italy) 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 S ...

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 Mia Electric was a French electric car manufacturer in the 2010s. The company, based in Cerizay, France, designed and built electric vehicles made totally in France. The Mia was the company's first all-electric model on the market. The car has ...

" in France, which was produced between 2011 and 2013. Günak then moved to Tretbox, now Ono, to develop further electric vehicle designs.

Car designs

Mercedes-Benz C-Class The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a series of compact executive cars produced by Mercedes-Benz Group AG. Introduced in 1993 as a replacement for the 190 (W201) range, the C-Class was the smallest model in the marque's line-up until the W168 A-Class ...

Mercedes-Benz SLK The Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class is a compact executive roadster, produced by Mercedes-Benz. It was released in 1996 and was built at the Mercedes plant in Bremen, Germany, until the end of production in 2020. The former name "SLK" was derived from ...

* 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 The Volkswagen CC, originally marketed as the Volkswagen Passat CC in its first generation, is a variant of the Volkswagen Passat that trades headroom and cargo space for a coupé-like profile and sweeping roofline. The CC debuted in January 2008 ...

Volkswagen Passat Lingyu The Volkswagen Passat Lingyu is a Chinese mid-size car produced by Volkswagen with its joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen plants in Anting and Nanjing. Overview The Passat Lingyu was launched in November 2005 and replaced the Volkswagen Passat (B5 ...

* Volkswagen Golf V *

TOGG Turkish national car The Togg C-SUV is the first model of five electric cars that are planned to be produced by Turkey's Automobile Joint Venture Group Inc., being a C-segment SUV, which started manufacturing from October 2022. History The automotive industry ...

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