To me, visual storytelling plays an essential role in successful automotive design and connecting with people. It was something [former Ford global chief creative officer] J Mays constantly impressed on us. For J, creating a design narrative was crucial.

I grew up around motor vehicles as my father ran a garage in Hobart, the capital of the Australian island of Tasmania, south of Melbourne. I’ve always had a passion for them, my family would probably describe it as an obsession. Like a lot of designers, unaware that it was a potential career, I started off sketching cars just for the love of it. When the time came in high school to choose a vocation for work experience, a chance meeting with a childhood friend of my father (who happened to be a programme planner at Ford) offered me an opportunity to get exposure to the industry. Shortly after I received a letter from Ford officially inviting me to see its Melbourne studio. I was only 15 at the time so it was quite overwhelming. I flew across from Tasmania and realising that you could earn a living from something that you love blew my mind. From that point on, I wasn’t considering any other direction.