This summer will see Ian Callum celebrate his 70^th birthday. A prime age for anyone to sit back and reflect on their career, not least when it’s generously permeated by several of the most recognisable shapes in global car design.

Callum, of course, is different, and his design studio is now half a decade old and with bold new in-house projects reaching the public. Callum’s eponymous design director still picks up a pencil to sketch every now and then, but he’s also building a foundation of promising young designers eager to take the baton.

“Young people are crucial to a business such as Callum,” he tells Car Design News. “They bring energy, curiosity and ambition to our projects. There’s a brightness and a sense of novelty that forms ideas we might not otherwise have considered. It’s a real advantage for them to have such an open mind. I never stop learning, and every week the team will teach me something.”

In September 2023, a pair of university graduates joined Callum for paid year-long placements working alongside Motability as part of a clean-sheet look at an electric Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (eWAV). It’s an open-minded mentality that helped set apart both Glasgow graduate Zoe Graham (23) and Coventry student Yikuan Zhang (25) from the almost 150 entrants of the ‘Design Hacks’ competition that propelled them through the doors at Callum’s Warwickshire studio.

“We’re getting a full spectrum of the business during this internship, down to…