ICON – The Official Story of the Series Land Rover and Defender
THE BRIEF
Following a continuous production of 67 years, the very last Land Rover Defender rolled off the production line on 29 January 2016 as the longest running production car in the world. To celebrate the vehicle’s extraordinary life – Land Rover’s most influential and longest-running model – the Jaguar Land Rover Global PR team briefed us to create a unique, coffee-table book as part of a whole year of multimedia celebrations…
THE SOLUTION
Our ambition was to avoid turning this book into a definitive guide to the Series Land Rover and Defender, with chapter-and-verse detail about every single model.
Those books already exist and there are lots of them! Instead, we wanted to place people and their experiences at its core and, through amazing stories, incredible photography and illustrations, explore the effect the vehicle has had on anyone and everyone who has encountered it. We also wanted readers to feel a sense of the Defender itself when reading this book; it needed to be charming, demonstrating purposeful style and design pedigree.
In its 67 years of production, the ‘original Land Rover’ has become a symbol of Great Britain – it is a vehicle that has transcended the automotive world and become a multicultural icon. It is no longer an automotive icon… it is an icon full stop.
So, what better title than ICON?
TEN CHAPTERS
Each one represents an aspect of the vehicle’s multi-purpose role, presented through heartwarming opinions and stories from a wide range of Land Rover admirers, including TV presenters, employees (both past and present), adventurers, owners, enthusiasts and global brand ambassadors.
THE PEOPLE
The Defender was always a car for the people. So we tracked some of them down and asked them why they loved it so much. We asked TV star Richard Hammond to write the foreword; former South Africa rugby captain John Smit and creative director Alasdhair Willis brought their Defenders to a shoot; and we got a brilliant story from Army girl
Siobhan Spiers
Siobhan Spiers
THE IMAGERY
ICON contains 200 largely unseen photographs – over 75 of which were specially commissioned, plus a series of hand-drawn illustrations depicting iconic journeys. We compiled a picture gallery featuring many rare archive images, and the endpaper technical drawings were unearthed from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust archive.
The book featured:
Rare technical drawings featured on the endpapers
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Unique infographics appeared next to the photographs and illustrations
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For a unique view of the Defender, we produced a beautiful set of close-up photographs
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Using the UK’s finest portrait photographers, we captured some of the key people connected to the car’s incredible story
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Completely original illustrations helped change the pace in the book and depict some of the epic journeys undertaken by the Defender over the last seven decades
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Archive images helped bring our picture gallery section to life
THE DESIGN
The design approach centers around a contemporary 300mm square layout with use of an eye-catching Pantone orange – a colour inspired by the branding of the iconic Defender G4 Challenge expeditions. We also created a bespoke, hand-painted version of the Land Rover font for use on chapter openers, quotes and headlines.
The 204-page book is printed in a hardback, coffee-table format with a subtle combination of silk, gloss and un-coated paper stocks to provide contrasting textures.
The Pantone orange was used on the cover for maximum impact. An orange foil was also used for the letters on the cover
The layouts were designed in a timeless, simple and refined style to echo the character of the car. However, each chapter has additional design cues to reflect the content. In the case of chapter 1 ‘Road Trips Retold’, this involved the inclusion of heritage-style graphic elements
