Chris Gould is Design Director and co-owner of Avant Design, a Leamington Spa based studio specialising in automotive and transport design, established in 2018. He has built his career exclusively within the automotive consultancy sector, leading creative programmes for both OE and low-volume manufacturers.
Chris leads Avant with a progressive approach that blends traditional craftsmanship with immersive technologies to enhance quality and engagement throughout the design process. He oversees creative direction and delivery across the business, most recently heading development of the Longbow Speedster and Roadster, guiding both from early concept through to production ready resolution.
This talk explores how immersive technologies such as Virtual and Augmented Reality are reshaping the design process, enhancing design quality, accelerating decision making and transforming stakeholder engagement. From large commercial vehicles to lightweight electric sports cars, discover how Avant Design has adopted VR to elevate creativity while preserving human intent.
In this session, I reflect on the relationship between traditional automotive craftsmanship and emerging immersive workflows, and how reducing friction between concept, CAD and evaluation has accelerated decision making within consultancy.
What began as experimentation with VR has evolved into an integral part of our process, fundamentally changing how ideas are conceived, reviewed, developed and communicated. Rather than replacing physical craft, immersive tools are allowing designers to quickly assess proportion and intent at full scale while enabling stakeholders to engage with projects in a more intuitive way.
Through projects ranging from large commercial vehicles to light weight focused electric sports cars, I demonstrate how immersive environments, configuration and interactivity are redefining collaboration between design teams, engineers, clients and investors.
The result is greater clarity, stronger alignment and a more confident path from concept to reality.