Norton's rebrand is one of the biggest in modern motorcycling history, and, as such, the brand has one of the most notable design names in the automotive world to draw the lines of its future: Gerry McGovern. If you're not familiar with McGovern, he's the designer behind Jaguar's controversial ad campaign and the Type 00 concept.
Now, according to reports from our sister publication, Motor1, McGovern was fired and "escorted out of the office" earlier this week. So far, Jaguar has no comment about the situation, but the move comes less than a week after former Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) CEO, Adrian Mardell, retired and new CEO, PB Balaji, took over.
We have to imagine that the firing of McGovern is to help shake some of the horrible press and feedback surrounding Jaguar's rebrand. It's hard not to feel for McGovern, who has worked with JLR for the past 21 years and was the mind behind designing some of the most popular vehicles in the JLR portfolio.
McGovern found huge success after designing the Range Rover Evoque, the Range Rover Velar, the Land Rover Defender, and the modern Range Rover line. Think about it, he took Range Rover, one of the most iconic automotive brands, with a design ethos that hadn't changed in decades, and pulled off one of the best rebrands in modern automotive history. Then, he crashed and burned with Jaguar, which brings us to Norton.
I attended Norton's rebrand launch, and McGovern made no small claim that Norton's 'Resurgence' was a bold step into the future. The rebrand wasn't supposed to compete with any other exotic brands, but instead essentially make Norton the Range Rover of the motorcycling world—aspirational.
Public opinion has been split over the rebrand. Certain folks think that the likes of the Manx R and the Atlas are on the money, others feel it's lackluster, and some think the rebrand looks too 'EV'. The question we have at RideApart is, what do you think of Norton's latest range?
