Stephen Harper (designer)


Stephen Harper is a British designer who works primarily in the automotive industry. He is responsible for a number of cars including the MG F, Ford Escort RS Cosworth, and the 2010 Volvo C70. Founding design education took place at the Royal College of Art in London in 1979-1980 following earning an apprenticeship to the Austin Motor Company in Longbridge, Birmingham in 1978.
In his early days at Austin Rover Stephen worked on the Austin Montego, Rover 800 as well as a large number of unreleased cars, working at the Canley Studios in Coventry.
Stephen then moved to Volvo BV in the Netherlands to help with the Volvo 480 and Volvo 440 before returning to the UK to work for MGA. It was here that Stephen became involved with Rover Special products, creating the initial design for the MGF as well as a number of other niche Rovers that weren't released.
From there, Stephen worked on various projects in the UK before returning to Volvo in 2000, when he became influential in the creation of Volvo's post-millennial re-definition of the brand, having designed a string of cars for the company.
Returned to the UK in 2007, where he once again set up SHADO Ltd as a Design Consultancy,as Managing Director, this time in Paignton in Devon.
In 2012 he worked for SAIC developing the MG Icon concept car with the Chinese design team.

Companies worked for