The playmaker: An interview with Luc Donckerwolke

Ten years of Genesis. In the space of a single decade, the Korean luxury brand has launched a complete model range, around twenty concept cars and its own motorsport team. Behind it all is a man who can give full rein to his ideas with maximum freedom, enjoying a degree of creative licence that no other head of design at a major corporation possesses: Luc Donckerwolke, President and Chief Creative Officer of Genesis. At least, that’s what he revealed in an interview.

Mr Donckerwolke, we are here at the European design studio of a Korean luxury brand such as Genesis – in Beilngries, a town in the Upper Bavarian district of Eichstätt. How on earth did you end up in this particular place?

The best way is to fly from Seoul to Munich and then carry on a bit further north on the A9 motorway (laughs). No, seriously: we moved here for practical reasons. Ingolstadt isn’t far away – that’s where I’ve been building my concept cars for years – and it’s also on the way from Munich Airport to my home. So when I land, I can pop round straight away.

How do you attract young talent to Beilngries?

It’s actually easier than attracting them to Frankfurt or Berlin. Don’t get me wrong, Berlin is fantastic – it’s inspiring – but Berlin doesn’t have a car design culture. Here, however, other manufacturers’ design centres are partly in the immediate vicinity; as I said, Ingolstadt and Munich are close by, and the renowned transport design course in Pforzheim isn’t far away either. The Altmühltal is a beautiful region, especially for people who value quality of life.

How often are you in Beilngries?

When I’m not travelling, I’m here. I usually try to spend one week a month in America, plus time in Korea and here – and then there are the months with the endurance races, such as Le Mans or, more recently, Japan at Fuji. We work very hard and are very agile. I have a design presentation in Korea at least once a month, monthly management meetings and a Leaders’ Conference, as well as events such as the launch of the new GV90 in September.

Where does this pace in decision-making come from?

We discuss matters with Korea in the morning, with America in the evening, and implement them straight away. So we make the most of the time zones.

Other manufacturers do that too.

That’s right. But we don’t have to ask anyone’s permission; we just go ahead and do it. The concept cars we built and unveiled around the time of the Le Mans 24-hour race weren’t agreed with anyone. The Chairman actually saw the Box Buggy for the first time at Le Mans outside our hospitality area; he hadn’t known we were building it until then. It was the same with motorsport: the decision to get involved was made by email. I wrote to say what it would cost us; four days later, the reply came – two letters: ‘Ok’. That was at the end of August 2024. We started from scratch, without an engine – and are now competing in the Hypercar class for prototypes in the current endurance season.

You have a great deal of freedom.

I see myself more as a sort of coach. I set the direction and provide impetus. I love working with a large team because it gives me the opportunity to try out lots of things. I’m very curious and want to see what happens when we try this or that. In doing so, I’m always banking on so-called ‘happy accidents’ – mistakes from which something suddenly emerges. Poor design can be down to poor designers, but it can also be a sign of poor management. You need a management team that places a great deal of trust in the design department and gives it the freedom to experiment. I’ve always worked a bit against the system; even here at Hyundai, I lead my team as if it were my own company, not with the mindset of an employee. I didn’t design the Lamborghini Murciélago for Lamborghini, but for myself. But I can only do that if I identify one hundred per cent with a product.

This level of autonomy is unusual for a car manufacturer, isn’t it?

That’s true. But I’m also in the position of reporting directly to the Chairman, Euisun Chung. In other words, my boss is the owner himself. And he’s a fantastic person who is driven above all by a desire to develop things that help people. When the design of the Ioniq 6 was the subject of heated internal debate, it was actually inspired by him; he pointed to a picture and said that was the sort of direction he could envisage. Quite a few people thought it wouldn’t sell. His reply was: “Have you asked the customers of 2030? No? Then you should do that!”

To come back to concept cars: the spectrum ranges from the whimsical crossover between a lunar rover and a golf caddy, known as the Box Buggy, to Le Mans prototypes and a GT3 racer.

And all concept cars are now roadworthy. Some even feature a very serious V8, such as our Magma GT Concept. This is part of a new strategy. The technology beneath the design is the raw, immediate core of the vehicle’s DNA. I need to be able to sense and feel that when I’m assessing the design.

Read the full interview in ramp #71 ‘Yabba Dabba Doo’, how the Box Buggy came about, how the Le Mans programme came about, and why the principle of ‘form follows function’ is now outdated for Luc Donckerwolke.