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Who's Where: Bryan Nesbitt becomes General Manager of Cadillac

Bryan Nesbitt, who until last week was General Motors' North American Vice President of Design, started his new role as general manager of the Cadillac brand on Monday, July 27. His appointment, which surprised many, is part of an effort to integrate design, marketing and advertising, which have always been intrinsically linked. While this move marks a significant step change in the positioning of the new General Motors, which, under the direction of product czar Bob Lutz, has seen fit to promote a young designer into such a high level managerial position, it is a triumph not only for Nesbitt, 40, but for all designers: it is the first time that a designer has been promoted to one of the top executive roles at an automotive company.

VW Taigun: It’s an Up! SUV

Volkswagen has revealed the VW Taigun at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil, a very compact SUV based on the VW Up! The Taigun is 3859mm long and 1728mm wide, making it a chunk smaller than the next VW SUV up (the Tiguan) and smaller even than Nissan’s Juke, but it gets an extra 50mm in the wheelbase compared to the Up so interior room looks decent. Vw say the Taigun is purposely designed to look just like a mini-me Tiguan or Touareg (and sound like one too) with its very similar styling, high ride height, skid plates and roof rails with an interior that offers room for four and enough spce for 280 litre of stuff in the boot (a plentiful 987 litres with the back seats folded).

Peter Stevens and Julian Thomson lead a discussion on the past, present and future of car design

As part of its sponsorship of London's Clerkenwell Design Week, Jaguar and the Royal College of Art brought together three generations of the design school to discuss the past, present and possible future of car design. Held in a suitably grimy warehouse in east London – with the sculpture by RCA students Ewan Gallimore and Claire Mille's we showed you earlier this week sat outside – Professor Dale Harrow, dean of the School of Design and head of its Vehicle Design program introduced Professor Peter Stevens, Julian Thomson, Jaguar's advanced design director and Alexandra Palmowski project designer advanced colour and material at Jaguar took the audience through their careers. Charismatic as ever, Peter Stevens kicked off proceedings that moved chronologically through the decades by explaining how he first became interested in "the art if car design, allied to the science of how they work" through his artistic parents and uncle – journalist and motoring adventurer – Denis Jenkinson during the 1950s and 60s.