Adrian Morton: Brains behind the Brutale
How a British designer created some true Italian motorcycling icons
When it comes to creating a beautiful looking bike, the Italians undeniably lead the way. However, for the last 25 years, the likes of Ducati, Benelli and MV Agusta have had a secret weapon – British designer Adrian Morton. Yes, the man behind iconic machines such as the Brutale, Tornado and all of the current MV range was actually born in Norwich! “Growing up in Norwich you have three options: work in a chicken factory, work in insurance or join Lotus. I tried the chicken factory as a summer job and it was terrible, but one evening whilst studying for my A-levels I picked up a newspaper and saw that Peter Stevens was giving a lecture regarding his career. He is one of the UK’s best-known vehicle designers who has worked for McLaren (developing the iconic F1 street car), Subaru, Rover and Lotus. I’d always loved technology and art at school but didn’t know how to turn them into a career, that lecture formed the turning point.
“I was inspired by Peter’s talk and I now knew how to combine my love of bikes with design and enrolled at one of the very few design courses in the UK (and at that time the world) at Coventry University. The course was fabulous and after graduating in 1993
I enrolled in a Masters in design at the Royal College of Art in London. When I graduated in 1995 I was approached by David Robb from BMW Motorrad and Pierre Terblanche from Ducati, who both offered me a job. I went to a BMW dealership and to be honest the range didn’t inspire me, so I decided to join Ducati and Cagiva to work in Italy alongside Pierre and Massimo Tamburini, who is considered the Michelangelo of motorcycle design with such creations as the Ducati 916 and MV F4. It was very much a decision with the heart not the head! “At that point we were working on a 750cc Ferrari-engined Cagiva, which eventually became the MV
Agusta F4, and I was given the responsibility to develop the naked version that became Brutale as my first project in industry. I defined all the key design and visual elements that made it distinctive and even wrote the Italian word for brutal on a sketch. The Brutale name stuck and remains associated with our brand to this day. It was a hell of a start, but for various contractual issues after two years I left to join Benelli in 1997 just before the Brutale was released. “Benelli were a lovely company to work for, with a young and ambitious team and a great owner, Andrea Merloni, who demonstrated incredible trust in all of us. We created the Tornado with its underseat fans and the TnT, which still turns heads nowadays. I really enjoyed my time at Benelli as you could be extrovert with the design language where MV were more traditional, but when Benelli’s management changed I left the
‘I still love designing and riding bikes’ ‘I wrote the Italian for brutal on sketch for the MV’
company and returned to
MV, who were now separate from Ducati.
“Initially the return to MV wasn’t easy with a difficult relationship with Tamburini, but after Harley bought them it all changed as we had the new triple to work on, which was very exciting. To be honest
I nearly left MV in this period but Harley’s drive for new models resulted in Tamburini entering early retirement and I was charged with getting the new F4 out in 2010 without his guidance. Since that point I have headed up every new MV Agusta as the Design Director of Centro Ricerche Castiglioni, which is MV Agusta’s inhouse design agency. “I still absolutely love designing and riding bikes and I still get so much satisfaction from my job. I live and breathe bikes and I still have that same passion for bikes and design that I had way back when I was a struggling student at the Royal College of Art. I see myself as a motorcyclist who happened to become a designer and not the other way around, which I think is good as it keeps my feet on the ground. I consider myself to be super-lucky to have been involved with some amazing projects over the years. I am still doing my dream job and still living out in Italy.”