105 Longnose

The crazy world of Kahn Design.

This 105 Longnose is a prototype vehicle that was built specifically for the Geneva Motorshow!

The Longnose is in Volcanic Rock Satin with grey deep dish alloys

The interior on this car is one I am really proud of.
The trim used within the vehicle is 100% Lambswool from Abraham Moons,  and contains UK British hide.

The car has a 6.2 litre engine with 430bhp, and an automatic gear box.

Quilted leather roof lining & GTB sport seats with silver stitching.

This car was coach built in the UK, the interior was handmade in Bradford, designed by Kahn Design and was showcased at Geneva. The vehicle is a labour of love for our boss Afzal,  and I love it!

The car is currently for sale and is a unique buy!

Lights Camera Action

This week I thought it would be nice to feature some exciting footage from behind the scenes on a recent movie set.

The film features a Kahn Range Rover RS-650 in Volcanic Rock Satin.

The feature film 'Extremis' will be released later this year.

Extremis is a thriller and has some well know British actors in the line up, including David O'Hara, Neil Pearson & Isabelle Allen.

A short video from our videographer is coming soon....

Abraham Moons & Sons

Our in house photographer Graham & I were fortunate enough recently to have a tour of one of our 'bespoke service' suppliers mills.

Here is a sneak peek at Abraham Moons & Sons mill in Guiseley.

Founded in 1837 and with roots in apparel, this local company is a perfect addition to one of Kahn Designs splendid suppliers.

With lots of original machinery still in use, the tour was truly fascinating!

Kahn Design have completed numerous interiors incorporating fabrics and textiles from Moons, and there are some exciting projects in the pipeline (including those recently launched at the Geneva Motor Show).

I plan on doing a special post-Geneva blog next week with all the details of the cars launched and their splendid interiors!

Kahn Owners Rally - Guest Post

This weeks blog post is a guest post from Jessica Jones. Jessica works in our Leeds showroom, in customer relations, marketing and events.

The First Kahn Owners Rally

Last Summer to celebrate the opening of our Leeds showroom, myself and our marketing team decided to go forward with hosting some great local events, the first of which was our Kahn Owners' Rally. This gave our customers a social event to meet and compare the designs of our vehicles, with a personal touch. Our aim was to bring together like-minded enthusiasts in a relaxed environment, with the opportunity to enjoy a country drive.

In the morning the guests gathered at the showroom for tea, coffee and pastries. Many of the guests had not visited the new Leeds showroom so it was nice to catch up with some familiar faces.  After a chat and some refreshments we set off on a beautiful scenic route toward the Yorkshire Dales.

The team were delighted with the weather. This gave us some great opportunities to take some lovely shots of the cars in convoy. 

For lunch the final destination was The Devonshire Fell, a lovely little country house situated in the Yorkshire Dales. The venue is located close to Bolton Abbey in Burnsall Village. The scenery is known for being delightful in this part of the country and the views certainly didn’t disappoint.  

After lunch we stopped for photographs against the stunning backdrop of the Yorkshire Dales.
 We returned to Leeds mid afternoon for light refreshments, and the opportunity to compare vehicles.

This summer we will be looking to host the event on a even bigger scale, with the opportunity for clients to also visit the showroom prior to the start of the Rally. We hope to see you all there, if you would like to get involved email me:
jessica.jones@kahndesign.com

  

Retro

At Kahn Design we are always looking at new beautiful fabrics for lifestyle products and unique interiors.

This is a seat that we created with a retro feel with great British roots.

The trim is 100% British Wool from a local supplier, Abraham Moons. The trim has a natural base colour, with aqua blue & burnt orange flashes.

Abraham Moons is one of the leading suppliers of luxurious British wool based fabrics in the UK and beyond. We have some exciting projects coming up with Moons and if you follow the blog you can keep updated easily.

The leather used for  these seats is a beautiful Scottish hide. This particular leather boasts a metallic finish and would make a rare and eye- catching addition to any cherished vehicle.

The seat possesses Kahn Designs most desirable interior trim, the diamond quilting. 

The next blog will be a behind the scenes shoot.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas time and it's been a very busy few months for me at Kahn Design!

I thought it would be lovely to give everyone a look into some of the new & old products we have as part of our lifestyle range.

Vehicle: Range Rover Sport 400 LE 

By next Christmas there will be all these products and more available online and in the showrooms.

This beautiful lifestyle shot, gives a sneak peek into the new beautiful 'Herringbone' leather interior. 

Vehicle : Range Rover Sport 400LE

If you follow @afzalkahn @ChelseaTruckCo @AKAHNDESIGN you may have seen some of the sample products already.  New packaging with new materials and new designs. This sample has gone down a treat in the office and we are looking forward to developing designs and products further! This design is a vector drawing done in house by one of our alias designers, inspiration from Afzals Bugatti Veyron, with the famous 'F1' number plate. 

Vehicle: Mercedes-Benz SLR Mclaren Roadster LHD

This Kahn unisex wallet is inspired by the signature Kahn Quilted seats, there are not many of these left now but we will be getting a new version in 2015. More pictures on www.kahndesign.com you can find further details and how to buy, by following the link.

Vehicle: Mercedes-Benz SLR Mclaren Roadster LHD

New quilted keyrings will be available early 2015.

Vehicle: Porsche 911 (964) Carrera 4 Cabrio

New product samples are arriving all the time at head office, for example these Kahn phone cases.  These cases are real leather, they have an internal pocket and credit card slots. Inspired by a new Pattern designed for interiors, fashion and accessories, with a classic oiled heritage leather.

Vehicle: Aston Martin Vanquish S 2+2

All the vehicles in this blog post are at the Bradford Showroom on Canal Road, and you can see more pictures/details on the vehicles at www.kahndesign.com or bob in to the showroom and have a look around.

Behind The Scenes

Wednesday  I took the chance to go out on a photo shoot with the Photographer & Videographer here at Kahn Design.

Manos (left) & Graham (right) at the Leeds Showroom

 I asked the two guys to write a short paragraph about themselves and what they do so you can get acquainted :

Graham Taylor

" I'm the photographer at Kahn Design. I cover a lot of things from product defects, PR for the company, car sales and full photo shoots for commercial and editorial advertising. Cars have been my passion for as long as I can remember, so being able to couple the proximity with high-end cars with a job-role that allows me to share my own vision of them makes me very lucky."

Manos Kountouris

"My role is A videographer / Multimedia Editor.  I was employed about two years ago to set up and run the Multimedia side of A Kahn Design.  I was always in to cars and film making so, combine these two together create the perfect environment to work and be creative."

The shoot involved driving a Range Rover Vogue 600 LE luxury Edition around the Leeds area, finding a quiet area to photograph the vehicle with some strange contraption attached to it called a camera rig.  Which in my opinion would be best described as scaffolding!

I always wondered how they took such intricate photographs of cars when they appear to be driving so fast! WELL! Little did I know that this is one way to do it! The other easy way is to use software but that would of made for a boring day out ...

So essentially this device is made up of some tubing and clamps that allows you to take a rolling shot of a car. In the past, this was done by "tracking" from the back of another vehicle moving at the same speed as the subject car. Rigs have made this process a lot easier (and safer!) and it allows you to get an image where the car looks like it's driving very fast but in reality may not even have the engine switched on and is being pushed along. This is achieved by using a very slow shutter speed on the camera.

For anyone wondering, I took the behind the scenes shots!

I was loving tottering around in my heels in a muddy field.

Image captured on the rig

Thursday I was also going to go out with the team on a shoot with a different Range Rover but had meetings preventing me! So Graham kindly took some gorgeous images showing you behind the scenes of this static shoot, the car and location look beautiful. 

Marsden Moor

The lighting can vary so much on outdoor shoots, using mobile lighting like the one in the picture can give certain panels on the car extra light, which is great if they are needing images in more detail.

For the static shots, the guys use various different tools for helping them with lighting and so on. Things like a polarizing lens can help increase colour saturation and decrease reflections.

The car on Thursdays shoot was a Range Rover Sport Luxury Edition.
Both the cars in these shoots you can see in the new Leeds Showroom.

http://www.kahndesign.com/contact/contact.php

Seen as I post every Friday, I wanted to finish my post with a lovely in house picture again!
 Today most of the girls here at Kahn Design went out on a nice lunch to Nandos to celebrate it being the weekend!

A quick pic after enjoying a lovely lunch! Myself, Suzanne, Charlotte, Ada & Emma. Have a great weekend people!

HQ

  Today I wanted to take the time to show everyone the beautiful cars that we get to work with! All the press attention of late has been on the new fabulous showroom on Kings Road in Chelsea, but I wanted to give everyone in an insight into some of my favourite cars that are in our showroom at the HQ in Bradford.

  Starting with my favourite car a Mercedes Benz SLR Mclaren, just to make my life easy there was not just one but TWO to choose from!   The kind of excitement that comes with these cars I normally get with shoes and handbags, but WOW! I'd give my right arm for on of these babies!

 I love the smart subtle interior on the SLR's and if I had to pick a favourite it would have to be the black, I live in black! These 2 cars are 2 of a collection of only 9 similar ones that are registered here in the UK.

The next car that caught my eye in the show room is this classic Ferrari Maranello.  How could this not catch your eye!  The detail on this car is amazing and I love the cream interior, take a look...

One of my favourite cars is an Audi Q7, so I loved the look of this Audi Q5 done in Kahn Design custom black interior and a gorgeous Pearl paint finish in white.

I have spent time today looking at these beautiful cars and the intricacy that goes into these hand finished interiors.  The guys in the trim shop are so talented and when I saw this video on Kahn TV I had to put it on my blog!

To finish up I had to put in these pics!...

 We have been getting clothing and accessory samples in for a few weeks now.  This is for a new exciting project that I cant wait to be able to share! But in the mean time here's a sneaky peek in to mine and Suzannes day trying on sunglasses!  Sultan one of the interns clearly loves them too #BritainsNextTopModel

  Yes we do love our job ! 

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend! I will be!