Makkina revives Triumph with the TR25 concept
By James McLachlan2023-07-13T17:00:00
A reimagined Triumph TR2 has finally been revealed – the TR25 concept designed by Makkina to celebrate the studio’s 25th anniversary. The team at CDN deserves an award for keeping quiet about this project for as long as we have
Designers, it has been said, need to be great storytellers. The ability to craft a narrative is undeniably valuable: whether you are mining your heritage to inform the future or conjuring a story from very little. What then to make of a design studio which has made it a mission to tell other peoples’ stories. As ghostwriters go, Makkina, headed up by Michael Ani, is arguably the most influential.
From behind an unassuming door in Notting Hill, not far from legendary west London saloon the Cow, the studio has shaped the design language for numerous OEMs, but has studiously avoided taking any public credit. The white walls of the studio speaks to the clandestine nature of the work – unadorned by images of previous projects. As we sit down in the main studio space for a coffee, Ani explains his rationale.