Frank Stephenson is one of today’s most prolific automotive designers, with an acclaimed 30+ year career that’s included leading design divisions for some of the most elite supercar manufacturers in the world such as Ferrari, Maserati, and McLaren. Recently the British-American designer has taken a break from penning exotic vehicles and shifted his attention to designing the safest and most-advanced car seat the world has ever seen.
Shown to be as much as 65% more protective than the safest car seat currently on the market, Stephenson achieved this feat by calling on a variety of unique design principles and advanced manufacturing techniques. Known as the ‘BabyArk’ car seat, the partially-3D-printed product uses a carbon fiber chassis wrapped in transparent polycarbonate skin and what Stephenson calls “military-grade spiral technology” which was originally developed for use in tanks and armored vehicles and allows for unrivaled energy absorption. The eminent designer also turned to biomimicry to develop the seat, modeling its shape partially after that of an egg and the skull of a woodpecker — not unlike what Japan did with the kingfisher when designing its bullet trains. Stephenson aims to have the BabyArk on the market before the end of 2021.
