If the very building you are working in has won a design award, then there is a good chance that the expectation placed upon you to perform will be justifiably huge.

Aston Martin regularly figures in the Top 100 World's Most Desirable Brands list. Whilst business columnists love to churn out their Hit Parade Best-of features, certain companies are stalwarts, noticeable only by their persistent inclusion; Gucci, Omega, Ducati, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Rolls Royce, and of course, Aston Martin.

It is perhaps all too easy for a super-premium car manufacturer to interpret luxury as understated austerity. Mercedes and Bentley produce expensive Coupes with wide appeal; an automotive equivalent to upmarket candy with soft centers.

Aston works differently to this. It always has. Think of AM design in terms of a cinnamon-and-clove fireball wedged deep at the back of one's throat; its taste is exotic, complex and visceral in equal measure.

The fact that the three years Marek Reichman has been Director of Design have been the most prolific in the company's history is telling. Marek revealed to 2 Magazine exclusively, “an Aston Martin is about style not fashion, so will not be in and out of fashion. I have to stay in touch with technological developments, but if you start styling from 15 years on then already you become irrelevant.”

Born in Sheffield, England in 1966, Marek graduated with a First Class Honors Degree in Industrial Design, and studied Vehicle Design at the renown Royal College of Art (the world-famous RCA) in London. The recent recessionary spell has put many young people off studying such disciplines in the last two years, but Marek's success serves as a great example of what can be achieved with persistence and optimism.

¡°I was around 13 when I started to think seriously about a career as a car designer, and I found out about the RCA when I was doing my exams at age 16. First I studied industrial design at Teesside University as I wanted to understand the philosophy and the history of design, and become a designer first. I thought, and still do, that it gives more of a balance. Teesside was great because it allowed me to do a car project for my last year. Then I got the great letter from the RCA to say I’ve been accepted.”

It was a journey which would allow Marek to work with some of the biggest names in automotive design. “First I worked for Land Rover, then owned by BMW, who had sponsored me before being sent over to California in 1996 to work at BMW’s Design Works studio to start the next generation of Land Rover products,” he reveals. “BMW had so many brands, and it was a great experience working with the likes of Chris Bangle (BMW's former design director) and Henrik Fisker (former Aston Martin design director, currently at Fisker Automotive).”

Being based Stateside meant that Marek was in a position to consider offers with the major US-based manufacturers. “In 2002 I joined Ford in the US where I worked on Lincoln and Mercury models”, he remembers. “The products were designed for a different market and they had a different set of rules, which meant that you had to put yourself in a very different mindset. I stayed there until I joined Aston Martin.”

With such a diverse portfolio of past projects, it is not surprising in the least that Marek should head up the team which delivered the show-stopping Aston One-77. How did such a jaw-dropping piece of automotive sculpture come to fruition? “The brief was simple - to design the ultimate Aston Martin. One-77 is the embodiment of the essence of Aston Martin, the ultimate in power, beauty and soul.” He elaborates, “we used some ultra-modern, technologically advanced aspects such as the carbon-fiber chassis for instance, and yet the panels are hand-formed aluminum to create beautiful forms and shape. The forms just wouldn’t be possible by any other means.”

Perhaps the One-77 gives the greatest clues towards Aston's future design direction. Whilst clearly pushing the AM thesis in excelsis deo, there is clearly a tangible bloodline which runs through the DBS and Vantage models. Reichman explains, “Collectively we’ve invested a great deal of creative energy in One-77. This car is all about the emotive feeling that an Aston Martin has. It’s the expression, if you like, of the aesthetic of Aston Martin.”

The One-77 received the coveted Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award at Ville D’Este, a prestigious acknowledgment of a bold piece of modern craftsmanship and art in motion.

In holding such an illustrious position within the global circle of automotive design, it is perhaps surprising that Marek sites Alfa Romeo as a modern influence on the ethic of his creativity. “I admire Alfa Romeo,” he reveals. “They have a strong heritage, and since the 1980’s their cars have been designed with real character and flair.”

A parting question, and it had to be an obvious one. What car does Marek himself own? “I drive a DBS Volante.”