Behind the striking elements that are still part of the Volkswagen Golf GTI — checkered-pattern seats and the manual gear lever golf ball — is one of Volkswagen's first female designers, Gunhild Liljequist.
The porcelain painter and chocolate candy packaging designer started working in Volkswagen's Fabrics and Colors Department in 1964, at the age of 28, and stayed there until 1991.
She was responsible for designing various elements of the interior of the first Golf GTI (1976), taking into account the sporting pretensions of the model. What justifies the checkered pattern, now nicknamed Clark Plaid:
“Black was sporty, but I also wanted color and quality. I took a lot of inspiration from my travels to Britain and was always carried away by high quality fabrics with checkered patterns… you could say there is an element of British sportiness in the GTI.”
Gunhild Liljequist
And the golf ball? “This was a purely spontaneous idea! I just expressed aloud my associations between sportsmanship and golf: "what if the throttle were a golf ball?"
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There was resistance to accepting these solutions, but today they are inseparable from the Golf GTI.
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