A HARRIER Jump Jet, the headlights of a Honda car turned upside down, and London's red buses have all been revealed as inspiration for the iconic 1989 Batmobile.

Renowned art director, Terry Ackland-Snow, who designed the Batmobile for the 1989 Batman movie, visited Swindon College to talk to art and design students about his career as an art director in the film industry.

More than 100 students past and present attended the event to hear him deliver an inspiring and insightful talk, describing his experiences working on some of the biggest films, such as Batman, Labyrinth, Aliens, Superman, Supergirl and many others.

He shared his wealth of experience in all aspects of film and TV design, from creating the artwork to handling multi-million pound budgets sets.

Terry explained how he was asked to take on the design for the Batmobile, and how he worked with a team to take the project design from a few pencil lines to final production. To illustrate his talk he brought along the maquette of the car so the students could get a real hands on experience.

He explained that the initial design for the Batmobile didn’t have any doors, but having seen a Harrier Jump Jet and the way that their entry hatch lifted up and back he decided to use that idea as a way to get in and out of the vehicle. He also took ideas from London buses, rear lights from Ferrari and turned headlights from a Honda car upside down to create the look that he was after.

Another film which required some ingenious problem solving was Labyrinth, with Terry and his team coming up with mechanisms to lift David Bowie’s character from under a ledge to appear on top in the Escher-esque staircase scenes.

Students had the opportunity to ask questions after the talk, ranging from what engine is in the Batmobile (a V8) to what was the most interesting experience (diving to 120m depth on The Deep and coming up slowly enough to avoid getting the bends).

A spokesman for Swindon College said: "At the end of the session, students were able to look at and handle some of the props that Terry had brought with him. Terry was very engaging and interesting, and he took the time to answer everyone’s questions."

Michael Smith, a 3rd year student on the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course said “I’m a huge Batman fan, it was good to hear about the Batmobile – I didn’t realise it had an engine, I always thought it was moved on pulleys so it was really good to see and hear about its development."