Pen to Production—Interview with KTM Designer Gerald Kiska

Austrian designer Gerald Kiska has been responsible for designing KTM models for more than three decades. Since Husqvarna and Gas Gas joined the same group, his portfolio has extended to these brands as well.

Kiska has never been afraid to provoke with his designs. I sat to chat with him in his studio near Salzburg, Austria.

Born in 1959, Kiska studied industrial design in Linz, Austria, and worked for two years in the automotive industry at Volkswagen and Porsche before setting up his own design studio, simply called Kiska. His first contact with KTM came in the late ‘80s.

He already knew Stefan Pierer (founder of KTM owner Pierer Mobility) who was working in the winter sports business and for whom Kiska had designed a ski binding. Kiska led Pierer to KTM after he told him that “things weren't going the way they should.”

Pierer was one of the first people to contact the liquidator to take over the company when KTM went bankrupt in 1991. At the time, Kiska was more of a street bike rider, so Pierer sent him to Heinz Kinigadner in Ibiza for a week of off-road training.

“I survived that with great difficulty. It was one of the first measures to get me ready for the off-road business at KTM.”