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Tracing the era of auto design
It's been 75 years since automakers started selling the 'sizzle'
By Bob English
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Turning 100 is a big deal, especially for an automaker. In recent times, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Ford and Buick have made quite a fuss celebrating their centenaries. But lost in all this hoopla is the fact that the art of automotive styling quietly passed its 75th anniversary this year too.
Though other manufacturers can claim their own styling histories and "name" designers, General Motors generally gets credit for establishing the industry's first "styling" department, creating its Art and Colour Section in 1927 under the direction of Harley Earl. He was the first of only five men since then to hold the position of styling chief with the corporation, perhaps the first automaker to realize that style, colour - call it pizzazz - helped sell automobiles.
Earl studied engineering before joining his father to produce custom car bodies for California's high-rollers. His novel approach in creating clay model designs for client presentations attracted the attention of GM.
But Earl, a stylish dresser and an authoritarian figure, apparently wasn't at his best when it came to communicating his ideas. Some say he wasn't exactly a brilliant designer, but during the 1930s he assembled one of the most talented and prolific design teams the industry has ever seen to. He also pioneered the concept of 'advanced design' by creating special teams to look beyond current thinking.
The Art and Colour Section became General Motors Styling Section in 1937 and by '38 Earl and his teams had created what is considered to be the first concept car, the Buick Y-Job. It was a long, low, 2-seat convertible with concealed headlamps, flush door handles, a power top, power windows, no running boards and bumpers integrated into the bodywork.
The trend-setting Cadillac 60 followed and by 1940 Earl was appointed vice-president, proof his role was deemed vital by GM management.
Under Earl, Cadillac's chief designer, Bill Mitchell, created the 'tail fin' styling trend of the '50s and GM introduced the first hardtops (no B-pillar roof supports), hired the first women designers and produced a string of top sellers such as the 1957 Chevrolet.
Earl retired as chief stylist in 1958, turning the reins over to Mitchell.
Mitchell also started out as a car enthusiast studying engineering. But he worked summers at an ad agency and attended art school to refine his skills. An introduction to Earl, led to a job with the Art and Colour Section in 1935. Less than a year later, at 24, he became head of the Cadillac design studio.
Responsibility for more than his share of the fins-and-furbelos styling of the 1950s lies at the larger-than-life Mitchell's door, but he apparently really longed to keep things simpler. That desire is hard to reconcile with the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado perhaps, but is seen more in the sleek 1959 Corvette Stingray, '62 Mako Shark and '69 Manta Ray concepts. He was also responsible for the sharper edged cars such as the 1963 Buick Riviera and the '67 Cadillac Eldorado.
Mitchell's hand is seen too in the design of many 1960s 'muscle car' classics.
When he took over, Mitchell introduced new design techniques, some involving simple tape, but by the mid-'70s the first computer-aided design process was in use in his studios. Mitchell was succeeded in 1977 by Irv Rybicki who inherited the daunting responsibility for the massive styling exercise involved in downsizing virtually every existing GM car line by 1985. It couldn't have been much fun, but somebody had to do it and Rybicki was the fall guy. He had little personal influence on GM design in the 1980s, perhaps because he relied in part on consumer clinics for design input rather than sticking his neck out. Cars produced during his tenure included the 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier, 1982 Camaro, 1984 Corvette and the mid-engined Fiero. He was also responsible for the development of the original Saturns.
Rybicki was replaced in 1986 by "Chuck" Jordan, an Earl protegé who led no less than 36 separate studios and 1,300 people into a more upbeat period for the industry.
A Californian, Jordan graduated from MIT with an engineering degree. Earl recruited him in 1948, but in the mid-'50s he was sidetracked to GM's Euclid division and other projects. He returned in time to style the 1958 Corvette, and later became chief designer at Cadillac. He also worked at Opel in the late 1960s (remember the little Opel GT?) and became a rabid Ferrari enthusiast, acquiring a remarkable collection. Despite his long and colourful background, he didn't produce anything really noteworthy. Designs he influenced include the 1992 Seville and Bonneville, 1994 Chevy S-10 Blazer and pickup, the '95 Riviera and the Aurora.
The current incumbent design chief is Wayne Cherry. Born in Indianapolis and trained as a designer, he took over in 1992 and set out to reorganize the company's design process. Under his guidance GM styling entered a new era of digital design and virtual reality, although Earl's modelling clay, now shaped by computer controlled machines, is still in use. Earlier in his career Cherry was director of design for Vauxhall and his work on truck styling in those days influenced GM truck styling.
Cherry, with no reputation for flamboyance, has nevertheless spearheaded GM's resurgence as a producer of dynamic concept vehicles. Witness the Cadillac Evoc, Buick Cielo and the Cadillac Sixteen. The new Chevy SSR is a Cherry vision, and he has guided Cadillac's new direction with products such as the Escalade EXT, CTS, XLR and SRX.
In the last year of his career (he retires this fall) he has been somewhat overshadowed by the overpowering presence of charismatic Bob Lutz (late of DaimlerChrysler), who was hired to bring some additional dynamism to the GM product development process.
Cherry's successor has yet to be named, but Edward Welburn, executive director of body-on-frame architecture at the GM Design Centre and a member of the design team since 1972, could be the company's sixth chief designer.
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