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Whether from Ford, Chrysler or GM, Detroit's auto designers have always been under strict instructions not to bring design sketches home; luckily for us, not everyone at the companies obeyed.
Kentucky curator Kay Grubola and ex-GM designer William Porter have managed to track down about 100 concept sketches from the '60s and '70s that found their way out of the design studio, avoiding the destruction that comes during corporate re-orgs. The result is the "Designing an Icon, Creativity and the American Automobile" exhibit, on display at the Louisville Visual Art Association until November 10th.
The Times has got a preview of some of the drawings and photos. While the sketches themselves are of course cool, what is really fascinating is a photo inside GM's design studio in what looks to be the early '70s, above; in that era predating casual Fridays and Banana Republic colored dress shirts, every single designer is wearing a white button-down shirt and thin, dark tie. They make the clay model they're working on look positively modern in comparison!
via new york times
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Comments
The photo must be from the sixties, given the models. That looks like a 1969/1970 Buick Riviera rear end with a Oldsmobile Toronado front end� Given a couple of years of lead time, and an inclination for thin ties, it�s probably about 1965.
With regard to the past, General Motors has at Design Staff a photo library in the basement where thousands of photos are stored. These photos are of studio work, cars in progress, display finished models on the patio, an outdoor enclosed area where clay models/full size were shown. Many times small planes would circle overhead during a show and we were sure that our competitors were taking photo ops of our work in progress. Another story.
If you really look, the passenger side front is a Riviera, the driver side front is a Toronado.
This photo shows GM's "Body Development" studio in 1963. The gentlleman immediately to the right or the vertical angle (post) in the center of the photo is Paul Gillan, head of Advanced Studios, to his right the other gentleman in the suit is Joe Shamanski, boss of the Body Development Studio. None of the other men are designers, they are technical stylists, engineers, and related support staff. Several are from Fisher Body, a division of GM at that time that built all of the cars from the firewall rearward. Each division (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac) built everything from there forward, including the engines and drive trains. The Toronado (driver's half of the full size clay model) was GM's first front wheel drive automobile although it shared body components with the Buick Riviera, which remained rear wheel drive.
Regardiing the last paragraph of your commentary on the photo of the GM car studio: The clay models in the foreground platform are the 1966 Buick Riviera (passenger side) and the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado (driver's side). In all likelihood this photo was taken in 1963. Button down shirts and thin dark ties were in fashion at the time. To verify this, check any formal photo of President John F. Kennedy, a fashionable man by any standard.