Don Butler Profile

Self-taught designer - Butler's portfolio in 1946.

Don Butler grew up on a farm in southern Michigan. His fist close association with a car came in 1919 when his father bought a used Chevrolet 490. When Don’s father died in 1926, the fifteen year old Butler had to give up school to help support his family.

Instrument panel designs helped land Butler a job at Hudson.

By 1928, Don left farming for factory work in nearby Hillsdale, MI. But as the Great Depression took hold, Don joined the ranks of unemployed and took what unskilled work he could find before landing a permanent job cutting fabric for men’s and boy’s trousers. He spent the next 11 years working in the garment factory and then joined the military at the outbreak of World War II.

One of Don's early airbrush renderings. 12-9-1946

While in the service, Don spent his off-duty hours drawing imaginary car designs. His colleagues were so impressed, they thought Butler had been a professional designer before the war. Although it was hard for Don to comprehend getting paid for something he had always done for fun, especially without a specialized education - his friends convinced him to make a post-war go for it.

Nash coupe concept - 4-25-1950

Butler was encouraged by interviews at Ford and Chrysler in 1946. But, it was Hudson that fist added Don to their styling staff. His first assignment was adding finishing touches to the 1948 “step-down” Hudson. Soon Don moved to better opportunities at Willys-Overland where he worked on the Jeepster, Jeep station wagons and a Willys passenger car concept.

Butler found time to design a sports car amid the merger turmoil in late 1953.

Next for Don was Nash in 1948, followed by a merger with Hudson and the formation of American Motors. By 1956 the fledgling AMC was having a rough time so Butler jumped to Chrysler and began his 18 year career in Highland Park. Don worked in interiors as well as body and ornamentation styling on all of Chrysler’s makes and models.

Chrysler interior proposal with swivel seats - October, 1956

After retirement in 1975, Butler became active as an automotive historian, authoring books on the history of Hudson, Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, DeSoto and Plymouth.

Galen Wickersham Profile

Galen Wickersham grew up in Magnum, Oklahoma but moved to Washington, DC in 1941 when his father was elected to the U.S. Congress. As a teenager, Galen enjoyed building model planes, trains and military vehicles. So, when he learned about the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild competition, creating a model car came naturally. He won awards for four years straight beginning in 1948 and began attending the General Motors Institute after graduating from Anacostia High School in 1952.

Oldsmobile concept in Wickersham's Senior Portfolio at Art Center.

Wickersham quickly learned engineering did not suit his interests or skills and returned home to Washington only to be drafted into the Army. After two years of service Galen returned to DC and attended George Washington University for three semesters. Then the industrial design program at Art Center College in Los Angeles caught his attention. Galen applied for admission with a few drawings and illustrations he had - along with one of his FBCG models.

Another concept in Galen's Art Center Senior Portfolio.

When Galen was accepted, he quickly sold his new Thunderbird and bought a station wagon to move his young family out to California. Some of his classmates at Art Center were Syd Mead, Jerry Brockstein, Roger Hughet, Don Wood and Diran Yazejian. After graduating in 1959, Wickersham interviewed with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler and was offered an interior design job at GM and a position in exterior design at Chrysler. Because of his earlier experiences with the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, Galen accepted the GM offer and began work in the Pontiac Interior Studio.

Cadillac instrument panel - Prismacolor on Canson paper.

Over the course of his 41 year career at General Motors, Galen worked on numerous Pontiac, Chevrolet, Cadillac and truck interiors. He also did work on truck exteriors in the late 1990’s before retiring in 2000.

Chevrolet interior proposal.

Galen is an avid collector of toys, designer lamps, primitive and contemporary paintings, prints and ceramics.

Another Cadillac interior design.

Ben Delphia Profile

Interior sketch for Chrysler's 300X concept car

Growing up around California's Monterey Peninsula, Ben was influenced by the many local artists that found work as school teachers as well as west coast 1950's hot rod culture. He graduated from Pacific Grove High in 1957 and attended the Art Institute of Chicago, majoring in sculpture and fine art. But after two years, his love for hot rodding and automobiles resulted in a transfer to the transportation design program at Art Center College in Los Angeles.

One of Delphia's imaginative sketches done "for fun on a slow day."

When Ben graduated in 1962, it was a down year for the auto industry. Only two Art Center seniors had commitments from Ford and GM. Everyone else, including Ben, had to fend for themselves. Fortunately for the new husband and father, he was able to secure two interviews at Chrysler and another at Ford in Detroit.

Delphia's sketches often included descriptive text to explain his innovative ideas.

Delphia's first meeting was with interior manager Charlie Mitchell at Chrysler. Mitchell was impressed enough to hire Ben immediately. “But I still have other interviews today” Ben explained. “What for? You've got the job.” replied Mitchell who had already notified the other Chrysler manager that the new guy wanted a job in interiors. Ben never made it to the Ford interview.

Here you can see Delphia's fine arts talent with a hand reaching for the shifter.

It's no surprise that Ben became the department's resident cartoonist,

drawing charicatures of his colleagues. He was also asked to create sketches to

accompany magizine artices about Chrysler designs.

Ben’s career at Chrysler spanned over 20 years. He influenced the interiors of concept vehicles like the 1966 300X and Chrysler’s production cars and minivans around the globe. With permission from Design VP Elwood Engel, Ben also designed the “Reactor” for legendary customizer Gene Winfield. Besides being a hit at custom car shows, the vehicle was featured in episodes of Bewitched, Star Trek and Batman as Catwoman’s Kitty Car.

Another one of Ben's 300X ideas for eliminating the steering wheel.

As many car companies began to outsource their interior design and manufacturing, Delphia saw the opportunity to leave Chrysler and develop his own independent design firm. Years later he accepted the position of director of styling, design and graphics for Magna Interior Systems.

This instrument panel sketch proposed using mirrors to give the dash a sleeker look.

He is a recipient of the Automotive Interiors Lifetime Achievement Award and has taught transportation interior design at Kendall College of Art and Design. Delphia holds 18 patents and over 30 corporate co-patents.

You can see more of Ben Delphia's sketches in my gallery.

Meeting the Customizers

George Barris Studios illustration of custom Mustang by "Skeet" Kerr

As part of the 2009 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, event chairman Bill Warner assembled three generations of customizers for a once in a lifetime panel discussion. Former General Motors designers Steve Pasteiner and Wayne Cherry were joined by George Barris, Dean Jeffries, Chip Foose and Beau Boeckmann.

Chip Foose's "Hemisfear"

Wayne Cherry's Cadillac Roadster

The discussion was moderated by well-known automotive writer Ken Gross in the Ritz Carlton's Grand Ballroom where an example of each man's work was displayed.

George Barris signs autographs for young fans

After the panel briefly talked about their start in the customizing business, each member left the stage and gave a walk around tour their car. The audience, which included over a hundred invited students from local schools, asked questions and collected autographs and pictures.

Dean Jeffries' "Mantaray"

The cars were also displayed as part of Sunday's Concours event.

Steve Pasteiner's Buick Blackhawk

Beau Boeckmann restored the Ed Newton "Orbitron"

Masters of Persuasion

Automotive art and design has shaped American culture for over a century. Advertising played a major role in creating brands that connect our emotions to a car's nameplate and defined what a car says about its owner. Although styling was the collaborative work of dozens of designers, modelers and engineers - advertising was often the creation of just a few individuals.

The illustrations Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman created for Pontiac in the 1960's defined the brand for generations. Fitzpatrick's masterful car illustrations combined with Kaufman's affluent background settings made for an unbeatable combination. They traveled the world on GM's dime to gather photos and inspiration for creating Pontiac's aspirational images. You may never get the chance to build your own sailboat - but somehow owning a new Pontiac helped get you a step closer.

This original illustration was used in the 1966 Pontiac Catalog.

It's hard to imagine Fitz and Van's influence today. But forty-five years ago, color television was in its infancy and photography was expensive. The Federal Trade Commission also frowned on any photographic "tricks" to lengthen or lower a car's looks. Artistic license was acceptable for illustrations.

Fitzpatrick worked under an exclusive arrangement with General Motors for 21 years. More recently he created a series of car illustrations for "America on the Move" postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service and was a consultant for PIXAR Studios' animated film Cars.

You don't have to find an original painting to acquire a Fitz and Van of your own. Magazine ads are easily found on ebay and limited edition prints can be purchased from Art Fitzpatrick himself. You can also get poster designed by Fitzpatrick from this year's EyesOn Design automobile show.

Career Spotlight: Harry Bentley Bradley

The name Harry Bradley may not be familiar to you, but there's almost no doubt you're familiar with his work. He grew up in the suburbs of Boston where his early artistic talent was nurtured through youth classes at the Museum of Fine Arts. During the summer of 1949, fourteen year old Harry contracted Polio - putting him in Boston's Children's Hospital for seven months. He passed the time with drawing. Nurses would place his wheel chair by a window overlooking the street so he could sketch automobiles. After learning to live with leg braces, Harry went on to finish grade school and became further entrenched into the car culture of the early 1950's.
He attended the College of Wooster for a liberal arts education at the urging of his parents but his real goal was a career in automobile design. He wrote to General Motors asking about job opportunities and their response suggested the industrial design program at Pratt Institute.

At Pratt Institute, one of Harry's student projects was this image of a mechanical man made from car parts. It was later published in Rodding and Re-Styling magazine. While still attending the design program, Harry launched his own business as a custom design consultant and began to contribute regularly to various automotive publications.
Kandy Klown is one example of Bradley's published hot rod designs.
Harry was recruited by General Motors during his last semester at Pratt and moved to Detroit in July, 1962. This yellow Cadillac Coupe DeVille proposal was created in 1966. Although it was against company policy, he continued to publish designs for hot rod and custom magazines under the name Mark Fadner.
Bradley worked in a number of studios during his four year tenure at GM. Above is a slick GT Coupe proposal from 1963.

The Turbo Titan III was Bradley's vision of a turbine powered show truck in 1965. Harry took advantage of GM's Fellowship study program for a Masters degree at Stanford University. While in California, he did some moonlighting on for custom car builders, the Alexander Brothers.

The Alexander Brothers had been hired by Chrysler to customize a Dodge A-100 pickup truck to display at car shows. Harry poured himself into the project that was to become a design sensation, the 1966 Deora. Click here to see many more photos of the finished vehicle.

In the spring of 1966 Harry was recruited away from GM by the Mattel corporation. Mattel wanted to hire a designer from one of Detroit's "Big 3" to create the look of their new Hot Wheels die-cast cars. Bradley's mix of hot rod and mainstream car design proved the perfect combination. The original line had 16 models in bright candy colors with carburetor stacks, mag wheels, chopped roofs and red line tires.
Although the Hot Wheels were an enormous success, the toy company was unwilling to commit to a second series. So after less than a year with Mattel, Harry resigned to start his own design firm and began work on a variety of projects - including the futuristic Tonka toy dump truck above.
Bradley's business continued to grow and you could guess if it had four wheels, Harry was asked to design it. Plastic model kits, full-size hot rods and customs, even Indy race cars wore Harry Bradley designs. Many images of Harry Bradley's custom designs can be found on custom car designer and consultant Rik Hoving's online photo archive.

Harry's 40 year career in the design business has far too many accomplishments for a single blog post. You can be assured I've barely skimmed the surface. Heck, I didn't even get into his 35 years teaching at Art Center in Pasadena, CA.

In one of those events where life comes full circle, many of Harry Bradley's designs are now displayed in the lobby of Boston's Children's Hospital - the same place where his car design career originally blossomed.
The exhibit was produced by Fred Sharf, a collector, scholar and author who specializes in buying, researching and organizing public exhibitions of design art.
Sharf has recently published a book detailing Harry Bradley's facinating life and multi-faceted career in the car design business. It's available from the MFA's Bookstore.

Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Reunion

The Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild began in 1930 to encourage teenagers to build a Napoleonic coach model from a set of plans. The coach was Fisher Body's trademark and the contest concentrated on following precise instructions that tested the competitors' construction skills. The winners recieved college scholorships worth thousands of dollars.

In 1937 the contest began shifting from craftsmanship to styling with the addition of a design competition. Contestants created a 1/12 scale model dream car. The full force of General Motors' public relations and marketing departments promoted the contest nationwide. Enrollment approached 600,000 members during the 1950's, making the organization second in size only to the Boy Scouts of America.

Regional winners were treated with a trip to Detroit and a tour of the General Motors Tech Center. Design judges came straight from GM's styling staff and many of the winners went on to America's top design schools. FBCG alumni are also represented in the Adrew F. Johnson Gallery including Richard Arbib, Pete Wozena, Bob Cadaret, Bud Magaldi, Milt Antonick, George Anderson and John Perkins.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston recently hosted a FBCG reunion and model exhibition. About 60 past contestants brought their 40+ year old models for the event that also included a variety of lectures on car design, model building and automotive history.

The two-day event was well attended with design enthusiasts of all ages. The Guildmen were on hand to answer questions about the models and their careers in design and engineering. The MFA Bookstore published a calatog of the exhibition that includes 93 color photographs.

You can learn much more about Fisher Body Craftman's Guild history in John Jacobus' book and website listed in this blog's Car Design Links section. There's also more about this reunion on Virginia Tatseos' blog.

Retro - Before Retro was Cool

The word "retro" derives from the Latin prefix retro, meaning "backwards" or "in past times" - particularly as seen in the words retrograde, implying a movement toward the past instead of a progress toward the future, and retrospective, referring to a nostalgic (or critical) eye toward the past.

Chrysler has sold over 1,000,000 retro-styled PT Cruisers

Over the last several years, the automobile industry has found success looking to the past. The PT Cruiser, Prowler, Chevrolet SSR, Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, T-bird and Beetle all look to past design trends with mostly positive results.

It took three years to sell about 40,000 retro T-birds

The New Beetle was launched in 1998

But like many things in the car business, what some people think is a new idea has already been tried... even retro. Some of my favorite examples are found on the cars of the 1955-1961 Forward Look era at Chrysler Corporation. Imagine creating a state of the art design - styling that would win Motor Trend Car of the Year for the entire corporate line up - while still incorporating motifs from 25 years in the past. The designers in Highland Park pulled it off!

The Flite Sweep decklid was offered on many Chrysler products from 1957 - 1961

Retro free-standing headlamps were on 1961-63 Imperials

When Chrysler styling VP Virgil Exner started his own company with son Virgil Jr., one of their first projects was creating a modern look for the great classic marques of the 1930's. The results were published in the December 1963 Esquire magazine where readers were treated to contempary visions of a Stutz, Packard, Duesenberg and Mercer.

Original illustration of the Esquire Duesenberg

This "retro" exercise led to a number of projects for the Exners. The Mercer design was used to build the Mercer Cobra show car for the Copper Development Association. The Duesenberg illustration convinced investors that Exner was the right choice for designing their revival attempt of the classic luxury car. The Renwal model company made a very sucessful line of 1/25th scale model cars with the Exners. Virgil Sr. even had a retro Bugatti made for himself and later designed the 1970 Stutz Blackhawk.

Copper Development Association's Mercer Cobra

1966 Duesenberg

One of 7 Revival models made by Renwal

Virgil Exner's Bugatti 101C

1971 Stutz sales photo

Although retro styling can have mass market appeal or help a wealthy few stand out from the crowd, it can evetually lead to a dead end. How do you move forward while still looking back?