Call it what you may - ART & COLOUR, GM STYLING or the term currently used today by professionals in the industry of automotive artistry, "GM DESIGN." The modern process or science of designing automobiles celebrated its 75th anniversary in June, 2003 and no doubt the entire automobile industry owes a debt of gratitude to Harley Earl. The pioneer who first introduced this conscious business activity also provided the landmark automobile design scholarship programs (under the guise of "GM Styling") that went on to allow this entirely new profession to cultivate a fresh new supply of talent sprouting forth from the world of academia. Of course this type of far reaching vision and planning contributed heavily to GM gaining another edge in the business world: Earl's "GM Styling Section" had first crack at picking from a new annual talent pool. It's one more reason demonstrating how GM reached a design monopoly status by the end of the 1950s. 

Read a seminal three page 1956 Press Release, click below, outlining why all the very first American "dream cars" came into existence. Precisely discover how Detroit's first modern design superstar and his powerful troops pumped out these one-of-a-kind show cars that went on to change everything. 

This radical paradigm-busting shift might never have happened in our society and culture if Harley Earl had never moved from Hollywood, California to Detroit and detonated his juggernaut of good design-engineering principles and good taste ideas to a largely functional based crowd inside the world's automobile capital of Detroit starting in 1928. Essentially, if this man had not led the way to industry-wide recognition that appearance and function are of parallel importance, there would not have been an organized epicenter of the car design profession that blossomed forth in Detroit...no Corvettes would have ever been made, nor would a giant tail fin trend swept through and rocked the entire industry. And these are just a couple of his major milestones. For example, could Motown have ever modernized the way it did if a revolution of the very first automotive dream cars had not materialized and rolled out Harley Earl's hybrid engineering studio doors? Simply put, the answer is real: Our American world of the last fifty years would have been radically different along with surely being a duller place if Harley Earl hadn't changed Detroit. 

By being the first trailblazer to create a professional relationship in industry whereby the artist joined hands with traditional automobile engineers and financial men was a huge step forward in American business. Men like Alfred P. Sloan (who by the way, was a New Yorker who never once lived in Michigan while being GM's longtime CEO), Harley Earl and a few select members of the Fisher family clan just chose to keep the ingredients behind exactly what they were doing - launching a new profession inside GM - a big trade secret. The undisclosed essence behind Harley Earl's connection and the storyline of what actually took place inside GM (the entire workings behind the body politics that would go on to revolutionize the way GM built their modern products) has never come forward before. 

 BIRTH OF MODERN DESIGN IN THE 1930S

1934 Cadillac Aerodynamic Coupe 

In an industry first, Harley Earl pioneered the use of a more sophisticated math-based method of pre-engineering the car ahead of time. In doing so, his visionary process simply displaced the previous way engineers in Detroit went about it. Choosing an all-new material known as modeling clay (this man would trail blaze and go on to use many other innovative composites in the following decades) was a truly revolutionary medium, and more importantly, all of General Motors creations of transportation would then be originally formed this way - to fantastic effect - under Earl's more modern guidance. This radical process has held the test of time too, for it hasn't changed much since HJE originally invented the idea, the pictures above and below proves this point. IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This was one of the most important ENGINEERING innovations of the Twentieth Century auto world...but Earl, along with GM's other top cadre of leaders of the day, chose to keep this information under the radar screen rather than capitalize off the publicity. 

Because talented car designers at GM today, along with all other major auto makers, still use the exact same three dimensional process Earl originated over 70-years ago. Why? On account no large car company can afford to risk billions of dollars creating a new line of vehicle (volume production for large auto makers often translates into millions of units), without first eyeing and touching the very seminal concept in its full-size envelope form. In another words, no car company's going to risk so much money based on a final design done of a digital cartoon of an automobile. Don't be fooled by what the high-tech pundits of the digital design / virtual reality world heavily advocate, for often enough, these newcomers are just selling their narrow self interests and doing their best to try and muscle in on selling their expensive software, and or, computer-aided innovations to certain execs in the auto industry who are often geeked by some notion of how this new technology or, future ideology based on computer graphics, could one day surpass using clay in the final stage of the design. The bottom line is that the newest cool toys on the technology scene - no matter how fast the processor is - still can't measure up to H. Earl's winning tradition of how to build prototypes. Essentially, the computer tech crowd uses all the tricks in the book to muddy-up the process and minimize the importance of the clay model by discussing using computers. The truth is, using computers in styling is rather like getting some better lighting or a different perspective on the clay model, not a replacement for the clay! 

In other words, experts in holograms and virtual reality technology are simply talking their book and are, maybe even decades, away from walking-the-walk and bringing on any real breakthrough that could go beyond using clay in the ultimate end-design concept /prototype stage. But, of course, these technology savvy professionals never admit this truism on account, if they did, their technology companies that sell their various wares to the auto design industry might have another power dive in their stock prices rivaling the down trends many tech stock companies experienced just a few short years ago.

So, it's much easier to see now how the periscope of the man nicknamed today as "The da Vinci of Detroit" and his masterful team of talented craftsmen changed the normal evolution of automotive engineering. The examples, such as creating the V-16 Cadillac Aerodynamic Coupe, shown above, that was specifically built for the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, also known as "A Century of Progress" happened right around the time of a new beginning in Motordom. This vehicle, along with many of GM's elite cars that would follow, made a statement of prestige not only to the country's leading business-people of the day, but even average Americans began to easily understand Earl's dazzling new way of communicating his expressive automotive designs. It's no wonder why this company, using an all-new modern code or language invented by HJE, landed so far out in front of its competitors. Leading up into the dawn of the 21st century, it symbolizes generations of experience in designing and engineering—in combination with bold thinking and the most advanced techniques and tools. The result is the industry's standard for trend-setting design, and for fine craftsmanship as well. 

As Harley Earl proved and proved again, eye appeal, to say the least, is a most marketable item.

To read GM's version of the story, click the picture above of the SSR clay model. 

Today, all auto makers (a Chrysler dream car concept is outlined above) still use Designer-Earl's ultra-modern rules and principles.

Brand new 2005 Corvette C6 inside one of Earl's original design studios at GM Tech Center.

Regardless of all the spin coming from graphic computer professionals these days, clay modeling is one of the most important steps used in modern car design at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Whether the car styles are by GM, Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Opel or even Ferrari and Pininfarina --- the story continues to live on and be connected to the traditions and original technology Earl introduced to the automobile profession prior to World War Two. Trevor Creed of Daimler Chrysler pictured below in a March 6, 2005  Detroit News story titled, "Risk-taking Design Chief Revitalizes Chrysler's Look" on success of the 300M.

The best part of Designer-Earl's maverick car architect story has yet to be told! The leadoff photograph in this newspaper story above is an excellent example of an area of the automobile business nobody dares talk about. For example, no senior vice presidents of design at any major auto maker today would be able to stand next to their sexy clay model car designs (the popular Chrysler 300 included) unless of course H.J. Earl had not originally introduced this cutting-edge technology to Detroit's engineering world in the first place. This invention wasn't limited to American car companies either, for all worldwide auto manufacturers follow the pattern today. 

Yes, it's a giant oversight to say the least. As a matter of fact, burying this corporate bone is another misdeed spawned by the school of wisdom originally fostered by an ex-CEO named Roger Smith who clearly got this company's legal department behind tarnishing all Auto-Innovator-Earl's modern deeds and milestones. Why you might ask? Because without what Harley Earl created for GM (it goes way beyond clay models), this company wouldn't be where it is today; mainly being the No. 1 automaker in the world uninterrupted now for over 75 years straight! The fact 9 out of 10 auto execs outside the car design profession don't even know Earl first created this hugely popular invention of clay modeling, that’s at the core behind where ever modern car comes from, is a major failure that only executives who consistently lose GM market share could ever attain.  

IN DESIGN

As many of the visual metaphors demonstrate at this website, GM was the flagship of C O O L in America for decades of time during the Twentieth Century. Why did a majority of the masses fall head over heals in love with a systematic modern language that translated into sophisticated new products flying out this company's dealer showroom doors in a broad array of mesmerizing new cars every year?

Because year in and year out, Harley Earl was winning (for his benefactor, GM) a mighty large popularity contest "IN DESIGN!"  It was all so new...the public never even really got a chance to find out much about it and how it all was so closely knitted in with the entertainment industry. They still haven't. That's because the person driving America's great big design train, who worked out all the angles from a secretive behind-the-scenes capacity inside GM, is the same acknowledged pioneer of the Automobile Design profession and person who also created the "Annual Styling Model Change." 

LIKE JAZZ, "AUTOMOBILE DESIGN" IS AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL

An Exciting Look Into The Future of Automotive Design and Engineering...the mid-twentieth-century-years were times when the world cried out for new and finer things (like times have changed!). Ask the engineers where the good, new things come from and you may be surprised to learn that most of the big problems are solved first in people's heads.