What is the World's "Automobile Design" Legacy? For one, every car designer across the globe today can be traced back to one revolutionary individual. 

Although you may not recognize his name, millions of people look and interact with this man's artistic lifestyle creations. The heritage of his legacy runs deep for he first invented – in America – the rules and principles of the Automobile Design profession when none existed before. Harley J. Earl (HJE) began making a most enduring contribution to our society and culture after penning a partnership in 1926 with a middle of the pack auto maker, General Motors. After which, Earl moved his profitable and high-tech custom car designing operation from Hollywood/Los Angeles, CA. to Detroit, MI. and within a decade, this auto-innovator would be credited for starting the industry or business of designing cars in the transportation world, i.e., "inventing the art of making cars." Going into the post World War Two years, Detroit was entirely dependent on Earl's new ultra-modern volume "design" production methods and at that time, most savvy auto execs and automotive media correspondents understood the new order of the day: 'Design' was the No. 1 reason for car sales.  After a career spanning nearly 50 years, Harley Earl is also credited for taking the entire global automotive economy into the DESIGN business by the early 1960s. The power of DESIGN remained the dominant American auto market sales leader throughout the end of the 20th century!

Mr. Earl liked to refer to his new profession as the 'MODERN ART OF INDUSTRY' and the following quote, from 1956, reflects his timeless approach, overall depth and artistic reach:

After Harley Earl introduced a more innovative way to build cars in the late 1920s, Henry Ford's old fashioned utilitarian methods crumbled and quickly became obsolete. The ultra-futuristic tradition of "pre-styling the auto body ahead-of-time" using Earl's colorful life-size two dimensional drawings and full-size clay models (Detroit's 'modern master' is shown above pointing out a visual feature on the Club de Mer show car) became a couple of visual cornerstones behind creating the auto world's dependency on design. 

During the mid-century years, the automobile design profession became the central universe behind what made the modern automotive industry tick. Even today, Harley Earl’s complete methodology of integrating art, science, and showmanship has held the test of time and continues being the worldwide standard, or, key foundation to business success of building modern transportation product designs, for all worldwide auto makers skillfully Style or Design ahead of time.  Mr. Earl wrote the following excerpt in 1938 while addressing his revolutionary new way of auto body development, "pre-engineering the automobile and designing style and beauty in the building of modern motor cars":

     Out of the merger of art, science and industry have come new techniques that have within themselves the ability to create an entirely new pattern and setting for the life of the world.

     Mention the word "art" to a roomful of people and most of them will think of a great painting. Some will think of sculpture or architecture – a few, of music or literature.

     But hardly anyone will think of industry.

     For art in industry is comparatively new. Only in recent years has the interest of manufacturer and user alike been expanded from the mere question of "Does it work?" to include "How should it look?" and "Why should it look that way?" Appearance and style have assumed equal importance with utility, price and operation. The artist and the engineer have joined hands to the end that articles of every day use may be beautiful as well as useful.

     Every civilization has contributed something of importance to man’s understanding of the principals of beauty. It remained for our own times, through new forms of skill, to provide the means by which artistic creations are made available to everyone. Probably in no field have the results of the application of art to the products of industry been more apparent than in the that of the automobile.

Read the following billboard paragraphs and list of modern innovations from a comprehensive 2007 business magazine article titled, "The Lost Legacy of Harley Earl":

    How many times have you heard the phrase "As GM goes, so goes the nation"?

    How often have you come across someone referring to "America’s love affair with the automobile"? These common sayings epitomize American culture in the 20th century and remind us of a heritage that we struggle to retain. And this tradition probably would not exist if not for one man — Harley Earl.

    Harley Earl came to General Motors in 1927 and retired in 1958. During that time, he turned the business of designing, mass-producing and marketing automobiles on its head. With the possible exception of Henry Ford, no other person has single-handedly contributed more to the evolution of the modern automobile industry.

From the original framework of his 1927 LaSalle, Earl's design patent below left, to forms such as the Firebird III in 30-years time was a quantum leap. So far from the usual or the commonplace, none but a grand master could have carried out these daring new aerodynamic designs. 

While introducing new guidelines on the art form of modern day Motor Car Designing, Harley Earl made the following statement showing how the designer and/or engineer must know what is underneath before he or she can design the covering, or envelope, known as the body: 

     LEONARDO DA VINCI, the great Florentine artist, demonstrated that in order to arrive at a satisfactory portrayal of the human form the artist must possess a knowledge of anatomy – especially of the bones and muscles that make up the structure of the body.

     As in the case of the automobile, mechanical improvements, too, have contributed to improved appearance. In fact, it is rather an accepted principle that as a product is improved functionally, it tends to become better artistically.

Through the language of vision – which knows no boundaries –  this online venue will continue introducing exclusive segments on the untold side of Harley Earl's life and work. From a kaleidoscope of images to a vivid storyline, we intend to supply everything imaginable. All of which, will be brought to you in living color and historical black & white photography...along with audio clips and reel footage.