car design thread

Oh, To Be A Car Designer Back In The Day


Automotive stylists faced few constraints in the 1950s, and the concepts were a show of uninhibited fantasy.

BY DAVE RANDPUBLISHED: NOV 7, 2024
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GENERAL MOTORS
For a number of years, I’ve wondered: If I had the ability to choose, what would be the best period to work as an automotive designer?

To level-set, I started my career with General Motors in the late 1970s, which was clearly not the best of times. So, to be a little more specific, from a purely American perspective, what was the best decade to be working in Detroit as a designer?

This is a different question than what decade produced the best designs, which could be the same, but that’s for another time. As always, this is a purely personal perspective, and my design colleagues may have a strong difference of opinion.

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Years ago, before I became a designer, I remember being told that I had missed an opportunity. I was born too late to be a designer in that peculiarly American fantasy period that we remember as the ‘50s. And It’s this decade that most intrigues me.

America entered the post-war years as the most powerful nation on earth, accompanied by an optimism that would be difficult to comprehend in today’s environment.

Because of the war, the 1940s was a lost decade for automotive development, with production ceasing in 1942 and resuming in 1946 with slightly modified pre-war designs.

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TOM MURPHY
1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe sedan.
It was only in the latter ‘40s that most domestic automakers introduced truly new models. Add to that a car-buying public that had been starved of product for four years, and you could pretty much sell anything that had four wheels on it.

The ‘50s continued that trend, and with an expanding economy and a vision of the future that could only hold great promise it was an exciting time to work in the industry.

This positive environment found no better expression than in the design studios, where it appeared that as the decade progressed, any constraints as to what a designer (or the manufacturer) could produce were progressively pushed aside.

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FORD
1957 Ford Thunderbird.
Most importantly, the emphasis on styling, and its prioritization within the industry, was never greater—which meant designers had more power to influence the architecture of the car.

You only have to look at a typical sedan from the beginning of the ‘50s compared to one from the end of the decade to see the dramatic change in proportions. That “longer, lower, wider” ideal was clearly not being pushed by engineering.

The ‘50s also began the “jet age,” which had a strong influence on American automotive design. Though there had been a history of aircraft design impacting automotive styling, it would reach its zenith in this period.

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At the time, technology was something to be embraced. What better way to recognize technology than to have a motif of the latest jet plastered on the side of your car (1958 Pontiac Chieftain), or rocket-like tailfins sprouting from the back?

Today we may question the taste or value of these stylistic flourishes, but they were very much the standard of the period. You can’t help but feel the sheer enthusiasm these vehicles projected.

If the production cars of the ‘50s weren’t overtly expressive enough, well, the show cars of the era hinted at an even more compelling and exciting future.

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TOM MURPHY
1959 General Motors Firebird III concept on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2022.
Whatever restraints remained in the design of production vehicles—and by the end of the decade there were few—the concepts were vehicles of uninhibited fantasy.

Some would eventually reach production, while others served as testbeds to gauge public reaction. Perhaps no company leveraged this more than GM with its traveling Motorama shows.

Complete with a live review of singers and dancers and the company’s latest show cars, these events captured the spirit and theatricality that defined the period and its cars.

And yet...

I realize that like so many others I may be guilty of over-romanticizing the ‘50s. And if I try to think back objectively, peering through the nostalgic fog, there were some awful cars that were produced then.

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TOM MURPHY
In truth I never really related to most, finding them heavy, arbitrary, and decorated instead of designed. But this was the decade of styling, with all the negatives and positives that word connotes.

And in the end maybe that reflects my own sense of ambivalence to the period as well, and what it would feel like working in that environment. You know that old saying about a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there?

That pretty much sums up the ‘50s for me.

 

Love it, thanks for posting.
My son works at Apple!
But not design.

 

I also like this one.

 

What happened to Audi?

What has happened at Audi?
Mr. Sketchmonkey examines the dilemma.

 

It's about time!

 

Problem is, the team at Tesla took them for their word.

 

Bertone is going to do their own car.
"More pics of the #Bertone GB110, the Italian consultancy's first ever own-brand hypercar. Its lines are said to be inspired by the famous wedge-shaped designs Bertone created back in the '60s and '70s..."
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