were always new cars around.” But the Auto Show was special. Designs were changing as American society shifted into a mobile culture. The automakers were experimenting with new designs, configurations and bold styles. “I like a design that has flair,” said Welburn, “that is very ex- pressive and has character that can mean very different things on different types of vehicles. Some designs need to be expressive, and others need to be quiet.
“But they all have to be contemporary. And that is what the big fins on the cars–especially the Cadillacs–were all about. They were built on the new technology of the time.” His parents encouraged him to read everything he could about car design and by the time he was 11, he said, “it was my dream to be a designer, and I did not think of it as a field in which there were not a lot of African American designers. I just thought of it as a field I was extremely interested in.” He took the unusual step of writing a letter to General Motors “and I just let them know I was an 11-year-old kid in Berwyn, Pa., who was interested in auto design and wanted their advice. What courses should I take in high school and what other preparation would I need to go to a university?” GM responded with a high school curricula and a list of the competitive colleges they recruited from. Welburn followed their advice and went to Howard University, which allowed him to de- sign his own course of study, specializing in sculpting. He joined GM’s design center in Warren, Mich., in 1972 and began a steady progression upward. In his early years, the Cutlass Supreme, 1977 Buick Park Avenue, and the Oldsmobile Riviera sprang from his creative pad. Then, in 1985, GM asked him to design a 1,000-horsepower car for the legendary race driver A.J. Foyt to pilot in the Indianapolis 500. His 1987 Aerotech, with Foyt at the wheel, set a world land speed record, averaging 257 miles per hour and topping 300 on the straightaway. In 2003, GM promoted Welburn to vice president of design, making him the highest ranking black executive in the auto industry. Two years later, the title was expanded to head of global design. In that capacity, if he is not globe-trotting, Welburn is in his office facing the equivalent of a giant video parlor. “The screen I am looking at,” he explained, “is 18-feet wide.
Today, the studio in Brazil is working on a car for their emerging market, and it’s like I’m in the studio with them–but I’m here in Michigan. The guys in our studio in Australia are part of the design review because I asked for their input. Every studio has roughly the same equipment. It is fast moving, full of energy and very creative.”
The participants in these global video design conferences
depend on Welburn’s artistic feel for the strengths of his staff. “It really depends on the project,” he said. “I know my people and I know them all around the world. I know that the team in Austra- lia has the emotion I was looking for.
“The team in Brazil is doing a fantastic job. But to give a
different perspective, I didn’t want a team that was just like the team in Brazil. The team in the UK, for example, where they are strong, they are really strong with Cadillac–something edgy,
www.blackengineer.com
something stealth-like. They are not the studio I would have gone to for this assignment.” Welburn sees the world as a global palate, with cultural changes in styles, tastes and textures. Asian artists, trained in intricate brush strokes and shades in jade, provide softer interior design cues for cars than the more brash Australian designers. “I see the entire world more than anyone else in our organi- zation,” he said. “I was in Korea, China and Australia, and while I enjoyed the time I spent in the studios, I also enjoyed walking the streets, riding the cars, seeing the automotive landscape and seeing how people use and personalize their cars. “In Dubai, the architecture is very edgy on the exterior and very light in color. Inside, it’s a shock when you see all the rich colors; brilliant colors that contrast to the exterior. We need to understand that taste as we sell cars in the Middle East. In other parts of the world, it may be colorful outside the building but dark and quiet inside. It is a way of looking at what artistic sense connects with people.”
An example is the critically acclaimed Buick Lacrosse, which was put together by a team from Warren, Michigan, taking lead on the exterior, and a team from Shanghai, China, taking the lead with the interior. The car is a hit in both countries, particu- larly China.
“The design is much better than what either of those teams would have developed on their own,” said Welburn. “There is an emerging design language coming out of China and it comes from their art, whether it is jade sculpture or cut paper. “There were a couple of people who switched locations to help the blending process. Through virtual reality, we were look- ing at each others’ designs all day, every day, so it was a pretty seamless process.”
Across town, Chrysler is now working closely with Ital- ian colleagues across the ocean at Fiat. And while coming up with eye-catching designs is not a new task for Gilles, he’s now responsible for building an identity for the Dodge brand. “Dodge and Chrysler were separating themselves into
different types of vehicles, with different customers in mind,” explained Gilles. “Dodge is a mainstream brand with an attitude. Every vehicle will have a soul.
“But Chrysler is more aspirational, more graceful with more high-end products. We’re going to a premium market where the main competitors will be Volvos, Audis and other imports.” Gilles is credited with leading the team that designed the Chrysler 300 that was introduced in 2004. The car, said Gilles, “would redefine us as a car company and it would be the kind of car the valets would park out front. That car was a perfect storm of all our ideas,” said Gilles. “That car really resonates.” And when he sat in the driver’s seat and stepped on the gas “I was almost in tears driving the car. It felt so right. It’s one thing to make it look good, but the engineers brought it home.” Critics thought so, too, and Motor Trend magazine named the Chrysler 300 its 2005 Car of the Year, beating out 24 competitors–including Porsche 911, Lotus Elise, and BMW 6. Together, Gilles’ cars led the way in an amazing turnaround for DaimlerChrysler, whose bottom line went from a $806 million
USBE&IT I WINTER 2011 87
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