The Greatest Car Designers of the Century

The true era of Car Design began with the arrival of Harley Earl in 1927 at General Motors. Before that Car manufacturers never gave value to the way their cars looked. All focus was on mass production.

There were mainly two types vehicles which were produced:
1) Mass Production cars for common man- affordable, reliable and simple. Like the Ford's Model T.
2) The luxury vehicle for wealthy people

But with the drop of sales, car manufacturers had to think out of the box. GM reacted to the needs and began focussing on the looks of the cars. The transformation of a machine for transportation with just an engine, chassis & drive-train into a something which drew attention and felt good had begun.
Here I am listing the Car Designers who went on to change the machine into a real piece of art and beauty.


Harley Earl


Harley J. Earl (November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969) was first Vice President of Design at General Motors. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of modern transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as design techniques. He subsequently introduced the “concept car” as both a tool for the design process and a clever marketing device.Earl's Buick Y-Job was the first concept car, he started "Project Opel", which eventually became the Chevrolet Corvette, and he authorized the introduction of the tail-fin to automotive styling. During World War II, he was an active contributor to the research of camouflage.His thinking brought out a certain talent that he was able to style such gems as the Buick LeSabre show car and other equally impressive firsts. They include, but are not limited to, being the father of the Corvette, introducing the annual styling model change, putting the first-ever onboard computer in an automobile, chrome trim, two-tone paint, hardtops, and wrap-around windshields, but he probably is best known to the general public for beginning the tailfin craze that dominated automobile styling in the 1950s and early 1960s.


Battista Pininfarina


Giovanni Battista "Pinin" Farina (2 November 1893 - 3 April 1966) was an Italian automobile designer, the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company, a name associated with many of the best-known postwar sports cars (especially Ferraris).Giovanni Battista Farina was born in Turin, Italy. The tenth of eleven children, his nickname, "Pinin" (the youngest/smallest (brother), in Piedmontese), referred to his being the baby of the family. Pinin started working in his brother Giovanni's body shop at the age of 12 and it was there that his interest in cars was born. He stayed at Giovanni's Stabilimenti Industriali Farina for decades, learning bodywork and beginning to design his own cars.Pinin formed Carrozzeria Pininfarina in 1930 to focus on design and construction of new car bodies, and quickly gained prominence. Only Carrozzeria Touring was more sought-after in the 1930s. Battista's work for Ferrari, starting in 1952, would become his most famous, though much of it was managed by his son, Sergio, who currently runs the firm. Some time in the early 1950s Stabilimenti Farina was absorbed into the by now much larger Carrozzeria Pininfarina.Farina officially changed his name to "Battista Pininfarina" in 1961. The change was authorized by President of the Italian Republic, acting on a proposal made by the Minister of Justice.
The last design personally attributed to Battista Farina was the iconic 1600 Duetto for Alfa Romeo. This was first seen by the public at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966. He died less than a month later, on 3 April.




Marcello Gandini

Marcello Gandini is an Italian car designer, widely known for his work with the automotive design house Gruppo Bertone, notably his design of theLamborghini Countach.

The son of an orchestra conductor, Gandini was born in Turin, Italy on August 26, 1938.

Gandini designed Lamborghini's Miura and Countach and many practical cars as well, including the Citroën BX, the first-generation BMW 5-series, the Innocenti Mini, and the Renault Supercinq. He introduced the concept of scissor doors with the Alfa Romeo 33 Carabo prototype, while the Lancia Stratos supercar was another Gandini design. Gandini also designed concept cars like for instance the Bertone Pirana. Gandini left Bertone in 1980, pursuing freelance automotive, industrial and interior design.

Gandini gave the World the Wedge-Shaped Cars and Cab-Forward design, seen in so many modern supercars.

Lamborghini Countach

Giorgetto Giugiaro

Giorgetto Giugiaro (born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automobile designer responsible equally for a stable of supercars and several of the most popular everyday vehicles driven today. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont.

Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.

In addition to cars, Giugiaro has designed camera bodies for Nikon, computer prototypes for Apple, Navigation promenade of Porto Santo Stefano and even developed a new pasta shape "Marille", as well as office furniture for Okamura.

Noted initially for such sensuous efforts as the Ferrari 250 Berlinetta Bertone, De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo and Maserati Ghibli, Giugiaro switched courses to introduce the highly angular "folded paper" era of the 1970s. Straight lined designs such as the BMW M1, Maserati Bora, and Maserati Merak followed before a softer approach returned in the Lamborghini Cala, Maserati Spyder, Ferrari GG50. He has designed cars for every major company. 


From Ferrai GG50, Lotus Espirit and Maserati Quattroporte to Suzuki SX 4 and Hyundai Sonata, he has designed it all.


Chris Bangle


Christopher Edward "Chris" Bangle (born October 14, 1956) is an American automobile designer. Bangle is known best for his work as Chief of Design for BMW Group, where he was responsible for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce motor cars.

Bangle's designs are incorporated in the entire BMW lineup, including the 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 series as well as the X3, X5, and X6 the newest design SUVs, and the concept car Gina. These span the automotive platforms E81 / E82 / E87 / E88, E90 / E91 / E92 / E93, E60 / E61, E63 / E64, E65 / E66 and E53. Bangle himself did not (as is commonly believed) coin the phrase "flame surfacing" to describe his work; this can be attributed to a motoring journalist, and is probably the first time Deconstructivism has been adapted to automotive design. The reason for this design was to use BMW's new technology of 3D panel pressing allowing a single press for compound curves, which had previously needed multiple pressings unless the panel was shaped by hand. This is further evidenced by the fact that Bangle has often pointed out architect Frank Gehry's work as a major influence.

The most controversial of his work was the E65 7 Series, a sharp contrast to the preceding E38 generation which was conservatively styled. Time magazine named it as one of the 50 Worst Cars of All Time for its rear end styling and iDrive functionality, nonetheless it became the best-selling 7 Series of all time.

During the Bangle era, BMW overtook Mercedes as the global leader in premium car sales.Bangle aggressively defended his designs against criticism. He was supported by the BMW board of directors, who wanted to move BMW's image into the future. He said it was necessary for product lines to follow a cycle of a revolutionary generation followed by an evolutionary generation followed by another revolutionary generation and so on. Indeed, he oversaw the conservative evolution of BMW designs with the redesign of the BMW 3-Series BMW E46 and the introduction of the BMW X5. For Bangle this marked the end of the evolution of BMW design and the revolution was witnessed with the 2002 introduction of the BMW E65. Bangle acknowledges that his designs do not look good in photographs, suggesting to critics that they should see the cars in real life before judging them on their looks. He introduced a new BMW concept car, called GINA on June 10, 2008.

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Design-What is it all about?

Design- What is it all about?


'In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service'. - Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO, Apple


'I would suggest first reading Sir Kenneth Clark’s The Nude and substituting the term “Car” for “Nude”…in about 5 chapters you will know all about Z4s and how they break away from the world of the everyday.'- Chris Bangle, Former Designer at BMW


These were a few examples of people who have played an important role in revolutionizing the world of Design.
These are just few examples of how people define design. Everyone has different words for the same thing, though you might not notice it, still they mean the same.


Design is not just a science, it is an art. Fueled by emotion. Driven by passion. Created to please, to extract emotions perhaps, and to make a point. A luxury. A pursuit for creative minds. Beautiful. Arresting.


Design reflects our culture, our society, our rules, our nature, our very own idea of life. It is so omnipresent that we often forget to notice it. 


Have you ever noticed a ball pen? Not seen, but noticed it. A ball-pen is considered a revolutionary design idea that changed the way we write today. The need to incessantly refill his fountain pen from a bottle of ink was driving Ladislao Biro crazy. In the early 1930s he and his brother Georg, a chemist, started experimenting with a pen that would not need to be refilled and would not smudge the pages. The concept would revolve around a ball that was used on the tip of the pen. As the object moved along the paper the ball would rotate and bring ink from the cartridge. The pen was publicized as the only pen that could write under the water.


Another example I can quote is that of the Helvetica Font. Helvetica was designed in post-war Europe, and many companies were looking for a change. It was the opposite of all the kitschy, fancy, decorative typography that covered corporate materials and advertisements. Helvetica’s sleek lines and modern sensibilities were just what companies were looking for to remake their identities and set themselves apart from the past. The rising popularity of Helvetica is a clear example of that. Even today, we fall in love with the type just when we see it. 


   “You know a design is good when you want to lick it”
                                                                      -Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Inc


Designer have drawn inspiration from various sources. But, one which has attracted them all is our very own human body.
"Kate Winslet is my ideal woman. She is naturally a very shapely woman, very British with an underlying integrity and ability. Like a car, she has got substance, she is not just a pretty face." This was the answer given by Jaguar's chief designer Ian Callum when he asked about his inspiration source of the new Jaguar XK.


Even my thoughts have been stirred by the idea of the human body as design inspiration. I you ever happen to have come across sketches used in fashion design industry you would notice how a how curves are used to used to define a female form whereas tangents are used for male forms.

According to me the same philosophy is applied to car design too. We have graceful Aston Martins, Jags, Mercs, Alfa Romeos, Zondas defined by beautiful curves. On the other hand we have Reventon, Mustang, Camaro which are mostly defined by simple yet elegant tangents.


Design has always been an essential part of our lives though we may sometimes forget to pay attention to it, still it will always be.


The best way to judge/measure/evaluate design is to put it to use, see what like it has been done before, and what new has been explored in this version, for it will or is usually a version, see how sensitive it is to the environment it is created for.


Design is negative space – for it is not an end in itself. It exists to fulfill a need. The moment you recognise the negative space, you start to see the real outlines of design. And then your eyes will never be muddled with mere decoration again.

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