A Work of Stunning Artistic Achievement
A year before the Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild launched in 1930, a Detroit News newspaper article covering the burgeoning "Industrial Art" arena quoted H. J. Earl's positive vision on educating future generations of American car builders, "It is indeed a queer thing," said Mr. Earl "that while the motor industry is one of the most powerful in the country, no important course are being given in the schools in automobile design. Such a course should depend upon the closest cooperation between the students and the automobile industry." Aimed at youths (you could be 11-years old to enter), this art and engineering competition was an inspirational beacon of light.
The following ’67 NY Times article on this national yearly phenomenon is categorical evidence.
Conducted from 1930 through 1968 (though not during World War II), the GM-sponsored Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild, FBCG, competition invited boys and teenagers ages 11 to 20 from across the country to design and then build scale model cars, with thousands of dollars in scholarships awarded to the winners. It was .
In 1951, FBCG youths on tour in GM Styling with HJE behind-the-wheel.
The miracle of the mid 20th century industrialized art world is directly linked to Mr. Earl's becoming America's Car Design Pioneer, and, the FBCG and the Detroit Institute of Styling (both geared to develop highly paid auto stylists, i.e., car designers, see below) were offshoots of this new business calling.
Harley taught General Motors how to get its "modern" game on by creating the first car design department, ever. What this pioneer introduced inside GM and Detroit quickly allowed him a seat at the company’s high stakes table relating to the “determination of policy” in the company. This new conscious business area, i.e., Car Design, was then elevated high up inside GM’s hierarchy. Hence, from its inception Art & Colour and/or GM Styling gave GM a huge edge to start unlocking a more-sophisticated universe of engineering and auto making to gain market share. Starting in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the positive sales results had far reaching implications.
An American Original
This historical GM Photographic picture demonstrates just one important facet of Harley Earl's new three dimensional world of car architecture. His 3D DNA radically went on to revolutionize the global auto building economy. Every worldwide car maker today follows this exact business pattern (pre-engineering a car or truck ahead of time) in full-size clay model mode within a state-of-the-art car design department. The Car Design operating system is afar from "low tech." The state-of-the-art design studio, above, is from 1964.
This picture provides a duplicate template to how all car companies the world over birth all their major car and truck product designs today. Harley’s technological hatchery, notice the large team of players, has held the test of time. Computers have yet to supersede this advanced building template, methodology or operating system that drives one of the largest cash cow businesses in the world: the global automotive economy.
Before coming to GM, H.J. Earl had perfected using all new tools (some of which are seen in the above photo) and had created an entirely new hybrid engineering language. Yes, long ago, Harley was the one to originally create the first "Glossary of Terms" behind the Car Design profession. Of course other new areas and terms were built on top this original infrastructure.
Why did Harley's invention of creating this formalized business pattern entail such an incredible forward vision, hence becoming such a titanic achievement today? Because since the end of WW Two, over 95 percent of every worldwide cars and trucks came to life using this pioneering technology. Yes, it’s an astounding figure for over a 1 billion cars and trucks stem from the original clay modeling process this California engineer originally formulated. The following HJE quote sums up a big part of why his story still remains a mystery, “Secrecy is a necessary part of the process.”
Google "full size clay models of cars" and you'll discover the pattern every major global auto maker uses to build their product designs. Over the entire span of the automobile industry, Car Design technology has played the most significant role of turning the automobile into a more artful product. Naturally, America scored a huge victory having this Car/Auto Design department first unfold inside General Motors long ago!
Send us an email if you want to discover why GM’s leaders nixed the highly successful FBCG in 1968. Like the rest of the overall story, the answer will surprise you.
