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Charles Marzette works on his senior thesis model using a Ford Ranger platform along with other automotive design students at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.Hot car designers drive own bargain
Automakers pay top dollar for recent grads to craft the next cool ride.
Daniel Cline works on a drawing. "It still got to look good" he says of a perfectly engineered car.
Age: 23
Hometown: Detroit
Favorite car: Aston Martin V12 Vanquish
Quote: "I've had offers from product companies. But I want to do cars."
Age: 21
Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Favorite car: 2005 Ford Mustang
Quote: "I don't care if they engineer the perfect vehicle ... it's still got to look good."
Age: 33
Hometown: Battle Creek
Favorite car: Porsche 911
Quote: "There's definitely a premium being paid for transportation designers."
Elvir Mesalle smooths clay trying to even up both sides of his senior thesis model on a Ford Ranger platform.Related reports
Auto design students offer a peek at the future
On campus at Detroit's College for Creative Studies, in a secluded room rife with the oily scent of modeling clay, Darren Chilton and his classmates are reshaping the auto industry.
The young designers are molding miniature mock-ups of futuristic Fords, looking for the creative spark that can turn the clay into something timeless or innovative.
This new wave of artists is coming of age at the right time. With a sea of perfectly competent, high-quality and technology-laden vehicles flooding the market, automakers are finding that style is the best way to break from the pack.
For that reason, competition is fierce for talented young designers who might one day pen the next Chrysler 300, Ford Mustang or Mazda RX-8.
Looking to fill new design studios sprouting up in Michigan and southern California, automakers are offering designers fresh out of school annual starting salaries of up to $80,000, plus signing bonuses of $6,000 to $10,000. The packages are 20 percent richer than those awarded just five years ago.
"It's phenomenal," said Chilton, a 33-year-old Battle Creek native, who already has a contract to design buses for a mass transit system in Florida, as well as a pending offer from a Detroit-area automotive engineering firm. "There's definitely a premium being paid for the transportation designers."
And no longer do precocious designers have to pay their dues for years designing tail lights and instrument panels before being given a chance to design a new vehicle from whole cloth.
"When they hire interns, they're not doing photocopying and fetching and carrying," said Imre Molnar, dean of the College for Creative Studies.
The style renaissance harkens back to earlier eras, such as 1950s and 1960s, when General Motors Corp.'s Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell wowed post-WWII America with optimistic, flamboyant designs.
But the reasons for today's shift are different.
"Automakers have realized (design is) the last bastion of competition," said Ralph Gilles, an instructor at the College for Creative Studies, a design director at DaimlerChrysler Corp., and creator of the Chrysler 300C.
In recent years, the quality advantage enjoyed by Toyota and Honda over Detroit automakers has narrowed. And the same basic technologies are available on every vehicle line, from Acura to Volvo.
"Whether it's all-wheel drive or anti-lock brakes ... they're at parity," said J Mays, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of design and chief creative officer. "The one and only thing that separates the purchase of an automobile in people's minds is design."
Industry experts agree the turning point occurred around 2000.
"It was like the penny dropped on a collective consciousness," said Bill Barranco, an automotive design recruiter with California-based Autovision Inc.
But the trend-settings brands weren't Mazda or Mercedes-Benz, they were consumer product such as Apple computers, which proved computers needn't be dull, gray boxes, said Wes Brown of Iceology, a L.A.-based market research firm.
Consider that Alessi makes one of discount chain Target's best-selling toasters. Now consider its $50 price tag.
"For Target, that's expensive," Brown said. "But people are willing to pay because they want to make a statement. It's the same in a car."
Against this backdrop, automakers are feverishly breaking ground on new North American design studios.
With last year's opening of a Hyundai facility in California, the Golden State is now home to at least one design center for every major company selling cars and trucks in the U.S.
Next month, Nissan will cut the ribbon on a new design facility in Farmington Hills -- a move that will boost its complement of designers to 30 from 10.
Automakers once abided a gentleman's agreement not to actively recruit each other's design talent. That's not necessarily true anymore.
Perhaps the most chronicled defection came in 2001 when Bryan Nesbitt, creator of the hit Chrysler PT Cruiser, accepted a lucrative position with GM.
Chrysler lost at least 8 more designers to competitors in the past year and hired several new ones to take their place. Toyota and Nissan have hired Big Three designers to staff new studios.
And GM recently said it plans to hire 25 new designers and 25 sculptors as it prepares to roll out dozens of new vehicles in the coming years. GM is reloading after losing two high-ranking designers recently. Tom Kearns defected to head Kia's U.S. design team and Franz von Holzhausen was recruited by Ford to lead Mazda's design studio in California.
Autovision's Barranco said he doesn't see bidding wars breaking out between automakers. Most designers, he says, switch companies for more freedom and responsibility.
"Designers thrive on change," Barranco said. "They thrive on stimulation."
And competition for talent now includes nonautomotive companies.
"Nike will look at our car designers," said Cathy Karry, director of career services with the College for Creative Studies.
As a result of the competition, automakers are paying a premium for new designers.
"We're upping the bar, yes," said Dave Marek, chief designer of Honda R&D Americas, which is based on Torrance, Calif.
Young designers are seen as the key to reaching a rich vein of young buyers that older artists may not instinctively understand.
"The baby boomers are having a lot of trouble understanding Gen Y," said Molnar of the College for Creative Studies.
At 21, Dan Cline exemplifies this new breed. The College for Creative Studies student grew up in Mechanicsburg, Pa., building model cars.
"I don't care if they engineer the perfect vehicle with perfect ergonomics and everything is hunky dory, it's still got to look good."
Marina Khomelyanskiy, 23, who moved to Detroit from Russia to study design, is cautiously optimistic about her chances of finding a job after she graduates this year.
"I really haven't put myself out there yet," Khomelyanskiy said. "I've had offers from product companies. But I want to do cars."
Then there's Chilton, who says the expectations automakers have for young talent are humbling. "It definitely keeps you grounded," he said. "If you're smart, you don't get ahead of yourself."
The real winners are consumers, Gilles said. Because the renewed emphasis on design has better defined the various car brands in the marketplace.
"Companies are finding their own little groove and designers are helping them do that," Gilles said. "Nissan, for example, has got their own aesthetic. We have our own aesthetic. Ford's got their own thing going on. The heydays of design are back."
What's the next frontier for designers? More power, said Geoff Wardle, associate chairman of the transportation design department at Pasadena's Art College of Design.
Historically, car companies have been run by executives with backgrounds in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and finance. Wardle suggests designers deserve a chance.
"Design is not an afterthought," he said. "It's very much an integral part of the product development process. We want designers to come much closer to the top of the company where actual policy and strategy (is made). ... We want designers to be involved in that."
You can reach Eric Mayne at (313) 222-2443 or emayne@detnews.com.
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