Thanks for visiting Dean’s Garage. There is a lot more to come, so stay tuned.

This blog is dedicated to an age of optimism that is long since past. To the dreams and hopes of a bygone era. Perhaps the posts on this blog have stirred something within and revitalized an old spirit of creativity.

If you have something that you think would be appropriate to post on Dean’s Garage, please contact me.

I grew up in Riverside, California a few miles from the Riverside International Raceway. It was bulldozed in the late ’80s and the property now supports a shopping mall. Shame. That was the only thing Riverside had going for it.

I graduated from Art Center College of Design when it was still in Los Angeles.

I worked at General Motors as an Exterior Designer when it was called Design Staff. That’s after it was called Art & Colour Section and Styling, but before it was renamed Design Center. I worked under Bill Mitchell, Irv Rybicki, and Chuck Jordan. I worked in Pontiac, Buick, Olds, and Cadillac studios. Dave Holls picked a sketch of mine off the wall that became the 1992 Oldsmobile Achieva. Studio Chiefs I worked for include Ron Hill, John Schinella, Jerry Hirschberg, Wayne Kady, Bill Porter, John Perkins, David North, and Dick Ruzzin. If you’d like to see some of my work when I was at GM, visit CruiZart.

I have been freelancing under the name of Performance Design since 1988.

Thanks for stopping by.

Gary D. Smith