Paul was interested in cars for as long as he can remember. One day the shop manager at a local Pontiac dealership let him drive his beautiful MG TC home to show his mother in hopes of getting one for his High School graduation, but that didn’t happen. So the first thing Paul spent his money on while in the Army was a MG TD. He attended many sports car races in the east, including the Sebring 12-hour International race.

Paul graduated from Pratt Institute in June, 1954 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design. He was hired by GM Styling after being interviewed by Bill Mitchell, and began his career in the Orientation Studio, then was moved to Pontiac Studio under Paul Gillan and worked on the Strato Star show car.

Strato Star Show Car

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The Army interrupted his career. Paul was inducted into the Army in December, 1954 at Fort Dix. He was transferred to Ft. Knox and served as battalion photographer, in the 339 Corps of Engineers unit. He went through training at Ft. Eustis for Project Dewline West (Alaska and Canada), where he served as instruction cadre in cargo registration. On return from the arctic, Paul made a plaster scale model of the future site of the Jamboree at Valley Forge that they were to build. He served on a survey crew, as a photographer, and as a company orderly. Paul was discharged in December, 1956.

Paul returned to Styling in January, 1957 to orientation studio for short period. There he worked on Stingray proposals. Then back to Pontiac studio under Paul Gillan and later under Joe Schemanski, and worked on the ’59 Pontiac. He contributed to the front and side spear, wheel discs, and rear quarter treatment. Upon transfer to Pontiac, Paul quickly sold his MG TD and moved into a new 1957 Corvette.

In late ’57 Paul was transferred to Chevrolet under Claire MacKichan. He worked on ’60–’63 Chevrolets, contributing to new fronts, side, and rear end treatments, front end panels and décor for the Corvair, and minor Corvette grille changes. He was credited for the ’61 front, the ’62 rear, and the ’61 Corvair front.

Paul’s photos from Sebring, 1957

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In ’61 Paul moved to Buick under Bernie Smith. There he contributed to the ’63 Electras, LeSabres, and the compact Buick Skylark. Buick studio was taken over by Dave Holls. Paul also contributed to Riviera, Electra LeSabre, and the new Skylark designs.

Paul was promoted to Asistant Chief Designer in ’62 and transferred into Pontiac Studio under Jack Humbert for the ’64–’67 programs, including the new GTO option for LeMans, the B-body Catalina, the Grand Prix, the A-body LeMans, and the X-400 show car

He was again transferred to Moved to Buick in 1965, as Assistant to Dave Holls. He worked on the new Electra, LeSabre, Wildcat, Skylark, and GS models. Buick Studio was taken over by Don Lasky. Paul was moved to Studio X for a while to work on the ’67 Firebird lead-in.

On to Truck Studio in ’68 as Assistant to Bill Lange, and contributed to the birth of the Blazer and Jimmy, development of Chevrolet and GMC pickups, RTX and city bus, the El Camino for Chevrolet and GMC, and the Astro Cab (aluminum tilt) heavy-duty and medium duty front ends. Mike Lathers took over from Bill Lange as Truck Studio Chief. During that time the GMC Motor Home, medium and heavy-duty trucks, the  General and G.M.C. STS bus were developed.

In ’70 Paul went down to Advanced Chevrolet under Dave Clark to help develop the new A-body sedan.

Paul was moved with Dave Clark in ’73 to run Buick Two Studio when Buick Studio was split. There he helped productionize the new Riviera. Paul also worked on the new Skylark FWD X-body and A-body platforms (Regal and Riveria show car).

Paul was moved into the Multipurpose Studio from ‘75–’78 where he worked on the LUV truck, the S-10 pickups, Blazer, the A-body wagon, and the Astro/Safari M-vans.

Paul spent ’79–’85 in Advanced 4 Studio under Kip Wasenko and worked on the last C-body RWD Cadillac, the new Pontiac F-body, and the Lotus Sport.

From ’86–’92 Paul was with Tom Peters in the Advanced Corvette Studio. ’92–’95 was spent with Jim Bieck in Advanced Chevrolet developing the ’04 Mote Carlo. Paul spent ’96 in the Advanced Truck Think Tank.

When I was at GM, Paul was always great to be around. Encouraging and uplifting with a great sense of humor. Thanks, Paul, for providing the content for this post, and your friendship.

Studio artwork by Paul Deesen

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Russ had a stellar career with 40 years as a designer with General Motors Design from 1955-1995. He graduated from Pratt Institute in 1954, and won the 1st national Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild award in 1949. Be sure to check out the first post featuring Elia Russinoff’s design work.

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Our designer friend and colleague, Elia ‘Russ’ Russinoff, has provided a portfolio of his work to feature on Dean’s Garage, shown on behalf of the Automotive Designers Guild and The League of Retired Automotive Designers, of which Russ is a fellow member.

Included among the 40+ sketches/photos is an image of a gold-colored 3/8ths scale model, called Illusion with the greenhouse sculpturally integrated into the form of the vehicle body, created in celebration of GM’s having worked with Libby-Owens-Ford (LOF) on vehicle glass development for 50 years. The cartoon in the portfolio, by Stan Parker, depicts several designers, modelers, and tech stylists with Russ seated in the vehicle. The illustration showing a dramatic 3/4 rear perspective of a pointy advanced car design demonstrates Russ’s out-of-the-box thinking. The Mead-like rendering of a couple of hovering, wheelless vehicles, was used along with other futuristic renderings by other designers for a presentation by Bill Mitchell on automotive design. Other images shown are from Russ’s work in Advanced Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet Studios, the Aero Studio, and Advanced Vehicle Concepts Studio.

It’s been my good fortune to have known Russ for over 40 years, and I enjoyed working with him during my early days at GM Styling, in the Advanced Pontiac Studio, where he was a creative inspiration to all of us who worked with him. We’ve remained good friends for all these years, and I can truthfully say that while the years have passed, his enthusiasm, love, and passion for good car design is as sharp as it was back in the late 1960s when we worked together. His concept contributions as one of the founding members of the League of Retired Automotive Designers, at the various venues the League has exhibited its members designs at in recent years are exciting and forward thinking. Russ was also 1st Place Sr. National Winner in the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild Model Car Competition in 1949, and has been active in Guild Events over the years since, including the 2004 Guild Reunion held at GM Design, and the Eyes On Design concours event that year.

Elia (Russ) Russinoff
1955-1995 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1960s Contributed to styling of several production Pontiacs and advanced aero projects
1955 Contributed to styling of Cadillac Town & Country show car
1954 Pratt Institute Graduate
1949 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award

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By John Mellberg

I’ve had these photos filed in a brown envelope since leaving GM Styling in 1972. The car in the photos was a Firebird that was underway when I was assigned to the Advanced Pontiac Studio, initially working for Gordy Brown, Studio Chief Designer, and then, when management decided to shuffle the Chiefs around—Jerry Hirshberg became the Studio Chief Designer for Advanced Pontiac and Gordy Brown took over Advanced Buick Studio. It was a great learning experience working with both of these talented design leaders and the Advanced Pontiac team members. We had a lot of creative fun working together, while learning from one another in the process.

Working in Adv. Pontiac when I came on board was Roger Hughet (Assistant Chief Designer), Elia Russinoff (a lifelong friend), John Houlihan, Dennis Burke (a then GMI Co-op designer), Dave Rossi (Chief Modeler) Cliff Gabler, Kurt Struckmeier, Dean Towne, Juergen Stoldt, Klaus Brink (a good friend and Studio Engineer), and Rick Stuhlstatz (Klaus’ assistant). If I’ve forgotten anybody, my sincere apologies, as this was a long while ago.

This Firebird design was initially developed from a series of 1/5th scale clay and fiberglass models, from which one was picked to do full-size.  We had been working on the refinement of the design for about 6 months when Jerry Hirshberg joined us. The design went from a single theme, to 2 themes, or variations, with one side the sporty design with full wheel cuts, and the other side, a boulevard design with the rear wheels skirted. This gave the model an interesting split personality. At the time these photos were taken by Bob DeMerrill, a Design Staff Photographer, the clay model had been fully di-noc’d and details were cartooned by this writer to add visual substance to the design. The modelers foiled the headlight bezels/cans and trim around the tail lights. It was a bold, striking design, clearly a complete departure from the then current FIrebird, and would have been a hatchback. The large round headlights give the car a place in time, as it wasn’t long after we had worked on this that rectangular headlights emerged on GM automobiles and the others. The model’s color was a metallic orange, somewhat like the recent 2005 GTO Ram Air 6 Concept that Kip Wasenko’s group put together adding muscle to the Australian GTO beyond its appearance as had been shipped to the States as a Pontiac.

If I recall correctly, we abandoned work on this car when the then new Federal regulations for front and rear bumpers became law, as this design would not have been compliant. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen photos of this concept proposal ever published. Perhaps my fellow design colleagues from Advanced Pontiac Studio who also contributed to the design of this vehicle can further add to the pedigree of this design and its history.—John Mellberg

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Photos Courtesy of Wayne Ellwood

The GTO Concept was created in the fall of 1998 in only three or four months. It was done when Brian Baker had the Advanced Design Group, during the time when Wayne Cherry wanted to explore designs 15 years into the future. Wayne Cherry also wanted all of the brands to have their own identity. They made brand character models for each brand and after that the designer could only use those ques that related to a certain brand.

The GTO’s designer was Jay Bernard. When they had a press conference about the car, he remarked that at the start of the program he had never heard of a GTO. So they brought in a sculptor old enough to not only know what a GTO was, but also actually had one. He worked with Jay through the design process, and among other responsibilities was supposed to also make sure it came out looking like a GTO. His influence was negligible.

Jerry Palmer had the most direction in the design. Ben Salvador and Glen Durmisevich were also in that group. Another designer that had input in the GTO was Jim Brinkerhoff.

A foam pushmobile was made and it ended up at a few car shows around the country, including the Detroit Auto Show. Then it disappeared.

The GTO Concept exterior was one of the first all-math models. The interior only existed as sketches. It was milled in foam, not clay. No room for mistakes.

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Car & Driver video from the 1999 Detroit Auto Show.

Thanks to Joel Ratts.

Oldsmobile wanted to highlight the introduction of the Quad Four engine by showing it off as a highly modified engine mounted onto an Indy type racing chassis. The goal was to have the car break the world lap record around an Indy-style oval track and be driven by former Indy 500 winner, A.J. Foyt.

Our goal was to develop an eye-catching interior to complement the exterior development for an introduction at the Chicago Auto Show. So in the summer of 1984, our design team made a trip to the Michigan 500 track to research the car chassis and to understand the driving needs of the racers. Upon returning, I started developing the design themes. We wanted to convey a design that was not only reflected the essence of a race machine, but also incorporate some high tech electronics such as Head-Up Display, Flip-Up Digital Info Panels, Access Panels to the onboard computers, and video cameras. My design themes were inspired by the F-16 fighter aircraft cockpit as well as some of the fantastic robotic models coming from Japan.

One minor problem that developed during our design phase was that we could not obtain any reference drawings from England where the March racing chassis were built. Without those drawings we could not accurately build our upper portion of our design to properly interface with the real car. We found out that the people in England knew their job well enough to complete the cars without reference drawings since they were all hand-built. Luckily, GM Design Staff was able to obtain a body chassis that had been involved in a crash, allowing us to take critical reference points. We had the unique opportunity to work closely with some very forward-thinking engineers from GM’s Delco Electronics that provided us with the digital display panels and supported us in developing all the electronic components, including the head-up display unit.

The interior design was completed by 1986 and introduced with the exterior show car model at the 1987 Chicago Auto Show. This was one of my most favorite projects. I had the pleasure to work with a fantastic group of people at Design Staff, incorporate cutting-edge electronics, and establish a great working relationship with various other GM groups such as Delco.

Thanks very much to the very talented William Quan who now works as an Industrial Designer for Teague in Seattle, Washington.

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I was in Oldsmobile 2 Studio when Ed Welburn was given the assignment to develop the Aerotech. The car was modeled in an out-of-the-way basement studio away from prying eyes. It is interesting to note that two years earlier when the Achieva styling model was being developed, Dave Holls decided to pull the clay out of the studio and put it down stairs so its development could be hidden until it was finished and ready for review. I think the Achieva clay was really starting to look good in the studio and Dave didn’t want Chuck or others meddling with it until it was further along. It came out pretty good and was the subject of a previous post on Dean’s Garage. I did the initial design of the car, full-size renderings, centerline and 3300 sections. But I wasn’t able to see the car through myself, as I was in Olds 1 and the Achieva was in Olds 2. The sculptors did an outstanding job surfacing the Achieva styling model. I wish I could remember the names of those involved.

The Oldsmobile Aerotechs were a series of experimental high-speed vehicles created between 1987 and 1992 incorporating the latest in performance technology with the intention of breaking multiple automobile speed records. The first such car was driven by four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt to a world closed-course speed record of 257.123 mph (413.788 km/h) on 27 August 1987 at the 7.712-mile (12.411 km) test track near Fort Stockton Texas. Prior to this, on 26 August 1987, the car had posted a top speed over a mile of 267.88 mph (431.10 km/h). The car consisted of a March Indycar single seat chassis enclosed in an extremely efficient aerodynamic body shell. It was powered by a highly turbo-charged version of the 2-litre Oldsmobile Quad 4 engine. The Aerotech body was designed by GM Design staff and was one of the sleekest vehicles ever developed for use on a high speed track. The design of the Aerotech included the capability of adjusting underbody sections to control the distribution of downforce, front to rear. Oldsmobile produced three versions of the original Aerotech to prove the capabilities of the company’s Quad 4 engine. Two were short-tailed (ST) versions and one was long-tailed (LT).

Subsequently, between 7–15 December 1992, another version of the Aerotech, this time powered by a 4.0 litre Oldsmobile Aurora V8 engine and fitted with lights, broke 47 speed endurance records including the 10,000 and 25,000 kilometre world speed records. Other national and international speed records ranging from 10 kilometres to 24 hours were accomplished by a team of drivers working 24 hours a day for 8 days. These records were also set at the Fort Stockton test track.

The Aerotech is also featured in a previous Dean’s Garage post entitled ’80s GMs Image Cars. There is another video of the car in that post.

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Documentary of the Development of the Aerotech

Video includes studio scenes of the clay model at Design Staff.

1992 Oldsmobile Achieva SCX—the last real Oldsmobile?

The 1992 Oldsmobile Acheiva SCX is the last real Oldsmobile in the sense that it was the last Olds to have an engine designed by Oldsmobile, the 2.3 Liter Quad-4. Only about 1,400 SCXs were made with the 190-hp Quad Four. This video is a road test of the car.

I created the basic body design for the Achieva Coupe when I was in Oldsmobile One in 1986. The story and photos of the development of the car is in a previous post on Dean’s Garage.

My 1992 SCX is for sale

I’m thinking about selling my 1992 Achieva SCX. I’m the second owner of this car since 1998. The first owner is a good friend and bought the car new as a GM employee working for Oldsmobile. It has been well maintained. Mobil 1 since 3,000 miles, never overheated. New clutch and shifter cables. Clear title, no accidents. Original paint, no rust. It has been in Arizona since 1995. It needs some paint work to repair a small parking lot ding on the front right fender. The bumpers and rear air dam needs to be repainted. The BFG Comp T/As have tread, but they are nine years old and should be replaced if the car is to be driven any distance. 130,000 miles. Contact me for more information.

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John won the 2nd National Senior Award in the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild in 1966, and started his career working at General Motors Design Staff. John is also one of two contacts for the Automotive Design Guild featured on Dean’s Garage. Part One features some of the highlights of John’s career from 1966 through 1983.

1966 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 2nd, Nat’l Sr. award winning entry

John Melberg’s 1966 2nd National Sr. Award winner. Photo courtesy of John Mellberg. John Mellberg wrote, “Becoming a Guild participant opened my eyes to the world of automotive vehicle design, and lead to what has become a lifelong career as a creative designer. The Guild set many of us upon this same journey, and was a great recruiting base for GM Design.”

John Mellberg writes:

“As for the several places I’ve worked at over the years, let me say that each place had its own unique products to be designed, and also challenges to be met, problems to be solved. The one common link between all of them of course is their people. I’ve had the good fortune to work with so many talented people both inside each company as well as design consultants and contracted craftsmen and technicians who all helped contribute to and support project initiatives. Working like this, we all learn from each other. Long term bonds and friendships have grown out of these working relationships that enrich ones life experience. It’s heartwarming to realize the great camaraderie that exists within our profession.

And ‘thank you’ to Gary Smith, speaking on behalf of all my fellow designer friends and colleagues, as we really appreciate your fine website which is devoted to sharing things about automotive design and product design as well. You’re preserving a colorful, exciting, noble and rich profession while revealing its dynamic history for all to see and learn about, especially those with aspirations about becoming designers too!”

1968 Art Institute of Chicago and University of Chicago Graduate, Transportation and Product Design

1968-1972 Sr. Designer, GM Styling: Adv. Pontiac Studio (’68–’70), Chevy Studio No. 2 (’70–’72). Contributed to design of F-Body Firebird concept vehicle, ’7X Pontiac Astra, ’73 Chevrolet Nova SS Hatchback, ’73 Laguna

“My design career after graduation from The Schools of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago began at General Motors Styling and introduced me to the automotive creative design process, which has served as the foundation upon which all my subsequent work as a creative automotive designer, has been realized.

While at GM Styling I further learned from my peers and from actual applications practice how to visualize 3D automotive shapes and forms, expressing my concept ideas through hand-drawn sketches, full-color renderings, full-size tape layout and airbrushed renderings, supervision of scale and full-scale clay model development, leading to full-scale mock-ups and prototype vehicles.

My contributions and responsibilities involved the visual and verbal communication of my ideas, giving sculptural clay modelers, studio tech engineers and skilled craftsmen sufficient information and guidance for them to translate my ideas and concepts into scale and full-scale 3D sculptured automotive forms, while contributing as a team member collectively focused on accomplishing project goals/objectives established by our Styling Studio CHIEF Designer. Our team efforts were then presented to Executive Design Staff Management for their council, review and final approval.

I’ve successfully used these creative design skill sets and tools learned while at GM Styling as my career has evolved, and continue adding to this design experience base of knowledge.”

A few of John’s “rescued” studio sketches

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1972-1983 AG Styling Supervisor, J.I. Case Co.

1990-1993 Managing Designer, Case Corp.

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1970s-1990s Airships International

“I worked on and off for Airships International from the late 1970s through the late 1990s. My work was triggered by political/military defense strategies that the Principal at AI had 1st hand information about, and when government funding was allocated to ‘alternate forms’ of defense systems. My work was to support presentations to be made showing various roles a metalclad airship could play in various ‘theatres.’”

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On January 28, 2011, a memorial service was held in the honor of Charles M. Jordan at the General Motors Heritage Center in Detroit. Donald Wood III was kind enough to allow his photos of the event to be posted on Dean’s Garage. Also available for download is the event handout in Acrobat format. (Right click and select “Save As” or “Set Target As” to download the brochure to your computer. When opened from your computer, the brochure will open as spreads.) I made an attempt to caption the photos in the gallery. Corrections are welcome! (Thanks to George Camp and Kim Boose for help with captions)

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