by Dick Nesbitt

There has been quite a bit of interest in the last post by Dick Nesbitt, if the number of comments is any indication. Here is some follow-up information and sketches/photos courtesy of Dick Nesbitt.

One Mark V proposal incorporated a Mark II influenced tail light and rear bumper ensamble as a link to the prestige and elegance of the legendary and very exclusive 1956-1957 Continental. The bumper extended from the rear quarter panel and replicated the Mark II exhaust port with an impact absorbing composite bumper extension.

Another proposal incorporated a vertical elipse opera window placement and a rear quarter panel raised wheel housing form similar to the rear deck lid form. The thin, narrow tail light-backup light theme emphasized a long quarter panel look.

1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II rear end and tail light photos illustrate design influence on the one sketch proposal.

The supercharged LSC proposal sketch incorporated a more traditional Continental hood leading edge theme with a more aggressive mesh texture grille insert deeply recessed at the outer edges with a forward projected vertical centerline.

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As rising insurance cost and increased emissions control concerns gradually phased out the exciting high-performance cars of the late 1960′s, high-image “personal-luxury” style became the new emphasis for the 1970s. From the “entry-level” Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Ford Elite, to the “mid-range” Pontiac Grand Prix, Mercury Cougar, Dodge Daytona and Chrysler Cordoba, sales were exploding into the hundreds of thousands. An upper-level range was represented by the traditional and larger Ford Thunderbird, Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera.

The personal-luxury category had it’s initial roots in this context based on Ford’s original Thunderbird from 1955, which was created to compete with the two-passenger 1953-1954 Chevrolet Corvette. GM’s Motorama-inspired Corvette was intended to compete with popular British sports cars of the early 1950′s, but missed that mark by a wide margin with the first 1953-1954 version. By 1956, the Corvette was more focused, extensively redesigned and well on it’s way to achieving exceptional sports car performance standards.

Ford’s intention was to define and develop the original Thunderbird as a “personal” 2-3 passenger car, and not as a sports car. Thunderbird emphasized luxury oriented convenience options like power steering and brakes plus power windows, seat and top features combined with elegant styling and spirited V-8 performance. After three years of surprisingly good sales for a 2-3 passenger car, Ford redirected the Thunderbird “personal” concept to “personal luxury” for 1958.

GM had created a great deal of excitement and interest with the exotic, glamorous Motorama “dream cars” on display at selected U.S. cities during the early and mid 1950s. Each GM division would create a futuristic dream car, usually with compact, low-height exterior dimensions. The interiors usually had four bucket seats combined with a highly styled central console dividing the front and back seats. GM never built a production car based on these Motorama dream car concept ideas, but Ford decided they would!

The 1958 Thunderbird was a totally new car inside and out, now with seating for four. It was larger and heavier and would be assembled in a newly constructed purpose-built factory in Wixom, Michigan designed for its sophisticated unit-body construction along with the much bigger unit-body Lincoln and Continental. This new Thunderbird styling was glamorous, unique and totally original. The interior was also as exotic and exciting as the GM Motorama show cars, with front bucket seats, a high central mounted full-length floor console and sculptured double-brow instrument panel. Originally available only as a two-door hardtop coupe, a striking convertible version was added after the first of the year. The convertible top was fully concealed and stored under the rear deck in a similar design to the innovative Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop.

Sales were way down for the American auto industry in1958 due to a severe, year-long economic recession. Two very notable exceptions were Thunderbird and Rambler! The Thunderbird was now a much admired personal-luxury car, and an unqualified success, generating very impressive profit earnings for Ford Motor Company. Thunderbird sales and profits continued to increase, and Ford would have exclusive benefit of this lucrative market until the arrival of GM’s Buick Riviera in 1963.

In 1968, Ford launched the Lincoln Continental Mark III based on the longer four-door Thunderbird chassis wheelbase combined with the Thunderbird two-door inner body structure and floorpan. With its unique new body styling, the Mark III Continental had the longest, most impressive hood length in the industry.

The high-end level of personal-luxury in the disco-decade 1970s era was represented by just two marques, the Cadillac Eldorado and the Continental “Mark” series, and even Bill Mitchell, General Motor’s fabled design boss, greatly admired the Continental Marks. From it’s imposing classic-era radiator grille to the iconic rear deck “Continental Kit,” the Mark series represented the absolute pinnacle of aspirational prestige in this crowded arena.

Lee Iacocca, Ford Motor Company President, would assign and “challenge” two different and separate design studios to compete for a single final design of various important all-new programs to get a more dramatic, intense
and focused design effort.

In 1973, I was assigned by Gayle Halderman, Lincoln-Mercury Advanced Design Studio Director, to create a special Continental Mark V design presentation for review by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca at the Ford Advanced Strategy Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. I was instructed to create an extensive selection of very advanced, bolder and more aggressive concepts for the new Continental Mark V generation as compared to the Continental MK IV or the Cadillac Eldorado. The louvered hood proposals anticipated an “LSC” supercharged high-performance touring variation. This version was inspired by the 1929 supercharged 4.5 Litre Le Mans “Blower Bentley”,and incorporated a mesh grille texture similar to this Bentley. Other versions drew on inspiration from the legendary and classic 1956-1957 Continental Mark II heritage. Halderman was very pleased with several proposals I had created for other Lincoln Continental design programs and I was privileged and honored to be selected for this special assignment.

The Continental Mark V was produced from 1977 to 1979, and became one of the most successful, well-received editions of all the Continental “Mark” series.

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I started at Art Center College in the fall of 1967, when the psychedelic era and flower power were in full bloom (heh-heh). I was 21, and it was an exciting time to be in Los Angeles. Art Center required an extreme level of discipline, so any involvement in the general activities of the day, including hair length and dress, was not an option. As a Transportation Design major, our first Transportation class began in the second semester. Some of the students already had professional design experience, and were attending to get a formal graduate degree for better career opportunities. Don Wyatt was in our class, and had been a Tech Designer at General Motors Design Staff. He was familiar with the sketch and design techniques in use by GM designers, and he could hold his own with many of them. I was “blown away” by his technique skills at Art Center, as he exhibited his work for critique every week in each class. Gaylord Eckles was a Product Design major from San Francisco, and he was an incredible talent. From the simplest sketch to the most detailed design models, his work was truly exquisite and always delightful. Eckles later became an award-winning instructor at Art Center, and I am sure he was a tremendous inspiration to many fortunate enough to have had the benefit of his knowledge and design wisdom.

Our instructor for the first Transportation Design class was Hugh Jorgensen (click here to read an interview with Hugh Jorgensen). In my opinion, he was the best possible choice for our introduction to the very challenging and competitive world of professional automotive design. Jorgensen was always optimistic, motivational,positive and supportive in his critique of our work. He was never negative or derogatory, and he inspired much-needed confidence.

For our second Transportation Design class in third semester, our instructor was Strother MacMinn. ”Mac” was a legend at Art Center and in automotive design centers and related publications all over the world. He has had more influence on the careers of more automotive designers than any other single individual—ever. Unlike Hugh Jorgensen, Mac could be brutal and scathing in his student critiques. It was high praise, indeed, to receive any compliment from Mac!

Fifth semester was the beginning of Advanced Transportation Design classes for two days each week, and Mac was the instructor. For this semester, we were required to first design and then construct one-fifth scale, high-density urethane foam models of our final selected sketch theme directions. Mac normally was the instructor for the two day sixth semester Trans classes. Two new instructors were brought in for our sixth semester, because Mac was taking a sabbatical in Detroit during this time in 1969. The two instructors were Harry Bradley for one day and renowned Shelby designer Pete Brock for the second day! Harry and Pete were only scheduled to teach this one semester, but Harry Bradley stayed on for many years after. What a fantastic experience having Bradley and Brock as our sixth semester Advanced Transportation Design instructors.

General Motors, Ford, and sometimes Chrysler would come out to Art Center every other semester to assign a design project for which they would provide a final critique for each Trans students presentation. I was honored to participate in a General Motors Design Seminar for my seventh semester. The GM design team was represented by the legendary Dave Holls. Our final presentation included finished renderings, design development sketches, and a package component layout illustration. Also included was a space buck skeleton framework in scale to accurately illustrate in three-dimensional form the placement of seating and drivetrain components within equally spaced sections, indicating the outer body shell surface contours. Complimenting the space buck was a detailed clay model.

Our GM design assignment was the end of an era, as it turned out. We were to design a close-coupled front wheel drive 455 V8 personal luxury coupe for the mid-seventies. I selected Buick for my proposal, and created the “Centuro” name as a contemporary variation of Buick’s famous Century and Centurion nameplates. My design theme incorporated “applied form” raised rib forms over the front wheel openings and “sub windows”. Sub windows were smaller, fixed window areas that later became more well known as opera windows, as seen on the 1971 Cadillac Eldorado. The Centuro also included alloy wheels and a reverse “Z” line as a variation of Buick’s familiar “Sweepspear” on the body side with urethane body color front and rear bumper surfaces as pioneered by Pontiac’s GTO in 1968.

Send Dean’s Garage your interesting, scary, awe-inspiring, eye-opening, and funny stories from design school!

Some examples of Dick Nesbitt’s student work from Art Center.

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The Art Center Bandsaw.

Late nighters or all nighters were the norm. It didn’t start out that way. When the semester first starts, you promise yourself that you’ll work on the class assignment that night. But after a couple of weeks you find yourself scrambling to get tomorrow’s assignment done. I fell asleep briefly standing up during a critique once. But that is another story.

One day I was in the shop waiting for some tool at the tool crib window. Near where I standing was a pretty big band saw. Pushing something that needed to be shorter through the blade was a student with that glazed over “I’ve been up a few nights” look. The thing he was pushing was a chunk of hard wood with the table tilted about 30 degrees, so it was feeding fairly slowly. The student was concentrating hard on what he was doing. In his state of mind dealing with several factors at once was probably not much of an option. Not having any other distraction, I watched the action at the band saw. I soon noticed that the student’s thumb was strategically positioned to hold the wood to give the most stability to the endeavor. I also noticed that if he maintained that grip, both his thumb as well as the wood would soon be shorter.

The feeding was going slowly enough that I could wait and see if he moved his thumb. But he kept pushing—past the point where I would have adjusted my grip on the board as to not whack off any appendages. Still, there was still time for him to act. Not a lot of time mind you, but some. But he kept pushing, way past my comfort level, and his thumb moved precariously close to the blade. It wouldn’t do to watch him cut his thumb off. I left my place at the tool crib window, stepped over and grabbed the student’s arm.

“Hey! Be careful. You’re going to cut your thumb off!

His response? “What? Oh. Yeah. Thanks.”

—Gary Smith

The Career of Richard Nesbitt, Part Two

Book Illustrations

After a move to the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, I have been a vehicle and industrial design consultant for a wide variety of clients. From 1980 on, I have authored and illustrated several styling related articles for various automotive magazine publishers and I was commissioned to both author and illustrate a book title for Publications International, American Automobile Design  1930–1980, which was published and released for distribution in 1985.

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Peterbilt

From 1996 to 1999, I worked with Peterbilt Motors in Denton, Texas on  the exterior and interior design of the all-new 387 Aerotruck series and a planned successor to the iconic, legendary 379 traditional series, the all-new 479.

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Magazine Illustrations

1952 “Hot Rod Lincoln”

In 1952, Ford released all-new bodies for Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln. Ford and Mercury were once again sharing body shells and Lincoln was on its own, but there was a strong family resemblance to all three that established the “FoMoCo Look” for much of the 1950s. From 1949 to 1951 there were two Lincoln series—the smaller version was based on the Mercury body shell.

For 1952, however, Ford dropped the smaller Mercury-based Lincoln option, and missed-out on an opportunity to compete head-on with Oldsmobile’s hot small-body OHV V-8 “88” from 1949 and Chrysler’s hot small-body “Hemi” V-8 Saratoga from 1951.

In 1952, along with the new “big” Lincoln, Ford had everything they needed to get it just right. Lincoln had a brand new large-displacement OHV V-8 that would have had Oldsmobile and Chrysler really up against it with a lighter, smaller Mercury body version. Ford and Mercury were still flathead V-8s in 1952, and would not have smaller, lower-powered OHV V-8s until 1954.

FoMoCo’s modern, trim new styling in 1952 combined with the smaller, lighter Mercury body and Lincoln’s big OHV V-8 would have been a very appealing low-cost-to-create alternative to the older GM and Chrysler models.

I authored and illustrated a feature on this concept for Collectible Automobile magazine on how this “Mercury-Lincoln” might have looked had it been built in 1952, including an illustration of the 1952 Lincoln Cosmopolitan.

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The 1992 Riviera illustration is from a Publications International Forecast 1995 magazine feature, and the Silverado and Fiesta Illustrations are from the Forecast 1999 feature.

The Career of Richard Nesbitt, Part One

Of the many and varied professional opportunities available in the automotive industry, the role of the designer (or stylist) has probably captured the imagination of more young men and auto enthusiasts around the world than any other. Yet, as in a professional sports career, only a comparatively small number of people actually become successful automotive designers. The following is my background and experience in the pursuit of an automotive design career.

I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 18, 1946. We moved around quite a bit, as my father was a radio sportscaster then, and he would receive better opportunities from time to time in other major markets around the country. From New York City and then Chicago, we moved first to St. Paul, and later Minneapolis, Minnesota, where my father became very successful as a television sportscaster.

I was 11 years old in 1957, and by then, my interest was almost totally dominated by things automotive. I had a consuming desire to draw cars wherever and whenever possible including, of course, any class time I could get away with. And I collected car dealer “promo” models and built every plastic model car kit available. New car showroom literature was highly prized and treasured, especially for the wonderful rendered illustration techniques. As the new car magazines appeared each month, I would conceal my copies in notebooks at school and dream up variations and “improvements” of the various new cars featured in each issue.

From my 11 year old point of view in 1957, car styling fell into just a few basic categories. Anything with a “wraparound” or “panoramic” windshield (basically 1955 and up) was a modern car. Curved one-piece non-wraparound windshield models were older cars, and anything with a center divided windshield and flat glass was positively ancient. Although my father had told me otherwise, I was convinced that anything made before World War II couldn’t possibly have ever been a “new” car. I was sure these vehicles came into the world looking as forlorn and worn out as they appeared in the world of 1957.

At 12 years old, I was able to draw cars well in perspective, much to the amazement of many classmates, and I could draw most recent production cars from memory. I had no idea that people were paid to illustrate and design cars for a living, and my father, a former pro-football player in the 1930′s with the Chicago Bears, and later a successful, well-known television sportscaster for KSTP Television in Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota, was very concerned I wasn’t giving enough thought to some form of “conventional” employment.

Very little was featured in car magazines about the automotive design profession, but when infrequent articles did appear in Motor Trend, Car Life, or Road and Track, they always made reference to a design college in Los Angeles, California called the Art Center School. The College was established specifically to prepare qualified individuals for acceptance and success in professional design, illustration, and advertising careers.

Harley Earl, creator of General Motors’ Art & Colour Section, took an early interest in Art Center College as an excellent potential source of talented future car designers. Earl worked closely with the College in the 1930s to develop a specific automotive design education program within the school’s industrial design department. Art Center became the prime, almost singular contributor of qualified graduate auto designers from the 1930s on, and is now located in a beautiful facility in Pasadena, California. I decided I wanted to attend Art Center College during my senior year in high school. Three years later, I submitted my application to the College, now officially the Art Center College of Design, and received a notice of acceptance for admission beginning in the fall of 1967.

I bought a red and white 1958 Buick Special “Estate Wagon” (really!) for $250.00, loaded up my  belongings, and then headed for Route 66 west to Los Angeles. This was the psychedelic era of “Flower Power” and the “Summer of Love”, and at long last, now 21, I was finally on my way!

The College was then located in an older section of Los Angeles called Hancock Park and did not have dormitory or student housing facilities. Most of the houses in the immediate area were large English Tudor or Spanish style mansions, many with separate chauffeur’s quarters. I was able to rent a chauffeur’s quarters adjoining a garage for $35.00 a month.

It soon became apparent why Art Center didn’t generally take students right out of high school. To say the full-time program was rigorous would be the height of understatement. When I first walked into the College, I was overwhelmed by the quality of the upper semester student’s work from various majors on display in the lobby/gallery area. I was convinced I had made a serious mistake as I was sure I wasn’t capable of the superb ability demonstrated by the upperclassmen. The pace, quality, and amount of work required was phenomenal and I was constantly working on projects until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning seven days a week. Having grown up in the conservative midwest, I had always heard anything could happen in California, and my experience came during the first semester at school.

I had moved to a larger chauffeur’s quarters closer to the College on January 1, 1968, located on McCadden Street, just a block and a half behind Art Center, and within easy walking distance. The elderly lady owner of the house passed on a few months later, and the mansion was taken over by her son. The family was very wealthy, and put the property up for sale through a real estate agency they owned on Wilshire Boulevard. I was asked to stay on as a caretaker until the house sold, so I had complete use of the Spanish style mansion rent-free and all to myself for a year and a half until new owners were found.

The residence had been built in the 1920s and had been left very much as it was, in immaculate condition inside and out during the early 1940s and on by the last owners. The asking price for the 14 room mansion through 1968 was $100,000. It didn’t sell during the year and a half I was there for that amount, and was finally sold in 1969 for $90,000. The same property on today’s super-inflated California real estate market would  bring several million dollars!

By the third semester, I had covered a lot of ground. It was also the first chance during third semester that a student would be considered for a scholarship application through the school. Only a few scholarships were granted and it was a significant honor to receive one. A friend talked me into submitting a portfolio for scholarship consideration and it was the thrill of a lifetime when I was notified I had been awarded a full-tuition scholarship sponsored by the Ford Motor Company for my remaining five semesters.

I believe Art Center’s strength was founded in both the eminence of the automotive design instructors like Strother MacMinn and the incredible quality of student talent the college attracted. Detroit auto design leaders such as Bill Mitchell, Gene Bordinat, Elwood Engle, and Dick Teague visited Art Center often, and were always recruiting new designers from each graduating class.

I received a Bachelor of Science Degree in industrial design and graduated with honors in May of 1970. In 1971 I was hired by the Ford Motor Company and started work at the Ford Design Center in Dearborn, Michigan.

Lincoln-Mercury

My first assignment in 1971 as a new-hire designer in a Lincoln-Mercury production studio, was, not surprisingly, an ornamentation job. My assignment was to create a very refined jewel-like stand-up hood ornament for the new Montego based 1974 Cougar to enhance its upscale luxury image. This area of design was a new experience to me, so I thought long and hard for various sources of inspiration. One that came to me was in the form of an 1880s vintage Elgin pocket watch my father had given me when I was 11 years old. This watch had a thick, crowned outer ring shape with a series of fine ribbed serrations surrounding the dial lens face area. Of the many concept illustrations I did for this project during November 1971, the proposal most like my treasured pocket watch was selected as the final design and was produced as I had designed it for three years from 1974, 1975 and 1976. I incorporated a clear lens effect, much like the watch lens, and designed a floating cougar figure into the clear area. I was very surprised to learn that my hood ornament design played an important part in the marketing strategy for the direction of Cougar’s new image for 1974, and this is the first time it’s true origin has ever been revealed!

Mustang II

Shortly after the Cougar project, an unusual program for this studio was released. We were to participate in presenting a proposal for the all-new and considerably down-sized Mustang II ,with several other studios submitting proposals as well. Even though it was obvious there was no place for the ground-pounding Mach-1 Cobra Jet 428s and high-revving Boss 302s of the recent past, Iacocca still liked the idea of a strong performance image for some versions of the new Mustang II and he actively encouraged the development of my “Ram-Air Boss” sketch theme, as it came to be called by the studio staff. The final design our studio submitted was a fastback proposal created by staff designer Howard “Buck” Mook, and our design was selected by company President Lee Iacocca over all the other studio efforts.

This design went on to an extensive series of consumer “clinics” throughout the United States, and in San Francisco, many young women wanted a traditional coupe version. As a result, we received instructions at our L-M studio to create a notchback coupe version as soon as possible. One of my design themes was selected, and I was instructed to direct it’s development into a full-size clay model followed by a finished fiberglass model.

Later, I was assigned to the Pinto-Maverick-Mustang Interior Design Studio, where I developed several Mustang II “Ghia” trim proposals.

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Ford Carrousel

When I was assigned to the Light Truck and Tractor Studio , we received a product planning directive to develop a derivative of the upcoming new Ford Econoline Van, code named “Nantucket” and due for release in 1975. The derivative was code named “Carrousel” and was intended to attract  station wagon buyers with more car-like styling combined with the added appeal of van utility. From hundreds of concept sketches created by staff designers in this studio during 1972, one of mine was selected by Hal Sperlich, Director of Product Planning, and Lee Iacocca as the approved design direction. I directed the construction of a full-size clay model, and the vehicle received a great deal of interest from Henry Ford II. Unfortunately, the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 halted further development after a drivable, fabricated metal prototype had been built. The Carrousel was specifically designed as a “Garagable Family Van” alternative to the traditional station wagon market segment. This concept later became one of the most successful and enduring product innovations ever created when Hal Sperlich and Lee Iacocca launched the Plymouth Voyager/Dodge Caravan in 1984.

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Ford Bronco

Another program I participated in during this time in the Light Truck Studio was the development of a new “Bronco” based on the same format as the Chevrolet “Blazer” pickup truck derivative. This program was code named “Shorthorn.” Ford wanted to use the new “F” series truck doors without modification. This door combined the window frame area and the lower door as a one-piece formed part. Ford’s decision to use the complete door assembly required a permanently fixed steel roof for the driver/front passenger area, although it would have a removable top for the area behind the doors. I proposed a design sketch incorporating a “Targa” style roof band. The built-in roof band helped visually separate the permanent front roof area from the removable fiberglass rear roof section. This design feature became a Bronco “trademark” styling theme from 1978 to 1986. This Bronco was intended for introduction in 1974, but the OPEC oil embargo postponed the release date to 1978.

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Lincoln Continental

For most of the year 1973, I was assigned to the Lincoln Continental Advanced Design Studio. During mid-year 1973, I received an assignment to create a series of new “full-size/ down-size” Ford, Mercury, Continental, and Mark-V styling proposals to be reviewed by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca for a special presentation at the Ford Motor Company Strategy and Advanced Planning Conference in Boca Raton, Florida.

This presentation was later followed by the development of the “Panther” platform, launching the all-new Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis for 1979, and the Lincoln Continental/Mark VI for 1980. It was an honor to be selected for this assignment.

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Ford Fox Program

I received recognition for my contribution to the “full-size/down-size” program and a promotion to the International Special Vehicles Design Studio, where I was involved with several design projects coordinated with Ford’s Ghia studios in Italy and the presentation of concept illustrations for the initial “World Car” and FOX program. The ever-expanding FOX platform launched the Ford Fairmont/Mercury Zephyr in 1978, followed by the all-new Mustang/Capri in 1979 with many variations to follow.

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