Name That Tune
A Dean’s Garage reader sent photos of several renderings to see if anybody out there can shed some light on the designers who created them. Two are signed George Theophelis, one is by Lampe, and another is by Barry. The other three are unsigned.
While unfamiliar with these folks it is terrific to see their renders, some wonderful designs and work, particularly impressed with the little blue hatch back, love to find our more about that one in particular. A real shame that we do not archive designers work after their retirements…
Yes, two of those sketches are mine, done during my time at Ford (1966-1969).
George Theophelis had just joined Ford…having left Chrysler. Because of his contacts I left for Chrysler where I spent the rest of my career, retiring in 2001.
Manfred Lampe is one of the other designers mentioned. He spent the rest of his career with Ford working in Europe. We are good friends and still in touch.
I’m retired in Northport, Mi. and Manfred can be found in Germany and Majorca.
Ernie Barry
Started my career at Ford Design as a clay sculptor. Had many Ford designers give me samples of their work to help out putting my Art Center portfolio together. Manfred Lampe convinced me into joining the Ferrari Club of America. Met some great talent in my brief stay there. Some interesting stories regarding Senior Ford Design management, but that’s a story for another time!
This is great!!! Thanks so much Ernie! These are my sketches/renderings I inherited from my father, Charles Coffel. He passed away suddenly in 1998 so getting more info on them has been difficult. He was a tool and die make for Ford in Dearborn. He left around 1967/1968 to teach college on the west coast (Santa Rosa, Ca). Dad was a huge Shelby fan. He owned many Mustangs over the years and a Sunbeam Tiger. He was very active in the Tiger Club. I had 3 of these drawings framed for him in the early 90’s. The one representing Mustangs with the GT40 in the background and two others that are not shown here. One of them is yours and another is signed “Ree ’65”.
The Mustangs rendering is signed Harkleroad.
Thank you A.P. That rendering was cleaned up a bit for framing and the mat is covering a good but of the edges as they were a little tattered. Do you have any more info in the artist?
I attended Art Center with Manfred Lampe. He was from Germany, I think and graduated in 1966. He had a little Moretti coupe as I recall.
@ Mike Coffel: all found on Harkleroad was from Google, including this link which confirmed the name:
https://formfunctionart.com/product/harkleroad-thunderbird/
@ A.P. – Thanks! I ran across the Form Function Art site a few days ago and have been in touch with Eric Moore who owns the site. I’m scheduled to speak with him today and hope to get more info. Out of all the renderings I have, I believe the Mustang sketch is the most interesting.
Hi Bill Lawrence, incredible memory. Yes, the Moretti was my ‚baby‘ Ferrari in California. I had a second one just for spares.
Tim Harkleroad was a classmate of mine at Pratt institute in the early 60’s. I ran into him again a number of years later while on a business trip to Detroit. Very nice guy.
Anybody know if the EconVan rendering was an option for the original design or a planned re-skin?