Art Center College of Design was founded in 1930. While the school offered courses in industrial design from the beginning, the Transportation Design Department was formalized in 1948. Longtime instructors like Kem Weber, George Jergensen, Strother MacMinn, Joe Farrer, Ted Youngkin, Harry Bradley and Richard Pietruska have mentored thousands of young designers over the years, and their impact will last an eternity.
The legacy of the Transportation Design Department’s impact upon culture and society over the last six decades is unparalleled, thanks to the outstanding leadership of our alumni in automotive design, aircraft and marine design, motorcycle and racecar design and entertainment design. Some believe that over half of the cars on the road today were designed under the leadership of Art Center’s alumni, and many of those vehicles have become icons of our culture such as the Corvette Stingray, ’57 Chevy, Camero, Mustang, Miata, Viper, Enzo, Prowler…not to mention a few Batmobiles and host of award-winning hotrods.
The full story of the Transportation Design Department’s 65-year legacy does not exist in any one place. It exists in the thousands of anecdotes, photographs, and resumes of our alumni and faculty around the world.
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