CDR5 Lifetime Achievement Award: Wayne Cherry, GM

In early 1962, a young designer named Wayne Cherry drove his ’55 Chevrolet through the gates at the GM Technical Center for his first working day. Starting a career at General Motors was a dream come true for Cherry. A car-crazy Midwestern boy from Indianapolis, he grew up around the famous Indy 500. His dad took him to qualifications and races and as a race official, had access to ‘Gasoline Alley’, where they got close to the cars and talked to the drivers and crews.

This added to Cherry’s passion for all things car-related. If he wasn’t sketching cars and trucks, he was under the hood of one. As a teenager he dropped a ’55 Chevy V8 into a ’51 Chevy convertible in one of the first transplants of this type in the Midwest. He then modified a ’55 Chevy into a D/Gas drag strip racer, winning numerous trophies.

But designing cars was always on his mind, and this eventually took him west on Route 66 in his ’55 Chevy to the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from there he began his career at GM in the golden age of Bill Mitchell – the time of the split-window Corvette and Buick Riviera, and, soon after, the Oldsmobile Toronado and Chevrolet Camaro.

Cherry would complete his career by leading GM Design into the 21st century, spearheading an effort to computerise design while still maintaining classic skills like clay modelling and creative sketching. Having simplified the studio structure, he also revived the brand design studios, which would lead to the storied Cadillac Art & Science design language.

Along the way, he would design and manage GM studios in Europe, at Vauxhall and Opel, and GM North America. That’s quite a career for a car-mad kid, and one very worthy of recognition. Though now retired for more than a decade, Cherry still gets excited as he drives through those Tech Center gates and strides into the design building for this interview.

What follows is a wide-ranging discussion we enjoyed with our worthy Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

When did you start your career at GM, and what projects did you work on in those first years there?

I started at GM in 1962, and was placed in the orientation studio, as all new designers were. Then I was assigned to Advanced 3 studio, where the Toronado was being developed from the famous David North full-size rendering. For a junior designer on Ed Taylor’s team, it was a great learning experience. It was a fantastic project.

The next project was the Runabout concept car for the 1964/65 World’s Fair. We developed different proposals for the concept, and I worked on the version with an integrated shopping cart. It was a project with an accelerated timetable, but fun to work on. Then I worked on the ‘codename Panther’ project – the concept that would become the Camaro. Assistant studio chief Leo Pruneau was the lead designer and I learned a lot working with him.

Although I was placed in different studios for brief periods, it’s my time on the Toronado, The Shopper and the Camaro, and the lifelong friendships formed in those studios that I remember most fondly, and which had the greatest early influence on my career.

Did you work with Bill Mitchell? And what were your memories of him?

Well, I was a junior designer, so if I saw Bill, I had better have my head down working! I didn’t work directly with Bill in the early days, although we would see him on his occasional visits to the studio. In Europe I got to work a bit more with Bill, as he would review our programmes, many of which I was involved in.

When I became head of design at Vauxhall, I would see Bill socially as well as in the studio. There were great discussions about design and life – many of these discussions were one-on-one. I consider myself very privileged to have had those times with Bill.

Bill Mitchell was said to be a larger-than-life character. Would you agree?

Absolutely – his personality and character helped him accomplish all that he did. He could really make things happen. He had the ability to turn a phrase, too. There were so many ‘Bill-isms,’ priceless comments about drawings, models, and designs. One of my favourite Bill-isms is, “You never know how big a horse is until you bring it into the kitchen.”

What was the project that brought you to the UK?

The Vauxhall Viva HA and a model of the forthcoming HB appeared at the studio in Michigan. We were all very curious as we had never seen a Viva, much less a future proposal.

Bill Mitchell didn’t think the design was quite right and so he asked Leo Pruneau for a quick alternate proposal while Bill and his guests were away at lunch. Leo hastily prepared a tape drawing and rendering and Bill accepted it on the spot. He then asked Leo to prepare more detailed drawings and take them over to Vauxhall to advance that project.

When Leo got over there, he worked at their new design centre. It was really state-of-the-art, and Leo worked to turn that facility into a real design department.

Leo had asked for me to come over to assist him, not only with finishing projects, but setting up a studio environment. That assignment was meant to be for six weeks, and maybe to stretch into three months at the longest. I ended up spending 26 years in Europe…

Could you tell us a bit about the XVR project?

We were keen to show the world that we could design and engineer a serious sports car. Leo, now assistant director of design with overall design responsibilities, let me lead the design development of a sports car for the 1966 Geneva show. The fully operational steel prototype’s most interesting feature was gullwing doors hinged at the windscreen’s centre line – thus eliminating the A-pillars.

The day before the unveiling, Leo got a call that the front end had been damaged in transit and had to be repaired overnight on the show stand before Vauxhall’s management arrived. Leo and I flew to Geneva, worked all night with a local body man, and slipped out as the doors were opening.

Could you tell us about the SRV project?

I wanted to do a four-seat/four-door, cab-forward, radical concept car. The Porsche 917 was in the news with its long tail and great presence at Le Mans. Definitely, the SRV had to be mid-engined. We wanted to fill it with technology, as it was a pure show car; an ideas car.

I did many of the sketches and full-size tape work. John Taylor and Chris Fields did a lot of detail work. It had an adjustable wing up front operated by a foot pedal, electric adjustable suspension, and lots of features reflecting the work we were doing in aerodynamics.

There were lots of electronics and interesting doors. The instrument panel moved out with the driver’s door for easier entry. We had a mock-up of the engine at the rear (a 2.3 twin-turbo) with tuning dials for engine performance. It went to the London show in 1970 and was a hit.

Can you tell us about the Equus project at Vauxhall? How did it come about?

There was a company called Panther Westwinds that was started by Robert Jankel, who had made his money in the ‘rag trade’ in the 1960s in Carnaby Street, London. But he was also a car enthusiast, and built himself a sort of Jaguar SS100 lookalike. Others saw it, and asked for a version for their own, and soon Jankel had set up a factory and began producing cars for wealthy celebrities and the like.

Jankel developed a more manageable and less expensive car called the Panther Lima which was sort of a generic English sports car with design elements from all sorts of English cars. To keep the costs down, he put the car on a Vauxhall platform – chassis, running gear, motor, suspension, etc. At some point, I approached Jankel and proposed building a contemporary sports car on the same line as the Panther, using the same sizing and hard points.

The idea was to create a car that, as it moved down the assembly line, could receive a Panther body or a Vauxhall body. Equus was designed to take advantage of this opportunity. We built the concept/prototype for the Birmingham show where it got good reviews.

The project moved forward, but at the last minute, marketing lowered their sales forecast and the business case was lost. This was one of those designs that started on the back of an envelope (actually, it was a sickbag) on a transatlantic flight.

Other than the Equus, what would you consider the most important project during your years at Vauxhall?

There were a number of them, but if I had to choose one, I’d say the Vauxhall Chevette – the T car programme of the mid-1970s. The hatchback, which was unique to Vauxhall for a while, was a bestseller and perhaps the most important car of that time – enormously successful, even though some had predicted that there was no market for that particular configuration.

Much of that car was unique to Vauxhall, though it would be adopted by Opel later as their market demanded it. The reason Vauxhall got the go-ahead to develop the hatchback is widely attributed to the concept work done in Vauxhall Design.

The HP Firenza – with the famous ‘droop snoot’ – attracted a cult following. However, we also did a number of significant Bedford trucks, like the TM Longhaul Aero. And much of the aerodynamic work that we did is seen today on the motorways of Europe. We designed the Wrights intercity coach, the JJL city bus and a medium-duty world cab concept.

But perhaps the most important project was the Vauxhall brand identity work. It had a massive impact on the success of integrating the Vauxhall and Opel product lines when all the car development was moved to Opel.

The Opel Corsa of 1993 was an important car for GM. Can you tell us about that car and its principal strengths?

The Corsa was the first world car for GM Europe – it won 20 design awards, was sold in 80 countries, and was produced in 16 factories on five continents. It was an enormous success, both for design and sales, because of its combination of looks and functionality.

Any other significant cars during your time at Opel?

I was very proud of the Calibra, a car we developed under the radar and found the right time to present to management. Not everyone was happy about our secret project, but they loved the car, and then told us, ‘If you’re so clever, go out and make a business case for it’.

We organised a cross-functional team to look at the engineering and economics of the car, which had to be profitable based on Europe-only sales. We managed to do that and the Calibra would end up exceeding all expectations, and was ultimately sold on three continents as a Vauxhall/Opel, as a Holden and as a South American Chevrolet. The Calibra’s greatest strengths were its design, its aerodynamics, and the fact that it was a four-seater sports coupé hatchback.

There were a lot of other significant, award-winning cars designed at Opel while I was there: the Junior concept, the Corsa, the Tigra, the Omega/Carlton, the Senator, the Cavalier/Vectra, the Astra and the Kadett. Opel moved from last place among the volume manufacturers of Europe to first place.

What was your first major challenge as the leader of GM design?

GM was undergoing a lot of transitions with regard to organisational restructuring and product development.

I wanted to immediately focus on brand differentiation and development. So we gutted the design building to create a fully digital corporate brand centre; two virtual reality studios and eight new brand centres that, in many ways, were similar to the brand studios a generation before. Our design teams were immersed in these brands and their identities. We also reconfigured the buildings for computers and computerised modelling – even while keeping traditional clay modelling.

We also put a think tank together called APEX, where we looked at the future of the car. I had predicted that we might see a car that combined the best of SUVs, trucks and traditional cars. I called them crossovers, and several automotive journalists have since told me that I was the first to use the term.

Can you tell us about the development of Cadillac’s Art & Science design language?

We established a brand centre for all the brands, as I mentioned, and one day I was talking to Ron Zarella (soon to become President GM North America) and said I wasn’t happy about the direction in which Cadillac was going. I had mentioned it to others as well. Ron suggested we meet for dinner and discuss it further.

I worked with the Cadillac Design Brand Center to prepare a notebook of ideas that Ron and I could leaf through at dinner. The notebook also had every thought that I had about what we should do with Cadillac. Ron took that notebook to the Strategy Board for review.

Following that, Ron reported back that the Strategy Board liked the initial ideas and wanted to develop them further. To accomplish that they would relieve me of some everyday duties and free me up to work in the studio with a dedicated team that would produce an extensive presentation on what would be the future of Cadillac.

John Smith, with whom I had worked at Opel, had just been brought in as head of Cadillac, and his branding and marketing team were able to join us in this effort. We worked to form a comprehensive vision for what Cadillac could be. We assembled 20-foot long presentation boards and completely ringed the interior of the design dome with photos, drawings, sketches, model range, world markets, design trends, dealerships, client profiles and so forth.

The Strategy Board was very impressed with our efforts and gave approval for an initial full-size model of the first expression of the new design language, the Cadillac CTS. We started in November of 1997, worked very rapidly and within two months (February 1998) had a full size model of the CTS.

At the beginning of 1999 we showed the Evoq, which was the first public display of the new brand identity and design vocabulary. But within GM, we had already developed the new Cadillac identity with the CTS.

Evoq was the first concept, and then the Imaj, the Vizon, the Cien and finally the Sixteen, which was the ultimate expression of the Art & Science design vocabulary and branding.

After you retired in 2004, you independently developed the VSR Sports Rod Concept. What were the goals of that concept?

After I retired, I was still doing some consulting, but you can’t stop thinking about design. I wanted to continue to design, and I wanted to continue to advance the design vocabulary that we had developed at Cadillac. And I wanted to design and build a car that GM would not do. It would build on performance, and it would illustrate the design vocabulary. I wanted to build something new, where the structure was an integral part of the design, as was the engine.

I did sketches, tape drawings, and sections. I also did a full-size clay model, working with a couple of retired clay modellers working in a secure room at a local shop. The clay model took about two months. Construction took more than a year.

I worked every day on the car, from morning until evening – it was an important transition for me from corporate to private life, and yet I still needed to work and design. Of course, the issues of building your own cars are complex. At GM everything was possible.

Out on your own, you have to consider capabilities and limitations, as well as expenses. The VSR was an expensive car to build, even with the incredible support from corporate partners and sponsors – some 32 in all. The experience, however, was priceless.

The VSR has been taken to shows and concours all over the country. It was even shown on the concept lawn at Pebble Beach, one of only a few privately owned cars to be so honoured.

Looking back at all your years of designing cars, what is the vehicle that most closely summarises your personal design philosophy?

The Sixteen is my favourite, along with the Cien. Two extremes – a super-luxury car and a supercar. Both evoke a very strong Cadillac brand expression. It’s difficult to beat the design on those cars – the stance, the proportions, the detailing, the engineering – it’s everything you could want as a designer.

The Sixteen project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The design detailing was exquisite, and even extended to the engine compartment.

Are there influences from outside the world of car design that have influenced your work?

I love contemporary architecture. Richard Meier’s work is one of many favourites. Frank Gehry and I met when we were both working on a project at MIT. We had some interesting conversations about design. Despite my love of the contemporary, I respect and admire the craftsmanship of older architecture.

Product design – Dieter Rams and Braun design. I was in Europe at the time when he was at the height of his career and his work was influential to so many of us.

Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor and entrepreneur. He even designed an electric car. Like many designers of my day, we all had his Black Watch. I still have one!

Looking to the future of automotive design, what do you think will be the most important development?

This generation of designers will see some of the biggest changes in the history of the auto industry – and yes, it is packaging, it is power units – electric motors, batteries, fuel cells. Also artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

These are not just research projects – they are here now. As these technologies mature they will change the packaging of the car, and designers will need to show people what’s possible for this new era of cars.

Designers have an incredible responsibility and an incredible opportunity to design emotion and excitement into these cars – and brand identity. All this has to change in a way that continues to engage our customers.

Would you say the next decade is a period of unprecedented challenges to brand identity?

Absolutely – getting the emotion, maintaining brand identity in rapidly changing times is critical. Some people think cars will be less exciting. I don’t think so. Design brings with it an obligation to infuse the product with excitement and identity. There will be passion for this new generation of cars.

They won’t just be appliances, the car will evolve and design along with it, bringing along the customer for an exciting new experience.

Do you have any advice for the car designer of tomorrow? Any particular skills that will be required beyond those we traditionally associate with design?

Designers have the skills to reshape the world, and to envisage what is possible. These days, you have amazing tools to develop and illustrate your ideas and innovations, and to design solutions to the challenges of tomorrow. But understand how important it still is to work with other disciplines. Be bold, be polite, be persistent.

Above: Wayne Cherry accepting our Lifetime Achievement Award.

This interview is from our Car Design Review 5, a beautifully-produced 200-page book published this Spring and containing the past year’s finest concept and production cars, plus trend reports and interviews with many of the world’s foremost designers. If you’d like more details or the chance to purchase your own copy, go here…

…and if you already have it, then prepare yourself for our review of automotive design in 2018, Car Design Review 6, which will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in two months’ time.

Wayne Cherry – Key Dates

During the course of his career, Wayne Cherry was involved with more than 100 production vehicles and more than 90 concepts.

1937 Born in Indianapolis, Indiana

1959-62 Attended ArtCenter School of Design, Los Angeles

1962 Hired as a junior designer, General Motors

1965 Promoted from junior designer to designer

1965 Transfers to Vauxhall for temporary assignment

1967 Promoted to group chief designer, Vauxhall

1971 Promoted to assistant to director of design, Vauxhall

1975 Promoted to director of design, Vauxhall

1983 Promoted to director of design, GM Europe, at consolidated design studios in Rüsselsheim, Germany

1991 Returns to Michigan to become director of design at Chevrolet/Geo

1992 Becomes General Motors’ vice president of design

2004 Retires, January 1