Archive for October 27, 2010


Art Center College of Design’s main campus is nestled in a secluded residential Pasadena neighborhood in the hills above the Rose Bowl. The black glass and steel buildings are a masterpiece of Modern design by LA Architect Craig Ellwood.

Art Center Campus

Art Center Campus and Car Classic Pavilion

Art Center Campus - Car Show 2010 Registration Building

I first became aware of Art Center more than 35 years ago when a little orange ball decal appeared in the windshield of a friend’s screaming red, always mechanically-challenged, Triumph TR-4A. She was attending Art Center studying package design and her projects always caught both my imagination and my breath.

2010 marks Art Center’s 80th anniversary. Two years after its founding during the depths of the Great Depression, Art Center established its industrial design program that encompasses almost every tangible consumer and industrial product manufactured in our world today, including automotive designs from its world renowned Transportation Design Department.

Art Center Student Illustration - Porsche, I think

The Transportation Design Department’s alumni have been involved some of the most iconic designs of the 20th and 21st Century including the Disneyland Monorail, the ’57 Chevy, the Corvette Sting Ray, the Porsche Boxster, the Enzo Ferrari and hundreds of Hot Wheels toy cars. Graduates have positions at virtually major automotive studio in the world. It also helps that there are more than 23 advanced automotive design studios in Southern California – testament to the global importance of our trend-setting car culture. (more…)

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