Car Design Classes - Courtesy The Petersen
No Charge - Just How LA Can You Get?
So you say that you’ve always wanted to design automobiles, and you’ve got some damn cool ideas about what would really look slick, more aero, more retro, or just a whole darn bunch better than a lot of the new cars on the market?
By Doug Stokes
Sat, Dec 3, 2022 07:20 PM PST
images courtesy of The Petersen and/or Yellowbrick or as noted.
Riiiiiiight … and you’d really to learn how to sketch ‘em up like Chris or Chip* ... but Art Center here in LA (really Pasadena) is booked solid (also very pricey), and the famous Rhode Island School of Design and Art Institute of Chicago campuses are located where it gets very cold this time of the year (and you’re pretty much allergic to ice and snow) so that’s out.
Well … my friends, LACar’s good friends at the Petersen Automotive Museum just over at Wilshire and Fairfax, would like to draw your attention to the fact that they (good people that they are) have just announced an on-line master class in design right here, right now, and the price is locked-in at your attention and you’re your enjoyment/understanding of the art and reality of automotive design.
In another two-syllable words: gratis.
Honestly, and all kidding aside, this opportunity for getting some great insight into the business of how automobiles look, will look, and what it really takes to bend that sheet metal and thermoplastic to a designer’s will, is a lovely holiday gift for any car nut person (and way perfectly understandable if you give it to yourself).
Take a look, sign yourself up, tell the kids, your buddy from cars and coffee, and have at it with the number 3.5 pencils and french curves: Auto Design & Sketching.
By the way, when was the last time that you stopped by there in person? It really is never the same place twice, always about the subject, and always intriguing.
And ... as if to prove the point that something new in car design is really needed, the December issue of Car and Driver helpfully has laid out nine of the most exotic cars on the road today. Which, I postulate, if they were all painted the same color, would be hard to tell apart from a quick look.
Form (to a point) does follow function of course, but might there be some room left for "style" here ... What do you think?
About The Author
Doug has a long and wide-ranging history in the motoring business. He served five years as the Executive Director of the International Kart Federation, and was the PR guy for the Mickey Thompson's Off-Road Championship Gran Prix. He worked racing PR for both Honda and Suzuki and was a senior PR person on the first Los Angeles (Vintage) Grand Prix. He was also the first PR Manager for Perris Auto Speedway, and spent over 20 years as the VP of Communications at Irwindale Speedway. Stokes is the recipient of the American Autowriters and Broadcaster’s 2005 Chapman Award for Excellence in Public Relations and was honored in 2015 by the Motor Press Guild with their Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award. “… I’ve also been reviewing automobiles and books for over 20 years, and really enjoy my LA Car assignments.” he added.
