American Car Design Now: Inside the Studios of America's Top 15 Car Designers (Paperback)

by C. Edson Armi (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
More and more Americans today are paying attention to how their cars are designed. Auto designers are now celebrities, and the look of your car has become as important as the clothes you wear. According to the New York Times Magazine, You are what you drive. Your car is a bold statement of individual identity. American Car Design Now is the first book to take a critical look at this phenomenon, with in-depth examinations of the creative process behind more than thirty contemporary models that embody the trends of the future, including the Crossfire, Mondeo, Thunderbird, Continental, Mark 9, Bengal, Vizon, Cien, and CTS.

The product of more than three years of research, this volume collects the author's essays and interviews with the design directors of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. The author gained unprecedented access to the notoriously secretive and guarded design studios of these car giants, and the result is an insider's perspective on the making of new American cars, of new American dreams.

American Car Design Now delves deeply into the individual characters behind the industry and shows how their different creative and managerial techniques translate to the finished models. With this unique analytical approach, American Car Design Now is a great addition to the shelves of not only auto industry professionals but designers and car enthusiasts of all types.


About the Author
C. Edson Armi established himself as the authority on car design with The Art of American Car Design, which was the first book to treat this subject with a critical analysis and which covered the period from 1900 to the present. Armi has been a professor of art history for almost thirty years, previously at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications (February 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847825310
• ISBN-13: 978-0847825318
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #474,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brain food for your eyes, November 22, 2005

By	Carlooks "Carlooks" (DC, USA) - See all my reviews

American Car Design Now is the benchmark book in car design as business management, as sculpture and as psychology. It lays a foundation and sets a standard for intelligent writing on car design, writing that trains your eye to see more. The book is built on interviews with key designers and design managers at Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. In three major sections it reveals and explores how managers make decisions about the broad concepts and how basics such as proportion and line, as well as defining details make or break the visual success of a design. The author coaxes inarticulate designers to reveal how they work, how the mind, the eye and the hand create car designs that thrill or bore us. Visual concepts in the mind of the author reveal things that would go unnoticed by designer and observers unequipped with these concepts. Visual analyses of the designs of specific cars show how and why many great car design concepts become dull blobs when translated into production cars. Analyses refer to photos illustrating the author' points. A rich set of interviews with significant car designers is appended. Finally there is a fundamental glossary of car design terms that is a must-have.

Car-design is a complex intersect of art, business and psychology that this book captures but does not simplify. You will earn what you learn from this book, but your effort will be rewarded. My only complaint that this book's handsome graphic design often does not track the text closely enough. Some photo references are incorrect, missing or distant from their discussion. Nevermind that: this book is essential reading for anyone involved in car design. Buy it now; get express shipping; take time off to read it.