These Great Modern Car Designers Have One Thing in Common

ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, has had an outsize influence on the automotive world. Here are some of its most eminent alumni.

Chris Bangle

A disrupter as much as a designer, Bangle brought polarizing designs to fruition during his tenure at BMW, including the 2002–08 7-series. Not everyone was a fan of the looks, but the shake-up allowed Munich’s conservative styling to grow and take chances in the future. His Z4 coupe has aged into collector status.

Luc Donckerwolke

After a trio of home runs at Lamborghini with the Diablo VT 6.0, the Murciélago, and the Gallardo, the Peruvian-born Doncker­wolke could have easily called it a day. Instead, he brought his keen eye for angular design to Hyundai and Genesis, helping propel the Korean automotive industry from selling value-­forward cars to offering genuinely desirable machines.

Chip Foose

A four-time Ridler Award winner, Foose is one of the biggest names in car customization. He is known to sketch constantly, reimagining everything from classics to brand-new Corvettes.

Tsutomu “Tom” Matano

Born in Nagasaki, Tom Matano became instrumental in infusing California car culture into Mazda’s best-loved sports cars. The original Miata was a return of lightweight, agile fun, and his oversight of the design of the third-generation RX-7 ensured that car’s place among the pantheon of greats.

J Mays

Tasked with re­­establishing Volks­wagen’s presence on the West Coast, Mays pulled an icon from the past, designing the concept that would become the New Beetle. Later, his retrofuturism would extend to the Ford Mustang and Thunder­bird. But perhaps his most lasting legacy is his work as a consultant on Pixar’s Cars films, ensuring that enthusiasm for auto­mobiles reached a new generation.

Frank Stephenson

A colossus in the world of small-car design, Stephenson brought Mini into a new age, then followed up by designing the modern Fiat 500. He also penned several cars for Ferrari and Maserati, including the F430 and the MC12, before creating and developing McLaren’s design language with the P1 and the 720S, among others.

Freeman Thomas

Starting out with Porsche and eventually working alongside J Mays on the New Beetle, Thomas also designed the Audi TT concept. Later, he headed up Chrysler’s Pacifica design center in Carlsbad, where he came up with the insane V-10-powered Tomahawk motor­cycle. Today he’s the CEO of the reborn Meyers Manx dune-buggy maker.

Larry Shinoda

Although Shinoda left ArtCenter before he could graduate, he was hugely impactful on the U.S. auto­motive scene. At Chevrolet, he contributed to the second- and third-­generation Corvettes, as well

as the second-­generation Corvair. At Ford, he both styled and helped engineer the Boss 302, and he even loaded Blue Oval execs into a small plane to spy on GM’s proving ground in a plea for more R&D money to beat the Camaro.

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