Gordon Wagener presents the Concept Style Coupé

Chinese auto group hires Ferrari car designer Fioravanti

MILAN, April 19 | Thu Apr 19, 2012 5:42pm BST

(Reuters) - Chinese state auto group Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) has deepened its ties with Leonardo Fioravanti, hiring the Italian designer of a string of Ferrari sportscars as a consultant.

"BAIC has asked Leonardo Fioravanti to personally supervise projects, as a consultant, including one advising BAIC on building its own brand," Luca Fioravanti, an executive at the family-held design house, told Reuters on Thursday.

The move highlights increasingly close links between Asian carmakers and Italian car designers. Fioravanti, the design house, formed a partnership with Shanghai-based design and engineering consultancy Eastone, and will unveil a concept car for BAIC designed with Eastone at the Bejing Motor Show next week.

reuters

GM Designer Elia Russinoff

By John Mellberg


Our designer friend and colleague, Elia ‘Russ’ Russinoff, has provided a portfolio of his work to feature on Dean’s Garage, shown on behalf of the Automotive Designers Guild and The League of Retired Automotive Designers, of which Russ is a fellow member.

Included among the 40+ sketches/photos is an image of a gold-colored 3/8ths scale model, called Illusion with the greenhouse sculpturally integrated into the form of the vehicle body, created in celebration of GM’s having worked with Libby-Owens-Ford (LOF) on vehicle glass development for 50 years. The cartoon in the portfolio, by Stan Parker, depicts several designers, modelers, and tech stylists with Russ seated in the vehicle. 

The illustration showing a dramatic 3/4 rear perspective of a pointy advanced car design demonstrates Russ’s out-of-the-box thinking. The Mead-like rendering of a couple of hovering, wheelless vehicles, was used along with other futuristic renderings by other designers for a presentation by Bill Mitchell on automotive design. Other images shown are from Russ’s work in Advanced Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Chevrolet Studios, the Aero Studio, and Advanced Vehicle Concepts Studio.

It’s been my good fortune to have known Russ for over 40 years, and I enjoyed working with him during my early days at GM Styling, in the Advanced Pontiac Studio, where he was a creative inspiration to all of us who worked with him. We’ve remained good friends for all these years, and I can truthfully say that while the years have passed, his enthusiasm, love, and passion for good car design is as sharp as it was back in the late 1960s when we worked together. 

His concept contributions as one of the founding members of the League of Retired Automotive Designers, at the various venues the League has exhibited its members designs at in recent years are exciting and forward thinking. Russ was also 1st Place Sr. National Winner in the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild Model Car Competition in 1949, and has been active in Guild Events over the years since, including the 2004 Guild Reunion held at GM Design, and the Eyes On Design concours event that year.
  

Elia (Russ) Russinoff

1955-1995 Asst. Chief Designer, GM Design
1960s Contributed to styling of several production Pontiacs and advanced aero projects
1955 Contributed to styling of Cadillac Town & Country show car
1954 Pratt Institute Graduate
1949 Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild 1st, Nat’l Sr. Award
deansgarage.com

James Hope appointed Director of Design for Chery Motors Ltd.

James Hope is the latest in a series of Western designers to make the move to head the design team at a Chinese OEM.Earlier this year, the former Assistant Chief Designer at GM’s Exterior Design Studio in Russelsheim, Germany, was appointed Corporate Director of Design at Chery Motors Ltd., China’s seventh largest state-owned auto maker.

Now based at Chery’s Strategic Design Center in Shanghai, Hope has been working with a core team of strategy members and approximately 90 designers in the company’s main research and design center in the city of Wuhu, in the eastern province of Anhui.
“I have a good feeling about the team – we’re working to bring a level of European quality to the designs,” Hope said in an exclusive interview. “I’ve been encouraged by their progress and the products in the pipeline.”

One of Hope’s more challenging responsibilities is to manage Chery’s diverse range – which includes the Cowin, Riich, Karry, and Rely sub-brands – and develop the design identity of the auto maker’s varied products.

To that end, Hope has also been liaising with Italian design houses to cultivate a more defined design ethos.

“I’m in the position to make a positive difference,” Hope said. “There’s a great opportunity to have an influence on change.”
A Canadian native, Hope graduated from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and has worked for Ford (in both Detroit and Cologne, Germany), DaimlerChrysler, Johnson Controls and GM Europe. He has worked on numerous exterior and interior design projects over the last two decades.
Hope’s career highlights include the Ford GT90 show car (which was the cornerstone of Ford’s ‘New Edge’ design philosophy), the successful rebirth of the 2004 Ford Mustang and supporting the Fiat Trepiuno – the concept precursor of the modern day Fiat 500.

More recently, he was involved in the design of the 2012 Opel Zafira and the Corsa MCE while at GM Europe.

(Design sketches via: Coroflot)

carbodydesign.com