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Designer’s Creative Thinking AND “Reverse Engineering”
I’ve been a retired designer and marketing person from the auto industry since ‘05. Working with a tier one supplier, I was privileged and lucky to come in contact with all the manufacturers and many of their design staff.
…One of my favorite stories I remember hearing back then was about the C3 Mako Shark concept vehicle, which Chuck Jordan and later GM Design Chief, was heavily involved.
…Chuck Jordan wanted a unique blue color for it that blended into a light grey at the bottom. He told the staff to use the colors of the blue on a large sport fish he had hanging on his office wall.
Try as they might and after repainting the car several times, none of their efforts passed Chuck’s high level of approval.
The frustrated team one night quietly took the fish off the wall, repainted it to the show car’s colors and replaced the fish back on his office wall.
…So the story goes, he came in and loved the color match never finding out about their clever “reverse engineering” effort.
Originally Posted by vetintheblood;[url=tel:1609026226
1609026226[/url]]Great story!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! …I’ve actually had this story confirmed by two different sources of friends, one who was an engineer and the other a designer at the time.
Not to ever put Mr Jordan down - BUT - the fact he was so particular and passionate in his pursuit of perfection at any and all levels is no doubt what got him to the pinnacle of his design career. 😊
I was fortunate enough to personally meet him once in a meeting when we presented our supplier concept for a 50th Anniversary Corvette.
It was to be a very low volume production vehicle which we could actually do profitably for GM.
Unfortunately, he was not in favor of relinquishing ANY aspect of Corvette design. …Ultimately we contracted the rights to AAT’s Steve Pasteiner - incredible former Buick designer and our contracted prototype builder, who produced around 200 units.
Designer’s Creative Thinking AND “Reverse Engineering”
