General Motors
Pratt & General Motors: Redefining the Auto Industry by Design What do the Cadillac, Camaro, and Corvette C5 all have in common? They all feature the artistry of Pratt alumni who’ve gone on to design for General Motors. Thanks to a partnership that began more than 60 years ago, Pratt Institute and GM have transformed the automotive industry—while creating one of the world’s leading academic programs in industrial design. Today, the Pratt-GM collaboration continues with the General Motors Transportation Design Scholarships that have supported more than 50 underrepresented students at Pratt. Among the scholarship recipients who are rapidly becoming the pioneers of 21st century car design are Alexandra Dymowska (M.I.D. ’07) and Magdalena Kokoszynska (B.I.D. ’07), creative designers at GM. Both women first became interested in automotive industry careers during the Pratt transportation design studio, which has its roots in the automotive design class established by Alexander Kostellow, the founder of Pratt’s industrial design program and a major proponent of academic-industry partnerships that prepare students for positions in industry. To that end, in the 1950s Kostellow enlisted Harley Earl, then vice president of the Styling Section at General Motors, to mentor students in the automotive design class Kostellow developed early in the industrial design program’s history. Earl also underwrote a number of scholarships at Pratt that were essential to the nascent program’s success. The results of the partnership are highlights of the American auto story: •T he nine “Damsels of Design,” seven of whom were educated at Pratt, revolutionized the auto industry in the mid-1950s with increased attention to aesthetics and ergonomics. • Thanks to award-winning car designer Bill Porter (M.I.D. ’58), GM signature sports cars the Camaro, Firebird, and Trans Am went into production. And in the 1990s, John Cafaro (B.I.D. ’77), GM design director, created the Corvette C5. As of 2012, more than 60 Pratt graduates have gone to work for GM. The partnership continues to perpetuate Kostellow’s and Earl’s legacy of redefining the automotive industry through design, demonstrating Pratt’s potential to transform industry through design—one collaboration at a time.
LEFT Harley Earl and six of the “Damsels of Design” Courtesy of GM
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