The title atop this story could easily describe the ArtCenter College of Design’s unforgettable Craig Ellwood-designed black bridge building on a hillside above Pasadena’s historic Rose Bowl, yet another iconic design. But the 70 years of inspiration, technical training in a host of creative pursuits — and character-building — was the focus of this year’s annual Car Classic at the California college.
The event was a key element of a three-day reunion of Transportation Design alumni. We were given the opportunity to see a field of creative projects, many of which were being shown in their real-world production editions. Graduates of ArtCenter are given the tools to create dream-car forms and the skills to see them through to dealer showrooms.
With the support of school president, Lorne Bachmann, Transportation Design chair Stewart Reed, many of the department’s faculty and scores of willing volunteers, the school’s sculpture garden was packed with more than 150 delightful vehicles, many supported by fans nearing the status of a cult.
And the field was laced together by the presence of dozens (hundreds) of ArtCenter graduates who were responsible for the majority of the hardware we came to see.
Once again, this writer/photographer has failed to edit down to the number of images, but the gallery includes those I simply could not leave out. Ignore the ones you don’t think are necessary to the story — I can’t.
