A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design
A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of American Car Design by Michael Lamm and Dave Holls is the definitive history of American automotive design. The book delves into the ‘nuts and bolts of early automotive fashion’ and covers everything from early coachbuilders and independent automotive manufacturers (all of whom are now sadly defunct or have been bought out and absorbed into larger companies) through to the Big Three US-based giants — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler (now FCA).
Description
At 300 pages, A Century of Automotive Style goes into great detail about design from the early Harley Earl years at General Motors (when the first design — then called the Art & Color — department was conceived) and looks into the design process, when wood was the dominant material in manufacturing through to the influence of aerodynamics in streamlining.
A Century of Automotive Style is complete with designers’ biographies, coachbuilder histories, descriptions of car company design departments and discussions of trends that have taken place in the automotive industry since its inception. It’s a thorough study of the history of car design in the US, loaded with fascinating insights into the culture of automotive design.
