GM’S
HOON KIM HONORS SPORTS UTILITY VEHICLES
IN COMMEMORATIVE EYESON DESIGN POSTER
GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich., June 5, 2000— General Motors designer Hoon S. Kim has captured the essence of this year’s featured model, the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), in his featured poster, created for EyesOn Design 2000.
Kim’s work tells the story, visually, of the past, present and future of the SUV, and its effect on modern society.
From the rich appointments of the 1935 Chevrolet Suburban, the luxury forerunner of today’s SUV, to the sheer planes and clean lines of tomorrow’s SUV, Kim’s art takes the viewer on an odyssey — from opulence to utility, military to civilian, past to future.
A distant parade kicking up trail dust symbolizes the explosion of contemporary sport utility vehicles, while paying homage to the vehicles’ off-road lineage. The poster also depicts the transition of the military HUMVEE, proven on the battlefield, to its emerging role as a robust civilian expression of a sport utility vehicle.
The SUV of the future is depicted as elegant, functional, utilitarian transportation with plenty of muscle.
Kim’s rendering is a result of a creative process similar to that used in vehicle development. Working with Alias/Studio Paint™ software, a vehicle design program, as well as airbrush, colored pens and pencils, Kim is able to replicate the traditional artistic process. A unique, designer-like approach to creating fine art, this digital medium allows the artist unlimited versatility and opportunity for experimentation in color, shading and texture.
"The flexibility of the software gives me the ability to create what I like to call ‘living art,’ says Kim. "It blends the best of traditional artistic approaches with advanced automotive design techniques for an effect fitting to EyesOn Design."
Kim joined the Oldsmobile Brand Character Center at General Motors Design upon his May 1998 graduation from Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies. A transportation design major at CCS, Kim is now a creative designer at the center. His previous experience includes internships in automotive interior and seat concept design at Michigan-based Prince Corporation and Johnson Controls.
Before his 1994 enrollment in CCS, Kim studied industrial design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., automotive engineering at Glendale City College; fine arts at Southern Illinois University; and painting and sculpture at Y.M. Art Institute in Seoul, Korea.
He was born in Seoul on March 13, 1970.
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EyesOn Design is the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology’s (DIO) largest fundraiser. Event proceeds help support the institute’s programs in ophthalmic education, research and aid to the visually impaired.
The DIO is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1972. It operates Michigan’s only Allied Health Education accredited Ophthalmic Assistant program and two-year Ophthalmic Technician program, one of only 13 nationwide. The DIO also manages one of the largest support groups for visually impaired persons in the United States.
The research charter of the DIO is to provide economic support to appropriate proposals from academic and corporate scientists in areas involving the Eye and the Auto and the Eye and the Chip.
In addition, the DIO also sponsors the annual Visions to Remember Antiques Show and the EyesOn Art preview.
