2004 Design Chairman
Chuck PellyI am very pleased to have been asked by Eyes on Design to write a short article about my good friend, and fellow Art Center alumnus Charles W. “Chuck” Pelly, who is being honored with this year’s Lifetime Design Achievement Award. Selecting Chuck for this distinguished honor could not be more appropriate, as I know very few individuals who have achieved so much during their lifetime – and he’s still not finished!
Chuck has truly done it all – from sketching futuristic go-karts for Hot Rod magazine to designing race cars, snowmobiles, farm equipment, campers, catamarans and vehicles for GM, Chrysler, American Motors, Mazda, Subaru and BMW. He even penned storyboards and set design for the 1960’s classic television series, “Land of the Lost.” Chuck has been awarded more than 40 U.S. and foreign patents, has received numerous awards for his work, has taught and lectured broadly, served on many boards, has been President of the Industrial Design Society of America, and an IDSA Fellow since 1994. He is the founder and former President of Designworks/USA, which he grew from a staff of three working out of a garage to one of the world’s best industrial design offices and BMW’s U.S. design studio.
It is my belief that Chuck has been able to achieve so much during his career through a winning combination of two key elements: incredible talent, and an innate ability to be with the right people at the right time. This became clear back before Chuck was even a teenager, when the precocious future designer started spending time watching what the faculty and students were doing at Art Center College of Design. At the age of 17, he was encouraged by a couple of Art Center students to enter GM’s Craftsman’s Guild design competition. He soon won himself a scholarship to Art Center and was on his way
Chuck’s aptitude for being with the right people at the right time continued while a student at Art Center. Chuck started getting to know the staff at Petersen Publishing and soon found himself writing articles and doing illustrations for Hot Rod magazine and other publications. He got to know Frank Kurtis through a customer on his paper route, and before he knew it was working with Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes designing Scarab racecars for Lance Reventlow, and later Jim Hall’s first Chaparral.
By the time he graduated from Art Center, Chuck had a considerable amount of car design already under his belt. Little could he have imagined that he would not only graduate from Art Center, but later also serve as a senior product design instructor at the college, teaching Chris Bangle, J Mays, Freeman Thomas and many others who would go on to greatly influence the automotive industry. In 1989, Chuck also received the Don Kubly Professional Attainment Award – Art Center’s highest alumni honor.
Chuck sought to round out his industrial design skills through working for the legendary Henry Dreyfus for the next eleven years. Then, in 1972, Chuck founded Designworks/USA. Now, instead of being with the right people at the right time, Chuck was the right person at the right time. Following his motto of “Great People, Great Projects, Great Fun,” Chuck brought together an incredibly talented team of designers to form one of the nation’s most well-respected industrial design firms. Designworks soon had a number of major automotive studios as clients. Their work so impressed BMW that, in 1995, after working on many successful projects together, BMW acquired Designworks to become their U.S. design studio. Under Chuck’s continued leadership, in 1998 Designworks/USA was rated one of the “Top 10 World’s Best Industrial Design Offices,” by D.C. Groupe in Frankfurt, Germany.
Having gradually phased out of Designworks, Chuck is now a consultant with Pelly Design Management, serving as a corporate strategist on design and creative development. He is also starting a venture called the Design Academy, which focuses on networking and coordinating design centers of excellence through the joining of academics, professionals, researchers, and design advocates. He continues to remain very active in the world of design, very active with Art Center, and he undoubtedly has some of his best projects still lying ahead of him – waiting for the right people and the right time. I am proud to consider Chuck a friend and mentor, and I congratulate him on receiving the Eyes on Design Lifetime Design Achievement Award.
Nathan Young
Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer
Art Center College of Design
