First Day Shock

My first day was on April 1, 1963. I had to go to Human Resources. Those days, it was called Personnel. I had to sign different papers and was given a lesson on how security was the number one concern at GM Styling. I was told not to mention anything I was working on in design development and then I was assigned to a studio. I could only talk about it to no one outside of General Motors. If I were assigned to a studio, my first studio being Chevrolet Interior in June of 1963, I was not allowed to go into any other production studio other than Chevrolet Exterior Studios and the Interior Studio. If I did, I would be immediately fired. The doors on the production design studios had a combination that you had to memorize and tell nobody about other than anyone in Chevrolet Interior. After the personnel talk, I was taken over by shuttle to the Text Center Medical for an exam before being able to work at GM Styling. On the way over, the shuttle driver said, "Well, you're a lucky guy. You get to work in fairytale land" or something to that effect. Then I went into the Design Development Studio and was greeted by, at that time, the head of the studio, Sparky. Instead, he told me what he would be teaching me and what was expected of me and his approach as a designer. I related to it immediately. I went back to Personnel and told them that I had made a terrible mistake and that I wanted to leave GM Styling as soon as possible. The person at home I had, Roger Martin and Miles McNaughton, said, "Don't do anything rash because we are bringing in an excellent instructor and head of Design Development, his name is Bill Porter." Bill, from the very start, had design beliefs that were very much in tune with mine. Bill was a graduate of the University of Louisville in Fine Arts with a Masters of Design from Pratt in New York City. Bill was probably the best teacher that I had ever seen in person. He said, "John, hey, I'm not familiar with interiors. I'm an exterior designer. But I will teach you how to draw as best I can and let you see my sketches and how I'm doing." And from that point on, I worked all day, far into the night, perfecting my ability to draw automotive interiors. Everybody in Design Development were graduates of exterior design from Art Center College in California. At that time, Art Center was the Mecca of automotive car design in the world. However, they did not have an interior design course at Art Center, so they picked the exterior designers that they thought would fit into interiors but were not good enough to be exterior designers. At that moment in my career in 1963, my interest was in product design and exhibit design. As a matter of fact, I came for an interview at GM to work on the World's Fair of 1965. I did not realize when I interviewed in February of 1963 that the World's Fair had already been designed and was in the process of getting ready for fabrication. However, the World's Fair exhibit designers and the Frigidaire product designers felt that I would be a good fit for doing automotive interiors and asked me if I would be interested. I said yes. I was interviewed by the Chief Designer of Interior Design at that time, a man named Donaldson. After reviewing my portfolio, they offered me a position as an interior designer. I had lined up an interview at Ford while I was in Detroit and an industrial design firm, Nathan Sunbird and Farrar. I was told by Personnel after the offer was made to me that if I went to work for Ford, and I thought I would probably get a job at Ford, then I could never work for General Motors Design or Styling. And at that time, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors were the only games in town.