Among the many talented automotive designers to work for General Motors, Edward T. Welburn is undoubtedly one of the greats. With a career at GM that spans more than four decades, Welburn successfully built up a long list of accolades and accomplishments over the years, and now, the former GM VP Head of Global Design is discussing his automotive design career in the following seminar video.
Recently posted online by the Audrain Museum Network, which is associated with the Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island, the video clocks in a just under an hour, and documents a recent seminar in which Welburn shares his insights and experiences.
Welburn’s passion for automobiles started at a very early age. “As a kid I was crazy about cars,” Welburn says. “For me, going to the auto show, that was like going to Disneyland. That was my fantasy land, to go to the auto show.”
When he was eight years old, Welburn visited the Philadelphia Auto Show with his parents and saw the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone in the metal. It was at that moment that he decided to become an automotive designer.
“I’m standing there with me parents, I’m eight years old, my father’s on my right, my mother’s on my left, and I told them at that moment – ‘when I grow up I want to be a car designer for that company’,” Welburn says.
Welburn would go on to study design, sculpture, and painting at Howard University’s School of Fine Arts, and later secured an internship at GM Design in 1971. Welburn would become the first African American hired to design GM vehicles, as well as the sixth Design leader in GM history. In 2005, Welburn was assigned the newly created position of VP, GM Global Design, and was the first to lead all GM Global Design Centers.
Over the years, Welburn played a critical role in the design of a huge number of GM vehicles. Just a handful of highlights include the Buick Avista Concept, Buick Riviera, Buick Park Avenue, Oldsmobile Aerotech, Oldsmobile Antares, Hummer H3, Chevy Corvette, Chevy Camaro, and Cadillac Escalade, to name just a few.
Check out the full video right here:
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM design news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
I can explain career in Automotive industry either, mainly GM… Worked for GM, or GM Brasil from 1994 to 1997 and saw intern many injustices, with me and others. GM North America, Warren and Detroit. When lived in Munich, asked with Resumes several times GM USA, even in California, they just ignore you, because your are not native USA or do not have green card. So all my Resumes in GM Website GM ‘Career’ were just ignored, It does not matter if was ex employer of GM Worldwide, asked my dismiss in Brasil, previous VW Employer in Brasil also, indirect worker of BMW and Audi in Germany, GM just ignore. If this guy were lucky born in USA, then the way is really easier, we all know !
Or maybe you just weren’t good enough. Stop blaming others because you didn’t make the cut.
Maybe it’s your writing/communication skills that held you back?
indeed the worst of 8 billions in planet, i know, thanks for remembering me. Cucaracha deserves more, it is not only GM, but most USA people think they are better, born Europeans too, www
no, me among the 40 in one of best Mechanical Engineering class was one of the first 10 best, also at Master in Transportation Design in Italy, did my own, alone with wife and did the best projects at came to me in BMW cars, but truth the LUCK did not followed me, neither God chose among the Whites, maybe this could be a reason isnt it, what we see in recent films ?= called USA democracy
Yaeh, the luck did not followed you, that’s what happened….
Very interesting presentation by Mr. Welburn. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Ed Welburn was one of the best designers for GM. I remember when he announced his retirement, I wondered who could replace him and his talent. My best of luck to you Mr. Welburn.
All I know is GM design for the last 15-20 years has been really bad. Cheap, lazy and phoned in. A few bright spots here and there but overall do the least you can. Standouts were the Fullsize SUV’s, Solstice, G8, Regal, CTS (2nd gen) and some average looking stuff and a whole heap of why bother.
The newest designs look good inside and out. 2019+ trucks (2022+ interiors), Colorado, Blazer EV, OMG good again.
strange, people complains of the last 20 years German BMW too, what happened ?
because those guys have all over the world working for them with the latest technology at hands
BMW’s for the most part have looked great up until there newest design with the huge grill that hasn’t grown on me. I’m not even sure I understand what you’re saying though.
They need him back.
No they don’t. He’s responsible for the chopped greenhouse look!
The cave like atmosphere of the recent Camaro interior shows he should have retired earlier. Longevity is overrated.
There is plenty of design talent out there. The new interiors of the trucks and SUV’s are really good. The exterior designs of the new EV Cadillac’s are just stunning.
Ed was a good guy and I liked him a lot.. Soft spoken, thoughtful, intelligent and not at all arrogant.
I worked there during the Chuck Jordan, Wayne Cherry and Ed Welburn eras and I had a good deal of exposure to Design Staff. I guess I’d put Ed and his predecessor Wayne Cherry in the same category. For better or worse, Ed seemed to carryover a lot of Wayne’s overall direction.
From a performance in the marketplace perspective, GM’s exterior designs were a mixed bag during both Ed and Wayne’s eras. Some were excellent and some were total misses. And at GM, “a miss” means the entire vehicle line could get cancelled forever. Instead of keeping a previously successful nameplate and doing a better job designing the next gen product, GM would permanently cancel a product line because it was no longer profitable due to poor execution. So short sighted.
As for interiors, starting in the late Jordan era and continuing unabated through both Cherry and Welburn, GM’s interior executions were mostly embarrassing.. There was a bit of a reprieve when Lutz was there but after he left they reverted quickly back to the lowest common denominator which of course means the lowest cost possible.
To be fair, I tend to fault the design chiefs for that but in reality there’s a lot of pressure on them from the engineering side and especially senior management to shave every penny out product cost. And for whatever reason (cultural) GM loves show their cost cutting where the customer sees it most. The issue I had was the design heads never fought hard for better materials, better execution or more talented designers. They usually just went along with the program.
Continued good fortunes to Ed. Wish him the best.
Thanks to Ed for this presentation. It had many insights as to where we are in design, and a lot of new information I’ve never heard before, but I have to ask about the elephant in the room…Virgil Exner’s ’57 Forward Look line. It seemed Ed went out of his way not to mention them, even modifying the story of the early discovery to seeing Ford’s ’57 line, not Chrysler’s, and racing back to tell about it. Is the commonly repeated story wrong? Of course, it happened years before Ed joined GM so perhaps it’s, you know, one of those topics there. I wish someone would have asked about it,