Adding Style to Substance

Chuck Jordan began his GM design career in the truck studio. He learned a designer's job is to create rapid-fire ideas without worrying whether they are good or bad. What's important, he said, is to look in all directions. That's how you propagate ideas.

The 1950s was a fantastic era for the pickup truck. The early years saw the first of the post-war redesigns, a sales boom, and, as the decade progressed, light trucks went through some big changes. These trucks are the favorites of today's collectors/enthusiasts. The 1950-54 era produced popular, but plain as a potato, trucks with no frills and little in the way of conveniences. By mid-decade, things were changing. Truck design was showing signs of growing beyond the basics. More powerful engines were being developed. And the truck was beginning to take on more of a recreational usefulness.

Chuck Jordan was fresh out of college in 1949, and he was excited about his first job at General Motors. "All the new kids went to the experimental department," Jordan recalled. "We were evaluated based on the sketches and renderings we did and then assigned to areas where they thought we would fit in. I was fascinated with trucks and got to know some of the guys in the truck-design studio." As things turned out, Jordan became a designer in the Chevrolet truck division. "Your life takes a lot of twists and turns as a result of the people you meet along the way," Jordan said. But he was the right guy at the right place and time. His enthusiasm for the job and willingness to explore new ideas made an impact on General Motors. Before his career concluded, he would rise to the rank of vice president of design. However, his beginnings are rooted in mid-'50s truck design. It was a time when creativity and change were readily accepted, and Jordan had plenty of ideas for modernization.

The sketches that are reproduced here are examples of Jordan's vision and talent. They were completed in the early 1950s with an eye toward the 1955 redesign of the Chevrolet truck line. As you view them, you can see some similarities in mid-50s production trucks, other trucks that would come years down the road, and some features that never made it beyond the concept stage. In the design process, hundreds of imaginative designs were created before management decided on a direction. While the plans unfolded, all types of lively, fanciful ideas were encouraged.

"A designer uses his imagination and puts out as many ideas as he can think of," Jordan explained. "It doesn't matter if they are good or bad. The critique comes later. The important thing is to look in all directions. It is harmful to the process to rationalize as you go. Even though many drawings may end up as one-shot thoughts, that's the way you have to think to propagate ideas."

Jordan's creative energies were poured into designs that advanced truck styling. "I was always looking for new ways to change the character of the truck in an evolutionary way. Making the vehicle bolder was important. It was direction we took. The idea was to make it look stronger.

"I always thought that for certain applications people would like a show-piece truck. I was looking for something that would become a leadership model, an image vehicle, even though I knew the majority of trucks were going to be used for hauling manure."

When Jordan began, truck design was segmented - the cab was clearly separate from the bed and the rear fenders were grafted onto what was pretty much a simple box. "I remember thinking, 'Wouldn't it be nicer to have a smooth-sided design?' I thought of the old-style truck design as an assembly of cheap-looking parts."

Jordan's classic smooth-sided concept evolved into the Cameo, one of the slickest designs of the mid-1950s. It was an image truck that attracted a lot of attention. It did not sell in large numbers and it was not used "to haul manure," but that wasn't the point. It magnified the importance of style in pickup truck manufacturing - a concept that has become critical to truck sales.

Another eventful, perhaps prophetic, exercise in truck styling came with the Motorama show truck called "Universelle". It was somewhat a blending of the Nomad wagon and the Cameo pickup truck, but its purpose was to be a stylish replacement for the Suburbans and panel delivery trucks.

This concept vehicle was a precursor to today's mini-vans. The interior was plush. The overall design was fashionable. And there was a heightened awareness of driver/passenger convenience.

You can see passenger car styling merging with utilitarian truck practicality in these sketches. The styling influences were profound and led to new ideas about what a truck should be.

As is evident from these ideas, the boundaries of ordinary were being ignored, and innovation prospered as a result.