What I'd Do Differently: Ed Welburn

From the May 2017 issue

C/D: What was the first thing you designed that you saw go into production?

EW: I’ll never forget it. It was a taillamp for a Pontiac Grand Ville. I was in my rookie year. I think it was a ’75.

C/D: As you matured as a designer, did you find any challenges that were tough for you but easier for some of the younger designers?

EW: I think I remained agile, but my role was very different. Immediately I think of a couple of designers I respected who had 40 years’ experience but were still very youthful in their thinking. Everyone is different. And I can’t generalize at all. There were those designers who by age 30 or 35 were almost burned out. Then there were others age 60 or 65 who, when you choose their design, there’s the same look in their eyes that a 20-year-old has.

C/D: The world is filled with your designs. Is there one that, when you see it out on the road, you think to yourself, “Wow, that came out well”?

EW: I think that about several of them for different reasons. CTS coupe, particularly the V. That was a car no one asked for. It was just someone in the studio had an idea and they brought it to me. I thought it was cool, said let’s pursue it, and the leaders of the company loved it and it went into production. It went into production in a very different way, and it wasn’t the result of a lot of market research. That’s exciting. Then there are family cars where you put a lot of research into what the customers want and then, when you really nail it, that feels good. That’s the very latest Malibu.

Welburn and the Buick Avista concept at the 2016 Detroit auto show.

C/D: Did you find that being an African-­American was an obstacle climbing through the ranks at GM?

EW: When I started at GM, I was the first African-American designer they had hired. I never thought anything of it before I got there. Then I was the first African-American to be made a chief designer. Then I was the first to be an executive designer. I think the greater challenge was more for them than it was for me. As they learned over time, I wasn’t that different from anyone else. My passion for design and automobiles was pretty much the same. But there were challenges along the way. There were those who thought GM would never make an African-American an executive designer, let alone VP of design.

C/D: And they were wrong.

EW: Yeah.

C/D: Is there anything you’d have done differently?

EW: I’ve had this focus on design for virtually all my life. At age eight, I told my parents I wanted to be a car designer for GM. There are things I’ve missed because of this tunnel vision. But it’s been a wonderful career—well beyond my expectations. Working with such a diverse group of designers around the planet. . . who else has had the opportunity to do all I have done?