Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the League of Retired Automotive Designers.
The League’s contributors were professional designers at GM, Ford, Chrysler, and AMC—with a few notable exceptions. Founded in 2004 by Ron Van Gelderen, the League’s first public display was a Cadillac exhibit in 2006. I’ve been contributing my sketches to various League venues since 2017. It’s a great group of incredibly talented car nuts.
Some members share original sketches from their days in the studios. Others create entirely new designs, sometimes inspired by “orphan” marques like Packard or Pierce-Arrow. A few display remarkable talent in non-automotive subjects. As shown in my blog, I enjoy imagining cars of the future across a variety of brands and displaying those visions at League events.
My concern is that our ranks are thinning. We’re not attracting new members.
That concern motivated me to create a new League poster—an attempt to freshen the brand and make it feel more compelling and relevant. The featured poster shown here is my sixth iteration. I’ve included several more versions at the bottom of this post for comparison.
I chose an expressive, streamlined, aerodynamic, and futuristic car design to emphasize imagination and forward thinking. The process began with a speed-form sketch inspired by a bizarre Vizcom-generated image. I’m always looking for unexpected shapes to spark new ideas. I combined my sketch with the Vizcom image in Photoshop, initially avoiding a defined glass area to keep the design as a pure form study.
I used a monochromatic color scheme so the League’s name would remain dominant, rather than competing with the illustration. As the design evolved—with help from Vizcom—the theme shifted toward a mid-engine layout. I deliberately shaped the side air intake to create a strong graphic of negative space, echoing the tail lamp treatment, which trims away body-color surface and adds visual tension.
The featured image is a still frame from a Vizcom-generated video, heavily refined in Photoshop. I like how the open doors give the car a deconstructed quality. The woman in the image adds another layer of deconstruction, breaking up the bodyside and making the remaining surfaces feel more graphic.
On a broader note, I’d personally like to see a name change for the League—replacing “Retired” with “Professional.” “Retired” sounds old and backward-looking, and League of Retired Automotive Designers is a mouthful. Using Professional could broaden the League’s appeal and invite participation from a wider range of designers.
I would welcome current designers’ work at League shows, provided there are no conflicts of interest with proprietary projects. Renderings of classic or historical vehicles, in particular, wouldn’t pose an issue.
Of course, a poster alone won’t grow membership. We need a coordinated outreach effort—especially through social media—to increase awareness among designers. Car shows remain great opportunities for visibility, and I’ve also been exploring new venues to exhibit our automotive art and reach a broader audience.
For reference, I’ve included the original League logo below for comparison.
