Three Design Students Make Tracks for Detroit, Winners of Competitive Car Co-ops

In the world of automotive design, no one accepts second best. In fact, the specialty of auto design is so highly competitive that, in some years, entire graduating classes of young designers from the nation’s five transportation tracks are passed over by auto makers.

That being the case, the University of Cincinnati’s respected Transportation Track just received an “A+” from two automakers – General Motors, Inc., and DaimlerChrysler – in the form of summer work offers to three juniors in UC’s top-ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

In extremely competitive portfolio reviews and interviews in which they competed against hundreds of the best applicants from the nation’s transportation tracks and industrial design programs, Mark Chrapla, 22, of Indianapolis and Matt Zoller, 22, of White Oak, earned cooperative education slots at GM this summer. They start their summer co-op quarters on May 31. Taryn Dyle, 22, of Detroit, begins her summer co-op with DaimlerChrysler on May 22.

“This is the goal I’ve been working toward for four years now,” said Chrapla who has previously co-opped at Hot Wheels in El Segundo, Calif.; Sea Ray Boats in Merrit Island, Fla.; and Lexmark Printers in Lexington, Ky. He explained, “To get the slot, everyone first submitted portfolios of work. That’s where being at a school that demands professional work experience, as is the case with UC’s co-op program really helped. From those portfolios, GM selected 12 finalists for in-person interviews. From those interviews, six student designers from across the country were chosen.”

Chrapla added that it was intense competing with the best students from all over the country. “Students were coming to interview from Detroit itself, from California, from everywhere,” he stated. Zoller agreed, “My Dad was really nervous for me during the competition.”

That’s because there are only five schools in the United States with full programs devoted solely to auto design which are also the competitive players in preparing the next generation of car designers. UC is the first public university in the country to become one of these five programs and take on the private institutions in the competitive field of transportation design – relying on the advantages inherent in its Top Ten co-op program (ranked by U.S. News & World Report) and the nationally recognized industrial design, ranked number two in the nation by design employers.

When Chrapla and Zoller travel to GM’s Detroit headquarters, each of the six co-opping students will design a vehicle in a competitive studio environment to be taped and subsequently featured on the Discovery Channel in 2007. All of the designs will be built to fifth-scale models in clay. One will be chosen, made into a full-scale model, and exhibited at the Los Angeles Auto Show in February 2007.

There will be other rewards too, according to Zoller, who has previously co-opped at Hot Wheels; Astro Studios in San Francisco, Calif., and Fisher-Price in Buffalo, N.Y. He explained, “It’s always interesting to see how people from other schools work. You can often tell what school someone came from by their portfolio. It’ll be interesting to see how we all come into the summer with very different styles, how we influence one another and maybe come out with altered ways of working.”

Dyle will begin her summer co-op quarter with DaimlerChrysler on May 22, and during the summer, will work on a complete auto design that will be built to a fifth-scale model. She’s previously co-opped with Schick in Hartford, Conn.; Wild Planet in San Francisco, Calif.; and for two auto-interior design companies in Detroit: Johnson Controls, Inc. and Faurecia.

Said Dyle, “This summer, I hope to gain a chance to prove myself and the value of the industrial design professional. I know that I’ll come out with the most beautifully detailed model that I’ve ever done.”

Chrapla, Zoller and Dyle have all wanted to be auto designers since a very young age. For instance, Dyle can recall the exact moment she fell in love with autos. She recounted, “My Dad took me to an auto show in Detroit. I remember being eight-years-old and seeing the 1959 Cadillac El Dorado with the biggest tail fins they ever made. It was super-ostentatious. I stood and stared at it for about 20 minutes. That was all it took. I fell in love with cars.”