John Schinella: From Hidden Talent to High Profile

摘要

Unlike most auto designers we've known, John R. Schinella did not originally aspire to that calling. Though he came from a long line of sculptors on his father's side and, as a child, enjoyed drawing while listening to music on the radio, he had no idea what level of talent resided in him. Also inherited from his father, who had raced motorcycles in his youth and took his family to all types of motorsports events around his home state of New Hampshire, was a love of cars and racing. Best known for a decade and a half of pulse-pounding Pontiac Firebirds, and the big "screaming chicken " bird graphic thai adorned most Firebird Trans Am hoods, the depth and breadth of Schinella's career achievements are truly impressive. Born in 1939, he grew up in Concord, New Hampshire, as the son of a printing-company foreman and a registered nurse. He attended the University of New Hampshire, then Boston's New England School of Art. A year short of his degree, he was selected by General Motors for a three-month internship at its Design Center in Warren, Michigan, and was one of very few such interns that GM retained.