Mr. George Walker - Leader in Automotive Styling

Mr. George Walker was a man of strong opinions who never hesitated to express himself. After playing semi-professional football, he entered the industrial design field during 1923. He shortly became an outstanding figure in the field of automotive car design and industrial design. Walker’s personal trademark which he considered important was a habit of sketching a car of his own design in the background of many fashion illustrations that he had created.

Eventually, one of his illustrations came to the attention of the President of the old Peerless Motor Car Company, who soon offered him a job doing Peerless advertising illustrations. By the time he turned the firm over to his employees to become a Ford consultant; Walker was doing nearly a million dollars worth of business annually. He had designed more than 3,000 products of all sorts for a wide variety of industrial concerns-everything from canister sets to clocks and automobiles. Walker had earned his reputation as a leader in automotive styling.







In 1940, Walker announced the development of a safety instrument panel for cars. In 1944, he predicted that a push button window control would come into widespread use after the war. From 1946 to 1955, Walker, consultant of Ford Motor Company, continued to be a major influence on the styling of Ford products. From 1955 until his 65th birthday, Walker was known as the Corporate Vice President of Design for Ford Motor Company.





Walker’s major accomplishments in auto design included the 1949 Ford, the 1950 Lincoln, the 1955 Ford Thunderbird and the 1959 Ford. One of Walker's favorite designs during his 15-year association with Ford was the 1949 Ford. The 1949 Ford products were designed around a radius pattern with plenty of rounded corners and edges. Walker's 1949 design launched what he fondly called the “crisp concept” based on thin straight lines. The most notable departure of the ‘49 Ford design placed the fenders as part of the body design and overall package.




On January 19, 1993, the automotive world lost the great industrial designer, Mr. George Walker. However, his unique automotive contributions at Ford Motor Company live on forever.

A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for donating his story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. George Walker's history information courtest from the National Automotive History Collection. For further information contact Robert Tate at btate@motorcities.org

If you have a story that you would like to donate to be featured as a MotorCities Story of the Week, email Lisa Ambriez at: lambriez@motorcities.org