Cooper Hewitt says...
Virgil Exner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 24, 1909. An advanced student with an early interest in art, Exner graduated from high school at age 16 and attended the University of Notre Dame for two years to study art and design. With limited funds, Exner left school in 1928 and began working for an art studio and advertising firm in South Bend, Indiana. The firm’s primary client was American automobile manufacturer Studebaker, for which they produced brochures, catalogues, and advertisements. In 1933, Exner was hired as a designer at General Motors, joining Harley Earl’s Art & Color Section, where he was assigned to the Pontiac Studio. He was later promoted to Studio Manager at Pontiac and also worked on the 1938 and 1939 Buicks. In 1936, Exner left General Motors to work for industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who had just acquired Studebaker as a client and was recruiting automotive designers. Exner’s earlier work with Studebaker led to him soon heading the account.
Exner designed Studebaker automobiles from 1936–1949. In the late 1940s, he was recruited by Chrysler and was hired to develop a design department that could compete with Harley Earl’s at General Motors. His first assignment was to design a new parade phaeton for extremely limited production. In 1953, Exner was promoted to Director of Styling for Chrysler and was tasked with completely redesigning the 1955 Chrysler product line. His design creativity elevated the status of the company, and Exner was named Vice President of Design at Chrysler Coporation in 1957, the first time the company had ever awarded such a position to a designer. Medical problems forced Exner to retire in 1961. He opened his own industrial design firm and continued to consult for Chrysler. In 1993, the Henry Ford Museum posthumously awarded Exner the Edsel B. Ford Design History Award.
