Franz von holzhausen biography of martin
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Franz von Holzhausen
American vehicle designer (born 1968)
Franz von Holzhausen (born May 10, 1968) is an American vehicle designer. Since 2008, he has been in charge of design at Tesla, Inc. He led design for the Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, Semi, Cybertruck, and Tesla Roadster (second generation). Prior to Tesla, he worked in design at Mazda, General Motors, and Volkswagen.
Career
[edit]In 1992, von Holzhausen started his career with Volkswagen, where he worked on the design for the New Beetle concept planerat arbete , known as "Concept One," under design lead J Mays.[4]
In 2000, he moved to General Motors as a design manager, where he worked on the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice.[5]
In 2005, he took a role at Mazda, where he was ledare of design.[6] He led the designs of the Mazda Kaburaconcept car that debuted at the 2006 North American International Auto Show and of the Mazda Furai concept bil that was unveiled at the 2008 North Am
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The secret to how Tesla gets its cars to look absolutely fantastic
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- Designer Franz von Holzhausen had an impressive resume before joining Tesla.
- But the combination of his frustration with the traditional auto industry and Elon Musk's distinctive ideas about how to solve problems has taken his work to a new level.
- He's followed an unlikely path to becoming the most influential car designer of his generation.
Before Franz von Holzhausen signed on with what was then called Tesla Motors in 2008, he was on his way to being a member of the automotive design world's elite.
He had graduated from Art Center College of Design in the early 1990s, making him an alumnus of the world's most prestigious transportation design program, counting among its graduates the likes of J. Mays, Chris B
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The Triumph of A Minimalist Designer: Franz von Holzhausen
by Wallace Wyss –
One thing I relish in my role as automotive reporter is meeting car designers. Rarely have I met one coming closest to his dream than tall quiet Franz von Holzhausen.
He is the son of a designer so he grew up with dad’s drawing tools within reach. He first went to Syracuse University and graduated followed by going to the Art Center College. From there he went to work for VW where he was involved with the new Beetle, an iconic car, which I think captured the Zeitgeist of the original.
From there it was on to Mazda where he did two concept cars and then GM where his designs for the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky were approved and produced. About that time, at an auto show, he met a fresh faced “boy wonder” from South Africa, a wanna-be car builder who hadn’t in fact at that point in time yet built a single car. He promised Franz his creations, in short order, would rul