Mặc dầu với đề tài “Người Việt Đó Đây”, hôm nay, hơi ngoại lệ, Hồng Vân hân hạnh được nói chuyện với anh Sean Lo, một anh bạn người Hàn Quốc, đang làm việc tại hãng làm xe hơi General Motors với chức vụ trưởng ban thiết kế xe (car design).

Sau khi tốt nghiệp văn bằng kỹ sư tại trường Đại học Hong-ik tại Hàn Quốc, anh Sean Lo qua Cali để học thêm trường cao đẳng mỹ thuật công nghệ (Art Center College of Design tại Pasadena, CA. Ngay sau khi tốt nghiệp, anh bắt đầu sự nghiệp của mình tại General Motors. Hôm nay anh Sean Lo giới thiệu một kiểu xe mới do anh designs, Buick Lacrosse

• Phần I
• Phần II

Show kỳ nầy được bảo trợ bỡi Kutenails.com

Tiểu sừ

---

Seung-il (Sean) Lo
Lead Designer
GM Advanced Design Studio

It wasn’t until he was six and living abroad for the first time, having grown up in Seoul, South Korea, that Seung-il (Sean) Lo saw his first foreign car.  His father worked for the Korean foreign ministry, which took his family on assignments all over the world. Sean still remembers seeing his first foreign luxury car, which was a black 1976 Cadillac DeVille. “The car was so grand and dramatic—it made a lifelong impression on me.”

Sean immediately fell in love with the various automobiles the ambassadors and foreign diplomats were driving — Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Chevys, Holdens, Volvos.  He had never seen anything like them before and was immediately inspired by all the different design styles.     
Even at a young age, Sean spent much of his free time sketching the foreign cars on Embassy Row. He jokes, “Eventually my sketches were in high demand from my 7-year-old friends and I started handing them out for them to color. I knew then that I wanted to grow up and find a job where I could sketch cars all day long.” 
His father’s job allowed Sean to travel extensively beyond Seoul and New Delhi, India, where he grew up.  After graduating from the School of Engineering at Hong-ik University in Korea, it was easy for him to travel halfway across the world to attend the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Soon after graduation, he began his career at General Motors.    

Since 2000, Sean has worked in various studios for General Motors, including a project in Bertone, Italy, while working at the car manufacturer’s Advanced Design Studios. For the past couple of years, Sean has been the Lead Designer at GM’s Global Brand Strategy Studio in Warren, and most recently Sean has worked in the Advanced Design Strategy Studio, developing design ideas and strategies that can strengthen GM’s brands.

His latest project involved overseeing the brand strategy concerning the rejuvenation of the Buick brand, and ensuring the 2010 Buick LaCrosse successfully embodies that reinvention strategy. “Our product design has really gone through a renaissance and we have sharpened our brand strategy to focus on our target customers,” says Sean. “Our brands need to mean something to our customers and we have to realize there is tremendous value in that.”   

The 2010 LaCrosse carries the beauty and essence of its heritage, with such unmistakably Buick elements as the waterfall grilles and portholes. But the car also distinguishes itself from the past with a contemporary design that includes the latest technologies customers have come to expect. “The car has beautiful sculpted forms that work harmoniously with the flowing curves that continue right into the comfortable and inviting interior,” says Sean. “This Buick will definitely be critical in reinventing the brand since its design appeal is catered to a younger, yet still discerning customer.”  

And it’s not just GM tooting its own horn. Even long-time critics, leading national media and automotive experts are impressed. “Buick, the brand around which General Motors was established 100 years ago, may be the unexpected ‘sleeper’ that launches the company on the road to recovery,” said the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  And Tom Libby, an independent auto analyst based in Detroit, agrees. “It’s much more of a contemporary design and more progressive design, and it gets away from the sort of styling that the prior LaCrosse had,” he said. “The design will appeal to a younger demographic.” 
In his career at GM, Sean has worked on such cars as the 2009 Cadillac XLR, 2008 Cadillac STS and the 2009 Saturn VUE Hybrid. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, cooking and traveling.   
October, 2009

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Show Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.