Meet Michael Young!
Pinar O.
Michael and the 004 Model
We are so happy to introduce Michael Young! I felt so lucky to meet him on the way to Baja last year. It was one of my greatest moments because he would see the Boot for the first time in person, and we were lucky enough to be part of the emotional meeting. His answers to the questions will give you some idea about him, but there are not enough words to tell you how kind and amazing he is. Please enjoy our first team member interview; you will read more soon!
Pinar
Michael Young is a freelance product designer living in Columbus, Ohio with his beautiful wife Isabel, the cutest son little James, and one more baby on the way. He started his career designing vacuums, baby toys, and cell phone cases, and his geeky passion for designing cars was formed on nights and weekends with helpful tips and guidance from coworkers. Michael quit his job in 2017 to attempt full-time freelancing, has spent a larger share of his time designing products but now has shifted most of his time to designing performance and race cars for multiple clients. Much hard work has built into his current position as well as a little belief in the impossible, but he would say it is still nothing short of a miracle!
How did you cross paths with Glickenhaus?
Jim was one of my first personal automotive clients and I have been very grateful to learn from him as we have designed quite a few cars together! When we met I had been designing and sending around several personal car projects as a means of promoting my work. This got me considered for Jim's new initiative with the SCG004 and until I was selected I didn't even know the job was for him. All I was told in the interview process was, "Just go watch everything there is about 1967 Le Mans." We spent the most time on that project as I developed an understanding of Jim and what he likes in cars - there are so many elements to what goes into the shape of a car and he had a clear vision for its essence as we worked closely together for months to hone in the forms. Now we understand each other well enough that it can sometimes take less than a week to develop a new design!
JIM calls me "Kid" and I can deal with that.
How did you feel when you met Jim? And how does it feel to work with him afterward?
Jim has always treated me with the most respect and as a friend, I feel very fortunate to know him, Jesse, and the whole family. They seem to constantly be sending baby gifts and have been very kind, to say the least. He calls me "Kid" and I can deal with that.
my favorite element of the car is what Jesse called the "Zombie Bars" on the hood.
I am sure you were so excited when you started working on Project Boot. How did you work with Jim for the Boot? What are the most exceptional design details for you in Boot?
I had driven with my wife out to New York to drop off a scale appearance model of the SCG004S for Jim. This was actually the first time I had met Jim in person, and you can imagine my stress as we drove through hours of highway construction with something so valuable in our trunk. As we discussed the 004, Jim showed me Steve McQueen's Boot which he had in the shop, and mentioned that I should check it out, he thought it would be cool to maybe someday design a modern version of it. I worked late at night when we got home and sent him some images of a concept first thing in the morning. Jim couldn't put it down and a few weeks later we had finished designs which we took to Armada Engineering to discuss the production. They did an exceptional job and as I pressed to maintain critical elements of the design that Jim and I created. With a little creativity on everyone's part to achieve top performance characteristics, the final design came out looking near identical to our initial vision. Maybe my favorite element of the car is what Jesse called the "Zombie Bars" on the hood. When he first saw them he mentioned you could tie a zombie to the hood with them - gruesome but correct.
What project are you currently working on?
Today I am working on several rifle stocks, I just wrapped up a secret electric airplane design and I am grateful to have 5 active car projects to get to! Jim and I are in the process of working with Podium and Armada Engineering to design a fully hydrogen-powered race Boot to compete in the Baja 1000.
What is the first thing you do when you sit down to work on a design that will use your creativity? I know someone claps his hands, a friend of mine knocks on the table, do you have anything special?
I wish I was that cool! As far as my process relative to other designers, I work pretty heavily in 3D CAD and usually start with realistic proportions, drivetrain, and passenger packaging there. I use Rhino which can create top-notch final surfacing but also allows for rough free form adjustments during conceptualization. I typically go back and forth between 3D and sketches, and Rhino is so fast that I can quickly iterate and try ideas roughly in three dimensions similar to how a clay modeler would work.
What inspires you?
As far as cars go, the late 80's and 90's era. I have a matt black lowered and widened MR2 in the driveway that I've put a lot of work into myself, and a yellow Diablo GT on my desk! On a personal note, I'm a big fan of Jesus and strive to follow his character, excellence, and humility. In process.
Jobs that require creativity require constant motivation, and sometimes it's natural to stop. How do you motivate yourself in such a situation?
Candy.
Simply being the best in your class is really not enough, to get the good job that you want, you have to have a higher standard.
What advice would you give to students who want to design products, design cars, and those who want to make a career in this way?
This is a one in a million job. At least the kind of job I have specifically. Being a freelance industrial designer full-time is very difficult, I only know of a few others in the US. Also, working in a professional sense as one person to design a car from a sheet of paper all the way through to working with engineering to finalize production is extremely rare, it is much more common to work as part of a very large team at a well known automotive company like Ford, etc. There are countless designers with incredible skills better than mine. I certainly got laughed at to my face for having these aspirations and trying hard to get a job as I have. I was also told in school that only the top 5% of my class would likely get a job doing design. All that to say, it's a massively formidable task!
I wouldn't count myself as someone with the best natural design skills (although I'm pretty good mechanically as an engineer) but I think patience and persistence gave me an edge. I was pretty behind Freshman year of college since I had spent all of high school in liberal arts and had never actually taken an official art class.. but working harder and longer than everyone else proved to work. There have been several moments where I took stock of what was required for success, I realistically laid out what would be needed for me to achieve it and then I decided I wanted to do it and it was worth it. For me, with my skills as a student, that meant looking at all the best inspirational images I could find on the internet and deciding that I wouldn't stop until my work looked like that. Simply being the best in your class is really not enough, to get the good job that you want, you have to have a higher standard. For me, it meant working in class or on projects from 8 am to 11 pm every day of the week all the way through college to get better at design. (Don't worry I still had a bit of life) Then after college for several years I spent most of my weekends in the office working on personal projects I was excited about. I met my wife, after all, that and thankfully by then I had gotten good enough that my day job could reflect what I wanted to be doing and I didn't have to work extra hours anymore!
Having good work goes a very long way when you're trying to get more work as a freelancer or applying for jobs. I realize networking is essential. LinkedIn etc. But not stopping until you have really good work and then doing your best to get it in front of people (in a way that demonstrates how you can support their goals) seems to work in my experience. I did plenty of hypothetical projects as a means for targeting the specific needs of companies I was interested in, it helps to fill in gaps in your portfolio that are hard to fill if you just wait for paid projects. I would find design directors on Linkedin for companies I liked, send them a few pictures and tell them I'd love to help out if their team has any needs ever. I did that for a few months full time and got about a 1% return rate.. but it was enough to get started! After that, just having my work posted online brings in clients at a slow rate but it is enough. You can do it!
Well, what would you say to young people if you said never to do these things?
I would strongly encourage you to avoid thinking that you are not smart enough for something. Or not skilled enough etc. I have really seen many times that I lack natural skills compared to other people, but that is not all of the equation. I'm not the best designer, but with patience and persistence, I think you can do much more than you believe you can.
To a certain extent, the quality of your education doesn't have to limit you either. I went to a small school without an automotive program, they mentioned in the first class "if you want to be a car designer you came to the wrong school," but there were still enough tools there to enable me. I certainly needed to go to college for design and I couldn't have done it without that, but schooling is what you make of it and there is likely much more available to you in your surrounding professional community than simply completing your assignments. Engaging as much as possible with the professional community and getting my head out of the school bubble was very important to help me understand the standards I needed to set for myself.
What is Michael doing these days?
The T.V. show I love watching these days;
We don't own a TV! Too many good things in life to do! That said, we watch movies and I really enjoyed Luca recently.
The book I'm currently reading;
Not enough time... the Bible is the only one I get to.
My favorite movie character;
Probably the T-Rex from Jurassic Park
The song that I get motivated and inspired by when I listen;
Peter and the Wolf (instrumental version)
My favorite dish is;
My wife's cooking.
My favorite dessert is;
My wife's desserts.
First thing I do when I wake up in the morning;
Check Instagram so I don't fall back asleep!
Nickname(s) that my family and/or friends use for me;
MrMikes (from my Dad)
The thing that excites me the most lately;
Fixing and restoring old things. I just finished bringing back from the dead a 1947 handmade wooden motorboat, I had every piece of the engine apart nearly to get it back to life. A 1990 Volkswagen Cabriolet is in the works for my wife, and the MR2 is a constant source of fixing fun, whether I want it to be or not!
