Timely Companions

This is a drawing done for a client, my brother's girlfriend. Her grandfather had operated a trucking company using the two trucks. The white truck is a Peterbilt 352 cabover, and the blue truck is a GMC DF-Series, possibly a DL7000, or DLR7000 if it had the air-ride suspension. This drawing was done on Strathmore Artagain colored paper using Prismacolor pencils.

Meow-Pow!!!

This is just a fun scribble. I wanted to test out some brush presets, and experiment with some basic shadow ideas for future renders.

Chevrolet Desperado ZR2 - Initial Ideas

The GMC Mjolnir's exterior design is ready for some finalizing. In the meantime, I focused on my idea for a compact Chevrolet truck. It is known as the "Desperado" with the ZR2 moniker. The concept design's theme is aggressive off-roading capabilities with inspiration from trophy trucks. Ideations for this truck began about a year ago, but there were difficulties with some of the exterior design elements...

This is the first sketch I had completed of the Desperado, which was also known as the "Champion Silverado" and then the "Colorado". I settled on the name Desperado since the Colorado will be used by the larger model above this one, and the "ado" at the end of the word desperado fits perfectly with Chevrolet's truck naming. This sketch was drawn on letter size paper with Prismacolor Verithin Indigo Blue pencils.

These are additional sketches brainstorming body panel ideas. The trouble was with the limited area that I had to work with for the front end. I also wanted to see if I could create a new Chevrolet theme for this truck that does not use the chunky stacked headlight design that is common on Chevrolet trucks. This collage was drawn on Strathmore Artagain paper with Prismacolor pencils and markers.

Here is the first digital render, and the design of this truck is heavily based off of the indigo blue sketch, though there are some major changes. This was also a quick sketch to practice some advanced coloring, compared to the Mjolnir renders. Also, I did not like the rather simple feel of this design. It also lacked the muscular look I wanted... This render and the following two renders were first sketched on letter paper and then colored in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

This render is a bit better, and I experimented with some Corvette-inspired beltline shaping. The lower valiance does not really fit with this style of truck, though. It seems more fitting on a luxury truck...

This is the final render, though it sure won't be the last for this truck! I went a little overboard and added more detail to this one. This design is a bit better than the previous one, but I feel that hte bulging beltline curves need some massaging. They seem very awkward with their flow over the entire vehicle. I was aiming for a very strong rear panel shaping that alludes to classic muscle car bodies. I am planning on making the final concept design a nice shade of dark blue with some yellow-orange pinstripes.

I am still having issues with the front end design. It will all boil down to how I shape the front fenders. With the way I sketched the trucks in the digital renders, I have a somewhat limited area to work with, and any design that I could use would be very derivative (think Chevrolet Volt front end). I may go for a 5th-generation Camaro front end, or even reshape the whole front body to allow for more workable space. The rear will not be too much trouble. I am thinking of deleting the tailgate and adding some type of bed accessory to load and unload spare tires or even regular cargo... 

Pickup Truck Design Project - Names

Alright, I felt that my blog posts keep jumbling up the truck names I am using for my project, making things quite confusing. So, I thought I would create a quick list here to show what the names are and which truck they are for.

Chevrolet ~

Silverado K35 - Full-size 1-ton pickup truck
Colorado SS - Mid to full-sized pickup truck
Desperado ZR2 - Compact pickup truck

GMC ~

Mjolnir - Full-size 3/4-ton highly mobile pickup truck
Grand Denali - Mid to full-sized pickup truck
Fenrir - Compact pickup truck
Topkick (temp.) - Cab-over-engine commercial truck

The names are pretty much final, but in any event that I change any of them, I'll post again, with the updated list.

GMC Mjolnir - A Look Out Back

The following renders show the rear end designs for my Mjolnir concept. My primary aim was to try something new and allow for a useful setup for off-road purposes. I also wanted to create something unique for the GMC brand, which has never had anything that stood out with their tailgate designs. In reality, it does not matter, but I wanted to go that extra step, partly because I doubt General Motors will do the same to add some additional levels flair to their often conservative designs.

This sketch shows the initial idea: a wide wedge with small horizontal taillights (compared to the usual vertical designs used on today's trucks), and an armored bumper that has rear tow hook connections, a built-in winch, and corner steps like the current General Motors full-size trucks. The tailgate is a traditional setup, but it offers some additional utility on the inside. I will expand on that design further in future sketches. The body panel shaping is also much more aggressive than on any other traditional truck. The panel shaping and the flow of the creases are loosely connected with the front end theme, but also I made those lines and shape taper up and backward, giving a bit of a visual connection with the whole idea of departure angles.

 This is the same design as show in the first render, but I made the wedge color-keyed. This look works very well, but I feel the blacked out design can add more substance and flow with the front end, which has a blacked out grille section; in short, I mean a sense of balance.

 Just as a quick experiment, I tried a vertical taillight design, which works just as well, but I wished to go back to the horizontal nature of the original design, though I felt even that one could use some work... 

 I tweaked the original design by taking away some angles and making the shaping much simpler. I also simplified the flow of the creases across the tailgate as well, though the differences are very small. Also, I tapered the rear bumper for absolute maximum departure angle that could be possible from this particular vehicle. I imagine that the exact departure angle for this truck could sit between that of a 2014 GMC Sierra 2500HD and a 2009 Hummer H2.

This render shows an idea of how much the fenders jut outwards. I am not going to carry over that chrome trim in the taillights onto the final design. I wish to avoid anything flashy with this truck at all costs. This truck also, albeit loosely, shows the sheer amount of grand clearance that can be possible from a portal axle setup.

This render shows the front and rear design from a different angle to show how much the front grille or the rear bumper juts out. The front is rather rounded out, but the front tires will still be very close to the bumper corners, unlike the current GMC Sierra pickups. The rear bumper juts out a bit less than the standard full-size truck. Also, this bumper shows a bit more in the way of shaping and detail.

At the moment, I feel that the basic body design is complete, and now it is time for the interior and details until the final renders. The interior will be focusing on utility and functionality, but also a nice lifestyle feel with some outdoor-style luxury trimmings. The details that I wish to focus on are the lighting, grille pieces, decals, door handles, mirrors, and everything in-between. After that, the more detailed renders will follow!

It is possible that I may go back to my K35 concept to refine it a little further before finishing up the Mjolnir. Having used a much more efficient method of design experimenting with the Mjolnir, I wish to have a second go with the K35. That old design could use a bigger front end and a larger cabin...

GMC Mjolnir - A quick followup to the previous post.

That last image in the previous post shows the design I decided on. But, for an off road vehicle, I felt that the grille needed a quick revision, and the body shape felt a little narrow. In the above render, the body is wider, the panel under the headlight is cleaner with a single crease running through (instead of two), the bumper still needs some refining, and I added some LED off-road light arrays on the top and on the front bumper. The tow hook connections (a more detailed render of those pieces will be done later on) are a dual design that allows for two tow hook connection points, which would allow for a strong foundation for the LED light array frame. Most importantly, the grille inserts are re-positioned to allow for more enclosure at the bottom. I did this because I noticed some off road vehicles have a high set grille opening to allow for deeper water fording. This truck is meant to be more capable than the old Hummer H2, and even the Ram Powerwagon, and water fording is something I felt was too important to disregard. Right now I am thinking that this new grille revision is the better way to go, or there could be some type of grille shutter system that fully closes the lower sections, though that would add too much complexity. For the most part, I have decided on the front end design, and the body is pretty much close to what I wish to use. The rear end and tailgate design is up next. The rear bumper will carry on General Motors' new corner step feature on the new Sierra pickup trucks, but my design will also incorporate tow hook connections and a rear winch setup (with the challenge of positioning it properly due to the possible extreme tapering of the bumper to allow for massive departure angle).

GMC Mjolnir - A Rethought of Sorts

While brainstorming the design theme for the Mjolnir concept, I decided to backtrack a little and try something else. While it is easy to find a sensible look for a Chevrolet truck concept, GMC is another animal. The brand has never had any design theme or identity that either stood out or lasted a long time. Chevrolet has somewhat of an identity, so there is a good starting point. I felt that the design I had been working on (shown in the first render) was causing too many challenges and limiting what I really wanted to do with the truck. I felt that I was trying too hard to make it look like a GMC truck based on recent concepts built by the general himself.

The above three renders show the main idea for what I was intending, a GMC-styled chrome grill with over-detailed insert pieces and some LED decorative lighting, along with a rather hexagonal shaping everywhere. The look was just not working, to my eyes, because the look and feel that I wanted just was not there. The "look" I am speaking of is something that is more organic and very buff, as if it was a living animal... So, I started all over, throwing out the ideas I had been working on the past year (all condensed into the above three sketches). 

This was the first sketch to get things going. Originally, all of the renders shown were completed in pencil, but I wished to do more digital sketches because I had not done some in a long while! The above render also became an aid for some better shaping ideas. I started focusing on the body as more of a fuselage with protrusions on the side (the fenders). Before, I had designed the body and fenders as one major part. For example, the first render shown was designed with the body connecting with the fenders. But, the above render was designed with the body being a separate section, and then the fenders are added to complement the shaping better. I feel that a later render shows it better. 

This was a further experiment on the front end, but also testing out a body shaping idea. Unfortunately, I inadvertently  made that front end similar to the new Ford Escape. However, the body is beginning to take a better shape. The midsection narrows between the fenders to create a very athletic shape, and the cabin frame gives off the feeling of a tank, or even the Mjolnir hammer in some form.

This render is pretty much what I wish to use, especially that front end. It is a lean-forward design with a bumper that slants backwards. This makes for an aggressive, and perhaps quasi-animalic look. The cabin is going to be a full length crew cab in the final design, but I wished to try out a shorter cabin size just for this sketch. It does make for a better stance overall, but I wish for more interior space, so a full-size cabin will be the final choice. The front bumper is also an armored piece, with loop towhooks and a high-capacity winch. The hood vent design is something I have been working on ever since I started on the GMC truck designs two years ago. The running boards on the truck shown above also act as rocker panels, capable of supporting the full weight (plus maximum payload) of the vehicle.

I felt that the headlights in the previous render were too large for a multi-capable offroad vehicle (usually they have smaller lights for reduced chance of damage, such as all Jeeps and Hummers), so I experimented with a different design. In doing so, I also tried out a few other things, such as dealing with that large amount of body panel space under the headlights. I also wanted to add more depth to the bumper as well, but it is still an armored design even with that more extreme shaping. The section under the headlights is something I will have to deal with a little further. Because the front grille leans forward, that section under the headlight has to be chiseled carefully to align with the backwards leaning fender edge, or else the surface will be warped. It is not too noticeable in this render, but I may work a few renders to show in better detail later on.

Despite any issues that may have occurred, I have a new look to work with, and I may transfer it in some form onto the smaller Fenrir Denali concept, and the much smaller truck below that one (which I have not named yet).

A Ford and a Semi

This is a drawing done for a client, who's father or grandfather ran a business using the semi truck, and also owned a 1949 Ford F1, in which the pickup is still under the ownership of the client's family today. This drawing was done on Strathmore Artagain colored paper with Prismacolor pencils.

GMC Mjolnir Ideation Sketches

With the Chevrolet Silverado K35 design pretty much finalized (still have a lot left to do), I started work on the smaller Silverado 7/8 pickup truck, which I now renamed to "Colorado", and the smaller truck below that will not be called Colorado anymore. It will be known as "Desperado". So, the Colorado was next for the project, but I ended up hitting a wall with the design. I am rethinking my decision on a few things right now, such as the target audience and the risks involved with the design direction I had planned. Also, during that time, a thought had occurred to me. I was planning on a GMC variant of the Silverado K35, which meant another one-ton dually truck for the project. Though the GMC version would be much more gussied up than the Chevrolet model, I felt that there really was no need to design two of the same type of trucks, so I came up with a quick but exciting solution...

Here is the first of four marker sketches, for now. It is the GMC Mjolnir 3/4-ton pickup truck. With all the talk online about GMC being a potential spiritual successor to the now dead Hummer brand, I thought about how I could approach the idea. The Hummer H2, arguably the most famous, or infamous, vehicle from Hummer's lineup before its death, was a 3/4-ton sports-utility-vehicle with unmatched off-road capabilities in its size class. I cannot quite understand why General Motors decided on a heavy-duty platform for the H2 from the beginning, but the H2 did have some great uses outside of off-roading thanks to its heavy frame. It could tow and haul a good amount of weight and survive some tough conditions rather well. I wanted to take that idea and give it a much more usable form, in the form of a pickup truck. Of course, General Motors was ridiculed for making one "mistake" with the H2's off-road ready suspension; it had an independent front suspension with very limited spring travel... My remedy is an expensive one, but a fun one: portal axles! The front is a solid portal axle with geared hubs like the military HUMVEE of the Mercedes-Benz Unimog. Concerning the sketch shown above, I was thinking of a rather tough, somewhat brutalist design (though "brutalist" is more of an architecture term, I think). Even the front windshield is just a tad sleeker than the Hummer H2, which means it is rather boxy compared to a current GMC Sierra pickup truck.

This sketch shows a slightly different style, but overall it is pretty much the same. The grille tapers towards the top. However, I feel that a more streamlined look will be better, considering the body panel design I have been planning is rather sleek yet tough, and the front end of the above two sketches are leaning too much to the tough side. 

I had actually created a sleek front end design for the Mjolnir back when I was still considering a dually body style. I felt that the design could be converted into a proper off-road utility style front end by swapping out the bumper for an armored type. This sketch also shows my idea for a black center body panel array. The hood is actually vented, and that black panel is slightly recessed. The black would be a matte surface, too. 

This sketch is a more detailed idea for the front end. The bumper needs some working out, so I decided to leave that out for now. The grille is needing some adjustments; the insert pieces ought to have a more dynamic and consistent look to it. As it is, it is too chunky, especially the side ends. The headlight inserts are a quick experiment, but it could work very well as an identifying feature for this truck, especially because of that small gap on the yellow LED strand. The bumper does jut out quite a bit, but it is still taped on the bottom to allow for class-leading approach angle. Because of that protrusion, there may be enough room for a heavy-duty 12,000 lbs winch. The grille color is going to be either matte black or a nice "old iron" texture, or perhaps some type of color or texture in relation to the Mjolnir hammer wielded by Thor...

Motorcycle Headlight Design 001

This is a headlight idea that I had in my head for a while now. It is a vertical style headlight with LED bulbs and an LED string light as well. This is a pod design, and not meant to be inserted flush into a body panel. It has bolt connection points in the back so that it can be attached to a small arm, which then connects to the front suspension links/frame.

I plan on using this for a custom chopper design render, that makes use of the shape throughout the body or the individual parts such as the exhaust pipes. (Also, I'll fix that spelling error later, if you can spot it...)

Chevrolet Silverado 7/8 Concepts

I worked on a few front end ideas for the 7/8 Silverado pickup truck. I did focus on the body design as well, but mostly I needed to experiment with the front end for this truck. I am aiming for a very revolutionary look, not only for a Chevrolet truck, but perhaps pickup trucks in general, especially the bigger ones. As a reminder, the 7/8 Silverado (I may as well call it that from now on) will be my idea for a model that fits in-between a midsize and a full-size truck. It is also going to be aimed at a more broader market range, heavily into the urban and suburban style markets where people usually use trucks as a daily driver and occasionally haul marginal amount of cargo.

While stacked headlights are a GM thing since the 1980's or so, I feel that the above grille design is too similar to something Ford has already done with the recent Atlas concept truck, especially because of those turn signals in the middle of the stack. However, the body design is looking more usable. I am not sure if the chrome trim will carry over to the final designs (the trim below the roof).

This is closer to the earlier concepts for the 7/8 Silverado, though I mixed in some chrome bar designs that Chevrolet is starting to use on some of their cars.

So, I even tried a "mini" K35 look. This front end design works best for a tried and true work truck. I do not like the feel it gives off for a more urban or family oriented truck.

I am not too happy about this one, but it was an experiment. The goal was to taper the side and top corners of the front end, but keep the center near vertical. This would create a very aerodynamic front end, but make for an awkward look for a truck. I did not color it because it just is not the shape I wish to go for, so I stopped the sketch half-way through.

Right now I plan on blending the designs in the second and third sketches, which would help to give it that familiar Chevrolet truck look, but also journey into new territory.

Up - The Untold Story

The old man didn't think about restricted air-spaces in his journey.

Chevrolet Silverado Concept - The 7/8 Truck

While working on my Silverado K35 concept, I started on a smaller truck, the Silverado. Right now I have not given it a unique name, but it will have to be named in a way that the truck appeals to a bigger demographic than the K35. At the very least, it is nicknamed the 7/8 truck due to it being situated in-between a midsize and a full-size truck in comparison.

This is the initial sketch, experimenting with a new look for a Chevrolet truck that may be polarizing. 

Further refining the front end, I find the headlight shapes a little tricky to get right without giving off a strange, abstract jumble of shapes in the grille area... 

The truck is supposed to look a lot wider, with a higher roof, but this sketch was to experiment with the front end again, but also with an idea i had for the cabin section, where the roof and the rear pillars are all one section, broken by a black line at the beltline. This truck is meant to look more at home sitting next to an impala on a suburban driveway for the common family, rather than the construction zone like the K35. Though, with the right equipment, this Silverado 7/8 is still purposeful for the construction zone! 

Looking a little thick. The body will be trimmed so that it does not look so bloated. I am still deciding on the cabin roof piece, though. Also, the final design may or may not feature a low suspension.

Chevrolet Silverado K35 Concept - Step by Step

This was just for fun. I find digital medium to be rather exciting, and while working on the front view of my K35 concept truck design, I saved some snapshots of the drawing at certain stages. At the time this post was made, I am still working on the render.

The only things left to do are the background, tires, and some detail refinement.

Chevrolet Silverado K35 Concept

Here are the first two images of the Chevrolet Silverado K35 concept truck. It is the first vehicle that I focused on in my project, and it will be the first completed once I finish additional renders and the interior design.

 Not much has changed from the pencil render shown in my previous post, but I did have to make some changers on the body and the headlights. The edge of the roof now has an additional surface that starts from the hood, travels up the A-pillar, over the doors, and then back down into the bed wall, also shown in the rear view below \/\/\/. The headlgihts have been changed so that they fit more with the theme of the truck. The bumper valance also has a dip in the middle to enlarge the intercooler opening and make more room for the front tow hooks. Working digitally has enabled me to create a cleaner sketch and focus more on the proportions, though I still value traditional medium, especially when I start the initial sketch work for a design.

Compared to the colored pencil sketch, not much has changed in the rear, except for the tailpipe placement. The rear design is supposed to give off a sporty look, while offering good usability, such as the dual-level bumper and the tailgate spoiler, which helps with aerodynamics, but also houses some small cargo storage bins inside (accessed when the tailgate is lowered).

I have yet to finish this truck design. I still have two or four more sketches I wish to complete, and I am still working on the interior. Once those are finished I will upload them in a new post. These renders are also my first fully completed digital renderings, and I liked what I have experienced from the Adobe programs so far.

Chevrolet Silverado CK-Series - Finalized Design

After experimenting with various styles and ideas, I finally settled on a look that continues the well-known stacked headlight look of Chevrolet trucks. I carried over the body style that I had worked on before, with a few miner changes. The following images show the more finalized designs, before I made the move to digital medium.

After finishing that quick scribble (shown in my previous post at the bottom), I wanted to draw it out in full detail. This is a marker sketch done to experiment with the overall look. The horizontal setup of the front grille was blacked out to go along with a theme I have noticed on some old and new Chevrolet cars. I also think that the blacked out wedge grille design could be a running theme with Chevrolet's cars and trucks as a way of identification, just like how BMW has the "kidney" grilles. Blacking out the A and B pillars was something was undecided on until I colored this sketch. One thing I decided on after this sketch was finished is that I also made the rear wedge blacked out to go with the rear.

After finalizing my ideas, I sketched out a full detailed rendering of the truck, with everything in place. The truck sports a clean, consistent look with none of the fuss, and also a feeling of understatement. The wheels were originally meant to imitate the conventional Alcoa wheels on semi trucks, but I decided on a very open spoke design to reduce the amount of flashy chrome. One thing I forgot to mention in my previous posts is that one of my inspirations for the body design comes from the horse saddle. 

This is the rear shot of the truck, with a more refined rear tailgate area. Compared to what is shown here, I have since changed the location of the exhaust tips from the rear to the sides, due to the fact that this is a diesel-powered truck, and usually diesel vehicles have their exhaust pipes pointing out from the side. This angle view also gives a sense of scale with the truck. It is a crewcab with a long dually bed, but the hood is half a foot longer than any current Silverado pickup truck, and the rear tailgate spoiler adds a couple more inches to the length. The reason for the longer hood was meant to balance out the usually chunky proportions of dually trucks. Production versions of this truck will definitely have to tone down the hood size, of course.

By opening up my mind, it aided in my creativity. If I had still lived like a "fanboy" I would have gone for an overly traditional look that only the most hardcore fans of Chevrolet trucks would have liked. I feel that this finalized design is a result of experimenting with new things rather than sticking with the old, since fans usually want to stick with old things all of the time because they are most familiar and comfortable with them. Of course, you can never stay with the same thing all the time. Eventually, things have to change, or it will slip into irrelevancy. I feel that hardcore Chevrolet fans out there may hate my new designs, but then again, that always seems to happen whenever a new design comes along even from General Motors themselves!

Chevrolet Silverado CK-Series - The Old School Look

One thing that I have yet to upload on my blog is my old Transformer design project. That project featured a main character that changes into a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 3500. It was 2009, and there were only teaser photos of that truck released at the time. Regardless, the reason for the use of a large American pickup truck is because I have always loved the large crew-cab dually pickup trucks from the General Motors Company. 

The Transformers project is long dead now, for a lot of reasons. But, it ended shortly after I had decided on designing my own Chevrolet truck for the character, because I had gotten fed up with the quirky design of the 2011 trucks, and the custom look I was designing just would not look the way I wanted it to due to the unusual way the front end of the truck was designed (the headlights on those old Silverados were uncomfortably close to the wheel openings).

As the truck design project began, partially as a substitute for my failed Transformers project, I decided to focus first and foremost on a Chevrolet heavy-duty truck. The following image shows the design ideas I created for the initial design that I now call the "Old-School" look, due to my aim to go very traditional and somewhat retroactive.

This design is very conventional, almost totally work-minded. It has a solid metal bumper, separated headlights and grille area, and a body designed to take a beating. There really was nothing absolutely groundbreaking about this design, except for the fact that it was more solid in its physical appeal than what Chevrolet was selling at the time. One problem that I had to deal with was the fact that the front end design style was very close to that of the old 2008 Ford F-Series Superduty trucks... 

After that old-school design was completed, I thought about how I could do something radical. One thing that I wanted to try was the idea of circular headlights. Now, circular headlights worked well on the old 1968-1972 Chevrolet trucks because the front grille was almost flat. My truck design has a more curved front end and corners for aerodynamics. Due to this, the circular headlights appeared incredibly off, especially for a pickup truck. It is as if the Volkswagen Beetle had a very tough, strict father who always had a frown on his face. However, the body was beginning to take some shape... 

Almost a year later (due to a return to school and work schedules), I finally started getting a better idea of shape and some refinement for the front end. Still, I was going for round headlights, only this time they were housed in a trapezoid-like housing (the above two trucks). While this new, almost big-rig, look was working, it did not quite appear like something that would come from Chevrolet. Looking at it now, I feel that it could use some minor tweaks and it could actually work as an alternative look for the final design that I had finished. Eventually, I tried the old idea of stacked headlights and a horizontal front end theme, and I quickly scribbled the black ink sketch shown on the bottom left. This truck uses the same body design, but with a more traditional Chevrolet truck front end, and an invisible A and B pillar. When that sketch was completed, I new this was the one, and I was now finished with deciding on the basic look!

These sketches were finished around 2009 to 2012. It was about the time that I started opening my mind to all things automotive, and not showing any favoritism, bias, or prejudice. I started realizing just how exciting the automotive world really is, now that I am focusing on more than just Chevrolet and GMC trucks all the time. In fact, I feel that I started having a resentment towards General Motors at this point. The bailouts and the bankruptcy were angering the public quite a bit, but my resentment was a result of GM's questionable management more than those other things. I also had gotten rather tired of the often-times bland look of their vehicles, though recently, General Motors has been doing extremely well with their new releases, such as the 2014 Chevrolet Impala and the new C7 Corvette.

The Start of a Project

While finishing college and preparing for graduation, I started on a project that I had planned since junior high school. I only started very late because I felt I did not have the adequate skills to undertake such an endeavor back then. Even when the project was started, I had a faint feeling that this was going to be a long journey since my skills were still not up to task for such a project (in reality I did not need to shoot too high since this was my own personal project and not for a client, but I wanted to see if I could actually reach for the same level of skills that real automotive designers use out there). I could not afford to attend some of the well-known design schools across the country, so I tried to see if I could learn everything on my own, in my own ways. What followed is a journey that is yet to end, but has brought about some amazing and drastic things, such as incredible changes in my life and the way I view things in this world.

The true project started with some scribbles in a notebook paper:

Yes, it is a Chevrolet truck, not a nice BMW or a cool Ferarri... I have many reasons for the decisions, which I will get to later. Regarding the sketches, I was thinking of something nice and almost retroactive for a new Chevrolet truck design. I was quite disappointed by the "Ming the Merciless" front-end look of the 2003 through 2007 Silverado pickup trucks, and the GMT-900 Silverados, which debuted in 2007 were not any better. I was thinking of something a bit more solid looking, and more consistent than what General Motors was designing for their Chevrolet pickup trucks.

This sketch was pretty much THE start of the project, aside from the scribbles shown above. What I never worked on a the time are the GMC variants of these trucks. I will get to that subject matter later, though. For now, I wish to discuss this sketch. It was something I did while brainstorming ideas for how to tackle the project. The initial goal was to design four trucks (two for Chevrolet and two for GMC), and give them a more powerful, or revolutionary, design that can work with the traditional pickup truck configurations that have gone largely unchanged lately. For the Chevrolet trucks at least, I wanted to see if I could find a way to tie my design languages strongly with past Chevrolet trucks, such as the second-generation C/K trucks that were built from 1968 to 1972.

Since junior high school, I had gotten quite victimized by the whole fanfare of Chevrolet versus Ford. This fanfare, or fanboyism, ran until my early college years. It was not until I was finishing up college that I realized many errors in my life, mostly dealing with this fanfare, and the ugliness that had come about because of it (such as arguing with other fans on the internet forums, living under heavy bias and prejudice, and utter hate). Slowly, I worked to change myself. Taking some college courses in globalization and industrial history helped speed this up. I wish to dive into this subject matter a bit further later on. For now, I have covered some of the basics about how this project has started. Thank you for reading!