Harley J. Earl

Harley J. Earl (November 22, 1893 - April 10, 1969) was an automotive stylist and engineer and industrial designer. He is most famous for his time at General Motors from 1927 until 1959. Earl was instrumental in establishing automotive design as its own discipline, and demonstrating the critical place of good industrial design in the automobile field. He is credited with many innovations, some practical devices and ideas and some that were purely a matter of styling and artistic flair. Among automobile features pioneered by Earl were chrome trim, two-tone paint, hardtops, and wrap-around windshields, but he is probably best known to the general public for beginning the tailfin craze that dominated automobile styling in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Since he was responsible for the very first concept car, the Buick "Y" job, Earl is credited as being the father of the concept car approach, that is the idea of making a car prototype to showcase a new vehicle's styling, technology, and overall design a long time before mass production decisions have to be taken by engineers. At first, Earl and the concept cars toured the United States in the GM Motorama shows.

Earl saw his contribution to auto design in more general aesthetic terms. He noted that all through his career his purpose had been to lower and lengthen the car, because according to his sense of proportions, oblongs were more appealing to the eye than squares.

In the early 21st century, GM created a series of television commercials for its Buick nameplate featuring an actor depicted as Earl.