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For me, the allure of design started with cars. When I was 12, I drew cars all the time, fascinated by the look and details of each model. I had a coveted subscription to Road & Track magazine, the car magazine, which I devoured each time it landed in the mailbox. I knew the name of every production car and even most of the rare supercars from most of the century. I could recognize the illustrators in Road & Track before looking at their signatures. And, of course, I also imagined getting behind the wheel. I fell asleep at night imagining myself in any number of crazy adventures that involved driving very fast and guiding my sports car around hairpin turns.

In my doodles I designed sports cars, trucks, and SUVs. I was obsessed with their forms, especially the side view and body and wheels. What I liked most were the European and Japanese cars I saw cruising on the highway, because even at that young age I noticed the different details. American cars were sloppy, overgrown beasts. They had giant gaps between the tires and the wheel wells. The dashboards didn't integrate seamlessly with the door panels. But, oh, a foreign make like a Mercedes or a Mazda, here the design was tighter; the fenders hugged the tires, more like what I saw in racing cars. As an adult and a designer (and still a car freak), I know that it's easy to cut corners ...