One sketch became the CTS Coupe. Vizcom helped him finally finish it
After 41 years at General Motors and 11 years in retirement, one of GM's most celebrated designers picked up Vizcom and says he's a better designer now than when he was working.
Background
A career built on the most expressive era in automotive design
Robert Munson fell in love with cars when they were still romantic. The 1960s and early 1970s, when surfaces were expressive and emotional and every design made a statement. He memorized them. He could sketch them all from memory and still visualize them decades later.
He started his career at Chevrolet Studio, where he learned a discipline of craft, learning to use markers, pastel, and Vellum. Tools he still has. Tools he treasures, though he no longer uses them. He spent 41 years at General Motors, rising to Design Manager, and left having shaped some of the most significant automotive designs of his generation.
The work
One sketch, one scale model and a car that became iconic
The Cadillac CTS Coupe was his major contribution to GM's design legacy. It began as a single sketch that got an immediate reaction from management. Of all the sketches he had done in that series, he knew that one was special.
As Design Manager, he followed the CTS Coupe all the way through production: working with engineers, working with design leadership, making sure the final car executed the sketch exactly. A rare opportunity in any designer's career, to see an idea become real without compromise.
But as he rose to management, the sketching became less frequent. Meetings replaced making. And he found himself pulled away from what he loved most.
Meeting Vizcom
A tool he wished he'd had all along
When Munson first tried Vizcom, he used the CTS Coupe sketch to get started. He wanted to do a polished version of it. Something he had never had time to do while he was working.
He worked through several iterations, refined the sketch, and was able to fully display the qualities he had always seen in the car. The experience crystallized something: he wished he'd had Vizcom when he was still at GM. It would have saved him enormous time and trouble.
"I really wished that I had had Vizcom when I was working. That would have saved me so much time and trouble."
Robert Munson, Former Design Manager, GM
Now, in retirement, he uses it not for clients or deadlines, but for the pure love of sketching. To keep exploring what's next. To ask what he hasn't seen before.
Outcome
Better retired than a 41-year career
Munson is direct about something that surprises people: he feels like a better designer now than when he was working. The tools made the difference. When people see his sketches, they assume it's all AI. They don't understand what went into it from the manipulation, to the decisions, to the instincts shaped by four decades of automotive design.
“I'm in charge of the design, not the AI.”
Robert Munson, Former Design Manager, GM
His workflow: import a sketch, create the version he wants, use prompts to set direction, then combine Vizcom with Photoshop to achieve precision. The prompts help. But the prompts aren't everything. What matters is the design being his.
“It's not just sketching a car. It's exploring design ideas and making them fulfill their potential, making them as good as they can be.”
Robert Munson, Former Design Manager, GM
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