David Lyon (Dave Lyon, born 1968) is a car designer best known for his work with General Motors where he worked directly from college in 1990 until 2012. He is originally from Naperville, Illinois, United States and has been moved around several General Motors design studios during his career. He is currently working for

VinFast VinFast LLC is a Vietnamese private automotive company headquartered in Vietnam. Established in 2017, it is a member of the conglomerate organization Vingroup, that was founded by Phạm Nhật Vượng. It is the first Vietnamese car brand t ...

, a Vietnamese automobile manufacturer.

Career

Lyon studied at the

College for Creative Studies College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Par ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

where he received a bachelor of fine arts in transportation design in 1990. Directly after college he joined General Motors at the Design Center in

General Motors Technical Center The GM Technical Center is a General Motors facility in Warren, Michigan. The campus has been the center of the company's engineering effort since its inauguration in 1956. In 2000 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; fourtee ...

, Warren, Michigan where he was first assigned to the

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile or formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it pro ...

design studios. In 1997, he joined the Cadillac design studio where he helped to design the first generation

Cadillac CTS The Cadillac CTS is an executive car that was manufactured and marketed by General Motors from 2003 until 2019 across three generations. Historically, it was priced similarly to cars on the compact luxury spectrum; but it has always been sized ...

and in 1998 he moved to the Buick Brand Studio and served as Chief Designer. In 2002, Lyon was appointed Director of Design for the three Truck Interior Studios in where he led teams working on all GM future production interiors, including the

Cadillac Escalade The Cadillac Escalade is a full-size luxury SUV engineered and manufactured by General Motors. It was Cadillac's first major entry into the SUV market. The Escalade was introduced for the 1999 model year in response to competition from the Mer ...

, Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon, and

Hummer H3 The Hummer H3 is an off-road vehicle that was produced from 2005 to 2010 by General Motors. The smallest model of the Hummer lineup, it was offered as a 5-door SUV or a 4-door pickup truck known as the H3T. Unlike the larger H1 and H2 models, t ...

. In 2004, Lyon was Executive Director of GM Asia Pacific Design where he led teams in Korea, China and Australia to develop the

Chevrolet Cruze The Chevrolet Cruze is a compact car that is produced by General Motors since 2008. It was designated as a globally developed, designed, and manufactured four-door compact sedan, complemented by a five-door hatchback body variant from 2011, and ...

, Sonic and

Spark Spark commonly refers to: * Spark (fire), a small glowing particle or ember * Electric spark, a form of electrical discharge Spark may also refer to: Places * Spark Point, a rocky point in the South Shetland Islands People * Spark (surname) * ...

. In 2007, he relocated back to Michigan when he was appointed Executive Director Interior Design of North America. In that role, Lyon was responsible for 7 studios, including Perceptual Quality, Color & Trim, User Experience, and several Design Studios responsible for the design of Cadillac, Buick, GMC, and Chevrolet interiors. In 2012, he was appointed head of GM Europe Design, the German base for Opel/

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

design work but left GM with no notice end of July 2012. Vinfast-Mondial Paris 2018

After leaving GM, he established his own company David Lyon Design LLC. In June 2013, Lyon started Pocketsquare Design, a studio focused on automotive interior user experience design. In 2017, David became Director of Design for Vietnamese automobile manufacturer

.Vietnam's Vinfast launches at Paris auto show with pair of rebodied BMWs
in motorauthority.com on October 3, 2018.

Significant designs

* Oldsmobile Alero Alpha (concept car) * Oldsmobile Expression (concept car) * Oldsmobile Alero *

Buick LaCrosse The Buick LaCrosse is a mid-size sedan manufactured and marketed by Buick since 2004. The LaCrosse is now in its third generation, slotted above the Buick Regal as the brand's flagship vehicle. The first-generation LaCrosse replaced the Century ...

(concept car) * Buick Bengal (concept car) *

* Chevrolet WTCC (concept car) *

Buick Riviera The Buick Riviera is a personal luxury car that was marketed by Buick from 1963 to 1999, with the exception of the 1994 model year. As General Motors' first entry into the personal luxury car market segment, the Riviera was highly praised by au ...

(concept car) *

Chevrolet Spark The Chevrolet Spark ( ko, 쉐보레 스파크, translit=) is a city car manufactured by General Motors's subsidiary GM Korea from 1998 to 2022. The vehicle was initially developed by Daewoo and was introduced in 1998 as the Daewoo Matiz ( ko, 대� ...

Chevrolet Sonic The Chevrolet Aveo ( ) is a subcompact car (B-segment) marketed by General Motors since 2002. Originally marketed as the Daewoo Kalos, takeover of Daewoo Motors by General Motors (GM) also saw the car being marketed under seven brands ( Chevrole ...

Chevrolet Volt The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid manufactured by General Motors, also marketed in rebadged variants as the Holden Volt in Australia and New Zealand and the Buick Velite 5 in China, and with a different fascia as the Vauxhall Ampera in th ...

* 2009-2014 Cadillac Interiors * 2009-2014 Buick Interiors * 2009-2014 GMC Interiors * 2009-2014 Chevrolet Interiors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon, David General Motors designers 1968 births Living people College for Creative Studies alumni American automobile designers People from Naperville, Illinois Vingroup