Charles (Chuck) Pelly

Design Consultant

Chuck Pelly is a well-known American automotive and industrial designer who designed the Scarab sports cars, the original Chaparral, and Formula One cars in the late 1950s. He founded the world renowned design company, Designworks/USA.

Designworks/USA was started in 1972 and grew to become internationally recognised as one of the top design consultancies. Having become a client, BMW acquired the company in 1995, making it an arm of BMW Design. Designworks/USA was instrumental in the design of the BMW X5 as well as the award winning BMW 3 Series. Chuck continued as Chief Designer until his recent retirement.

Chuck has not retired completely and is developing ‘The Design Academy’, an international multi-disciplinary design consulting and learning network, linking business, academia and research.

Chuck is a regular visitor to New Zealand and is very impressed with the local design talent, particularly the work being done by the School of Three Dimensional Design at Massey University. He did not design any part of the car, but his advice, guidance and encouragement has been invaluable.