July 15, 2023
Before jumping into the details of the spectacular event we just had with ArtCenter College of Design, I want to rewind and fill you in on the story and makings of this event so you can understand our enthusiasm. My own interest in ArtCenter started a little over 10 years ago for me. As a high school student with a passion for cars and design, I made it my goal to attend ArtCenter and learn the process of industrial design. After attending for some time, I decided to leave school in search of business knowledge. This contributed to the start of Heritage Gruppe as a brand, with the motto “Designed to Win”.
(Photo by: Brandon)
With the help of my partners, Alynn, who is also an ArtCenter alumni, Leo, and Sarkis, we were able to grow the company to something we are all very proud of. Over five years of learning and growth individually and as a collective with our company, we are equipped with the resources to create high quality events for the community. Our primary mission is to give back to our community. For Alynn and I especially, it was important to give back to the school that gave us many of the tools we needed to get here. With an objective to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and designers, we decided to host a car show with a focus around the designers responsible for creating some of our favorite cars. After searching for the perfect name for the event, it suddenly became clear to me that we had come full circle. What better name to call this event than our company motto that helped start this whole journey so many years ago? Designed to Win.
(Photo by: Brandon)
Designed to Win, an event hosted by Heritage Gruppe, A.Triple.C (ArtCenter’s student car club), and ArtCenter College of Design held on July 15 2023 was enjoyed by students, faculty, and the general public. With a gorgeous campus as our playground, and only one month to plan and produce, we hit the ground running. Having attended ArtCenter Car Classic events, as well as other Concours level events in the past, our mission was to take inspiration from the positives and emphasize the attendee experience and flow over all else. As with all our events, although they are centered around cars, we create experiences that are enjoyable for all and not just enthusiasts.
(Photo by: G)
Since the event was focused around design, we decided to curate activities to emphasize it. One of my personal favorites was Zepyoor’s (@Themiatachick) vinyl wrapped Miata that our attendees were invited to color and draw on! A big thank you to Zepyoor for letting us use her Miata! Just look at the smiles it brought.
(Photo by: Charlie)
Another favorite activity was our panel talks which featured successful transportation design alumni, faculty, and visionaries. The discussions started with Xiaoyu Zhang, an alumni and UX/UI designer at Koenigsegg, who spoke to us about his experience of graduating from ArtCenter and entering the transportation design field at Koenigsegg as a UX/UI designer. Following Xiaoyu was an exciting sketching demo done by Daniel Jimenez,the chief designer at NS6, who demonstrated how the process of transportation design works!
(Photo by: G)
(Photo by: Charlie)
The third speaker we had the pleasure of listening to was ArtCenter faculty, Pascual Wawoe, who spoke to the audience about “Electrification of Classic Cars” with a Q and A. Nikita Bridan, owner of Oilstain Lab and ArtCenter Faculty, concluded the day's panel with his insightful “Emotion of Power” talk.
(Photo by: G)
To accompany the 1:1 scale cars we had on display at the Sculpture Garden, the transportation design students at ArtCenter had brought out their clay models which were lined alongside the classics.
(Photo by: Leo)
Speaking of classics, we were proud to be able to arrange a variety of cars for display. Some of our favorites of the show include David Miyasako’s Ford GT40, Grant’s Jaguar XK120, Gokor’s CLK 63 AMG Black Series, Joe’s Mitsubishi Evo 6 Tommi Makinen Edition, of course Oilstain Lab’s Half 11, and Formawerks Lancia Delta Integral.
(Photo by: G)
(Photo by: Brandon)
(Photo by: G)
(Photo by: Brandon)
(Photo by: G)
In order to show our appreciation for these classics, I was proud to design this event’s trophies which were based on one of the most iconic cars of all time, in my opinion, the Lancia Stratos Zero. The design of the trophies started with sketches which were inspired by the triangular shaped trunk hatch of the Stratos Zero. Afterwards these sketches were 3D modeled, and with the help of my good friend Chris at Calico Design and Manufacturing, he was able to bring our renders to life at his design studio. Later the models were finished and put together, and presented to our 3 winners of the show: (1st place - David’s Ford GT40, 2nd place - Will’s Mazda RX7, and 3rd place - Gokor’s CLK 63 AMG Black Series).
(Photo by: Alynn)
(Photo by: Alynn)
(Photo by: G)
It takes a lot of time, work, and money of course, to ensure we bring you the best events we can possibly produce. And with that said, there is no way any of our events would be possible without the help of our loyal sponsors and vendors. Heritage Gruppe would like to give a big thank you to our sponsors for Designed to Win: House Automotive, The Colortoon, Next Level Auto Spa, and Onyx Car Collection, as well as our vendors: Crash Jewelry, The Colortoon, and Created by 1991. Every one of these brands, and individuals running the brands, are some of the best people we have had the pleasure of getting to know through this community and we are grateful for all of them!
(Photo by: Leo)
Special thanks to our title sponsor of the show House Automotive. For those that don’t know, House Automotive is a Porsche only repair facility with 3 locations in Pasadena, Encino, and Thousand Oaks. Greg, the owner of House, is a genuine Porsche enthusiast and technician, and a walking encyclopedia for all things automotive. If you or anyone you know has a Porsche, make sure to visit House Automotive for your next maintenance appointment or repair and let them know that Heritage Gruppe sent you! You won’t be disappointed :).
(Photo by: Brandon)
Overall this show was an amazing experience, and turned out a lot better than expected! After discussing the event further with ArtCenter, we are proud to announce that this will now be a regular annual recurring event! With lots of refining to do, we are hard at work planning next year's event and are very much looking forward to seeing all of you there once again.
(Photo by: Brandon)
Thank you to all who attended, and we hope that you enjoyed Designed to Win half as much as we did producing it for you, because we had a blast!
(Photo by: Jihun)
Till next time friends,
- G (@G.Ohanian)