A rendering of the interior, by Grace Lee and her team, of Cadillac — A rendering of the interior, by Transportation Design alum Grace Lee and her GM team, of Cadillac's OpenSpace. OpenSpace reimagines an RV through a luxury lens, and includes two levels of living space, a staircase, and a rooftop deck with panoramic views. Image courtesy of GM.

profile / alumni / transportation-design
April 09, 2025
By Solvej Schou

Transportation Design alum Grace Lee brings creative drive to GM

ArtCenter’s Transportation Design alumni work for countless global automotive brands. Their ArtCenter education gives them the skills to enter career fields like automotive concept design, interior and exterior automotive design, watercraft design and aircraft design. This story is part of a series on four successful Transportation Design alumni, each with unique creative journeys, who impact their fields in a variety of ways.

At General Motors’ Advanced Design and Innovation Campus in Pasadena, GM Creative Designer Grace Lee (BS 19) sits in a conference room that features images of InnerSpace, GM brand Cadillac’s electric autonomous luxury concept vehicle.

In the nearby lobby, there’s a full-size 2003 GM So-Cal Ecotec Lakester—a red and white oval-shaped racecar—next to a futuristic 2014 Chevrolet Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo that looks like it’s about to zoom into the sky. It’s a space of inspiration.

Transportation Design alum Grace Lee. Photo courtesy of GM.

My team puts in so much love, effort and passion, and that's where I feel the real impact. We've created something so beautiful that began as just an idea, a thumbnail sketch.
Grace LeeTransportation Design alum

A rendering of the interior, by Grace Lee and her GM team, of Cadillac's OpenSpace. OpenSpace reimagines an RV through a luxury lens, and includes two levels of living space, a staircase, and a rooftop deck with panoramic views. Image courtesy of GM.

“The beauty of working at GM, and it being a giant in this industry, is that as a designer you get to provide different forms of creative input,” says Lee, whose focus is interior design. “You have so much opportunity to influence a project, from a steering wheel design to a seat design. My team puts in so much love, effort and passion, and that's where I feel the real impact. We've created something so beautiful that began as just an idea, a thumbnail sketch.”

Lee is one of more than 100 people who work at the 147,000 square foot studio. Her forward-thinking work includes OpenSpace, an autonomous conceptual recreational electric vehicle that is part of Cadillac’s Halo portfolio of autonomous electric vehicle concepts, which includes InnerSpace. OpenSpace reimagines an RV through a luxury lens, and includes two levels of living space, a staircase, large glass wraparound panels, and a rooftop deck with panoramic views.

“One focus at the studio is the future, particularly when it comes to mobility,’” says Lee. “When you look at a typical RV, it's claustrophobic in a lot of ways. OpenSpace feels truly Cadillac in that it's a luxurious environment—open and airy and spacious—and not a typical interior of a larger RV. Can we make the space look like there's furniture in it, and not just typical seats? Can we make the bathroom not feel so confined? Can we provide beautiful views from every point you're experiencing the vehicle?”

Grace Lee at work at GM's Advanced Design and Innovation Campus in Pasadena, California. Photo courtesy of GM.

Growing up, Lee never imagined that she would work as a transportation designer. Raised in Topanga Canyon, she enjoyed drawing marine animals. As her high school graduation approached, she told her father that she wanted to go to art school. “With ArtCenter’s strong work and alumni, he felt that it could be a great school for me,” says Lee. She got into the College’s Illustration program, and discovered—from classmates, and from seeing vehicle models on campus—the Transportation Design program. She switched majors, and focused first on automobile exterior design, then interior design.

“Because of ArtCenter, I was able to find transportation design and was lucky to get that exposure,” says Lee, who was influenced by Associate Professor Leon Paz (BS 08), and his Visual 1 course on illustrating design concepts. As a student, Lee worked as an interior design intern at Hyundai Motor America, and then GM in Michigan. Her internship led to her full-time job at GM.

“Transportation design was originally intimidating because it felt more male dominated,” she says. “But I encourage future female designers to never feel any lack of confidence. Be passionate and interested. We have more and more female designers now, and that's beautiful.”