John Cafaro, Ariana Zarillo Receive 2018 Rowena Reed Kostellow Award

“The only car that mattered to me as a kid was the Corvette,” John Cafaro once said.

22 years old, right out of Pratt, he joined GM Design in 1977. During ten years as GM’s full size truck chief designer, responsible for Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac (the profit center for the company). He says he had to “draw on every ounce of learning’s from my time at Pratt, mostly my willingness to never compromise on the importance of design”.

Fulfilling his dream, he became Chief designer of the Corvette and Camaro from 1986 to 1999. In 2002 he was inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame and his designs were Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. He is now Executive Director of Global Chevrolet Design “combining all the disciplines of design taught at Pratt… but most importantly 3D design of which Pratt has no equal. Gulotta, Fogler and Okuda, who all taught key classes along with Rowena, had a profound impact on all of us for sure.”

John was by Susan Skarsgard, Manager of the GM Design Archive & Special Collections.

Young Designer Award: Ariana Zarillo

Ariana studied the principles of 3D design with Linda Celentano, Karen Stone, Scott Vandervoort, Kate Hixon, Martin Skalski, and Pamela Waters. Since graduation in 2013, she has been applying those skills designing footwear at Cole Haan. Her passion for beauty has led her to a variety of consulting and design-and-build projects, including the interior millwork for the Nalata/Nalata flagship store in SoHo, custom furniture pieces, developing consumer accessories, and renovating a 1911 building on Staten Island.