Check out this great L.A. Times profile on Art Center Transportation Design alum Freeman Thomas, design director for Ford Motor Co.’s strategic concepts group in Irvine.

Thomas has helped design the new Beetle, the first Audi TT and the Chrysler 300. Now his latest creation is the eco-friendly Start.

From the article: “The Ford Start concept vehicle is a small, ‘eco-friendly’ car with a 1-liter, turbocharged, three-cylinder engine that puts out 120 horsepower. He said it could get more than 60 miles per gallon, depending on driving conditions. ‘The basic idea of the car was finding a polished pebble on the sand. You are attracted to that pebble and you want to pick it up and play with it. We want the car to look as if nature had shaped it,’ Thomas said. Although there are no production plans for the vehicle, he says it is a serious concept that is ‘buildable.’ Anything else would be a waste of time and Ford’s money, Thomas said. ‘If we don’t combine design and marketing and engineering into the concept cars, it is a fruitless exercise. You have to be able to make the concept cars that work.’”

Very cool. Read more: Ford’s Freeman Thomas has a better idea, and check out this video of the Start featuring J Mays, another of our Transportation Design alums and Ford’s chief creative officer below: