trends ry thinking of every city street as a blank canvas awaiting mobile art. This would be like looking through the eyes of Mollie Rattner Engel, a 33-year- old automotive designer specializing in color and materials at the Ford Design Studio in the Product Development Center of Dearborn. Mollie focuses on the overall theme, style and look of a vehicle. This includes making decisions on color development, color marketing and mate- rial. She is also challenged with making sure Ford cars are durable and affordable for consumers. "I like daydreaming about the future, and love doing conceptual work on show cars. I feel that every automobile has the poten- tial to be an art form in motion, and when that happens, it is a very excit- ing enterprise to be a part of," she says. Her mother, a produced playwright and teacher, set this creative mind on its artistic path early. "She does not know it, but she turned me into a design- er," Mollie confesses, as she reminisces on growing up in Franklin with her parents, Bonnie and Larry Rattner. She calls them her siblings because she was born an only child. "They made sure I had the most interesting child- 8 • MARCH 2003 • STYLE AT THE JN dstrer Ford color and materials designer Mollie Rattner Engel. hood possible," she says. Mollie began college in Montreal at Concordia University and finished in Detroit at the Center for Creative Studies. However, she worked in her field long before grad- uation through a car design project she learned about from a school department head. "If I did not have the training that I did from CCS, I would not have gotten the job I have now," she says. Mollie enjoys how her profession pushes her to think "out of the box." She is currently develop- ing new exterior colors for the Ford Blue Oval brand, and working on a Mercury vehicle that she believes is going to be very suc- cessful. Mollie shares her love for cars and art with her mate. Her husband, Christopher Engle, is also an automotive designer from CCS, working with the Lear Corporation. The Engles presently live in a new Bloomfield home with their dog Yachum. Even beyond decorat- ing the city streets, Mollie aspires to color her life with volunteer efforts for low-income women, and by earning a masters degree in business admin- istration. "These are big wants that I have to pur- sue. I would ultimately like to run a division of a company or operate a business of my own."