Christopher Cushman | Technical Illustrators.org

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Christopher Cushman is the illustrator behind some of Sci-Fi’s most iconic and notable cutaway illustrations.

He reached out to share some of his obsessively accurate and detailed artwork, and the story of how a chance encounter with the legendary David Kimble turned from a freelance gig, to a prolific career in Detroit’s auto industry—to illustrating vehicles from the 24th century, and some from a long, long time ago, too!

Illustrator Christopher Cushman

Star Wars Battle of Hoth cutaway poster by Christopher Cushman, colors by Bob Kayganich

What drew you to cutaways and technical illustration?

Sometimes I think all roads lead from Star Trek… I became interested in technical drawings when I got my first blueprint set of the Enterprise by Franz Joseph. They literally explained the entire ship deck-by-deck with hundreds of details. This was around 1975—I was 15. It was amazing to me that drawings could convey an understanding all on their own!

The Star Trek blueprint set illustrated by Franz Joseph

In high school I had a teacher named Mr. Moll who encouraged me to become a technical illustrator. He suggested that I enter a state wide competition, the Michigan Industrial Education Awards. This was my senior year and it was a go big or go home moment, so over summer break I wrote Boeing in Washington state to get blue prints and anything related to their 747. I received a package a week before school started and over the course of that year I drew my first cut away of a 747. It received the regional honor award, and the highest award for my school that year.

I was hooked!

Boeing 747 Cutaway by Christopher Cushman

How did you learn the skills of technical illustration?

The following year I went to Ferris State in Big Rapids Michigan. Ferris was unique, in as much as their Technical Illustration program was the most comprehensive in the mid West, and there approach was to build skills and then teach through simulated real world experiences.

The instructors were John James and Doug Farnham, both veterans of the illustration world. Both had different teaching styles. Mr. James was inspirational and really open to a lot of ideas, while Mr. Farnham featured himself a professor and was always very critical. Between the two we were able to experience two different management styles that would be useful in the real world. While much of the training was on technical illustration, we also had classes on graphic design, drafting, engineering principals, material science etc.

In hind sight, that education really paid off for me because so much of my work deeply depended on me to be able to hold engineering conversations with many kinds of specialists, and then translate that into art that would best work for them.

How did you get your illustration career started after school?

So, post-school I bounced around a bit. I got a gig at Mid America Design in Fort Wayne, Indiana designing manuals for the military, including an upgrade ejection seat installation document used by the Indiana Air National Guard. From there, I worked my way back up into Michigan working for Zennith/Heath Kit in St. Joesph. Again, we made manuals for many Heath Kits, which were electronic kits you could buy and assemble—from the super simple all the way up to a 25-inch Zenith TV. One of the projects I was most proud of was a kit to build a personal robot called Hero.

I moved back home and began commuting to Oldsmobile engineering in Lansing, Michigan. The work was great, but the hour plus commute each way was a nightmare, so I made the big leap back to Detroit. I started working for what in the industry were called "job shops," basically outsourced talent pools that allowed the big three to avoid having to hire themselves.

I settled at a firm called Modern Engineering, where I drew large format drawings that hung in assembly plants called "production aids." I worked exceedingly hard, and quickly became an expert often called into meetings to explain certain production processes (thanks to that Ferris training).

In one or two meetings I had made process change suggestions that got noticed at GM, and I was seconded to work at the GM Teck Center for the BOC (Buick, Olds, Cadillac Group). My job now was to help funnel projects to the job shops and work with engineers on various challenges. For almost a year I worked directly out of the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant, and was responsible for the entire production lines worth of production aids. Hundreds of drawings that would help them build the all new models of Riviera, Toronado, Eldorado and Seville’s. Towards the end of that assignment we also added the Cadillac Alante to the mix. Needless to say, when I returned back to the technical center the economy was turning and I faced going back to Modern Engineering.

But my years of networking started to pay off and I was able to extend my journey with the GM Military Vehicles group....