Kris Horton, a native of the small desert town of Ridgecrest, CA got his start in digital modeling and design after graduating from Burroughs High School in 2002. Kris enrolled in the Cerro Coso Community College 3D animation academy with the intention of becoming an animator in the movie industry. However, shortly after beginning his training he realized that his passion did not lie so much with special effects or game characters, as it did with creating custom car designs.

Some of Kris’ most notable work came early in his career. At the age of 19, he created a rough model of his vision for the resurrection of the Chevy Camaro. He posted the images he created to a single message board and within days the ‘Camaro concept’ had spread across the internet, gaining interest and positive reviews every day. He was then asked by Popular Hot Rodding magazine editor, Johnny Hunkins, if he would be interested in further developing the concept for a feature in the magazine.

Within a few months, the Camaro that Kris had created hit newsstands in the September 2003 issue of Popular Hot Rodding. It didn`t take long before the overwhelming positive reviews caught the interest of General Motors themselves. That same year, Kris completed artwork for his first SEMA project vehicle. The project was a truck named ‘Bulled Elegance’ and built by Bully Dog Technologies.

Kris was eager to return to SEMA and has since helped design many project vehicles including the Baldwin Motion “SuperCoupe” Camaro in 2005, which won the GM Design Award for Best GM Vehicle. In addition to designing project vehicles, Kris began building them as well in hopes of bringing his designs to life. In 2004, Kris and his dad built their first SEMA project, a 1971 Chevelle which they built in their home garage with the help of some friends. In 2005, Kris brought his custom 2005 Mustang GT to the SEMA Show, which was Kris’ first shot at a late-model project and in 2009 Kris completely redesigned and rebuilt the Mustang and brought it to SEMA once again. In 2010 Kris and company partnered with Ford on their biggest SEMA project yet, a 2011 F-350 Super Duty which was displayed in the Ford Motor Company booth. The truck was extremely well-received and was awarded a Ford Design Award.

In his career as an artist, Kris has been very fortunate to work with many great car builders and companies. In 2005 Kris was offered a position as a product designer at Jada Toys, Inc. where he worked designing custom die-cast cars and car-related toys. In 2008 Kris took his freelance full-time and now counts companies such as Mattel and Nike as his clients and continues to work with people who are looking to design and build their dream cars.



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