By Lucas Mann

Last Friday, on the second floor of Marc Ecko Enterprises on the cusp of Chelsea and the Flatiron District, two large TV screens flashed pictures of sleek model cars, each vying to be the design for a new Nissan prototype. Calmly packed into the room, along with various representatives from Nissan and other companies, were the teams of designers hoping to have their model picked. No matter which team won, Nissan would be taking a chance on something new: a car designed by artists who had not yet graduated high school.

Before unveiling the winning design, Bryan Thompson, head designer at Nissan, spoke about what drew him and his company to work with such young, unproven design teams.

“It was a dream for me to do a project with students,” he said. “If you can tap into their creativity before they get to college, you can inspire them and they can inspire you.”

That is exactly the principle that Sweat Equity Enterprises (SEE), the organization providing the young talent for the designs, is founded upon. SEE takes underserved, urban high school kids and puts them in a real studio environment to work on design projects for various high-profile companies. The group reaches out to students who may be struggling in what the program calls a “culture of mediocrity in schools” and challenges them in professional fields that excite them, simultaneously combating, with an ethnically diverse set of kids, a lack of diversity in design professions.

But what really makes the program unique is that the work does not exist solely in the realm of the educational. These talented artists are helping to create ideas for Marc Ecko outerwear, Zoo York skateboards, Skechers shoes, Timex watches and RadioShack electronics, among others. None of this, however, was on the same scale as what was unveiled onstage recently.

Thompson whisked away a red cloth to reveal an immaculate, three-foot model Nissan. It looked young and sleek and, most of all, professional. The winning design team was from Team Pure.

“I was one of five designers. We designed the interior and exterior of the car,” explained Paul Ayala, 17, from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. “Since the age of 13, I’ve been sketching clothing, and through that, I got into the program [SEE]. I want to take graphic design in college.”

Another Team Pure Member, Christopher Jones, spoke with the same confidence and experience that seemed uncanny coming out of his 16-year-old mouth.

“I’ve always been drawing cars, since I was little, and I went to the auto show,” said Brown, who attends the Bronx HS for Visual Arts. “I designed the exterior [for Team Pure’s winning car]. I want to design cars for Aston Martin, or Nissan.”

As her pupils navigated the adult design world, schmoozing with the best of them at Friday’s event, Nell Daniel, executive director of SEE, spoke of how the success of this project should come as no surprise.

“Nissan is one of our favorite partners,” she said. “They have always respected the students’ work and their creative genius. From day one, they knew it would be a win-win. I always knew they were going to blow us away. They [these kids] have a lot of talent.”

SEE is not an organization based entirely on philanthropy, and that is what Nissan recognized in their participation. The students are selected from a very competitive application process and have demonstrated talent and the motivation to go with it, even before their training.

Zunnania Anderson, SEE’s project director for the Nissan project, summed it up nicely: “A company that is working with us is getting real value, they’re not just donating something.”

Thompson agreed. “We decided we were going to do a city car,” he said while commenting on the motivation for seeking designs by urban youth. “When I came into the studio, the first thing I was blown away with was how rich the talent was.”

For the SEE participants, the program is a way to move from being kids who like to draw to artists who can make the world around them take notice of their talent. Shakirra Torrain, a 16-year-old student at Bedford Stuyvesant Prep High School and another member of Team Pure, said that she knew she liked design beginning in fourth grade, when she would draw anime pictures. Now, just seven years later, the seats that she envisioned will be on wide display when her team’s winning design model is shown at the L.A. Auto show in November.

Still, even with her now significant connection in the automotive world, Torrain is not ready to limit herself to one thing. She also appreciates the variety that SEE gives her, not limiting her art to any one field.

“SEE gives me the opportunity to design other things, like skateboards and watches,” she said. Indeed, in September, the Eclipse watch designed by SEE students will be put on sale at Macy’s.

Next on the agenda for SEE is to continue expanding their services. They already work with 100 students from four high schools in New York City and a school in Providence, R.I. So far in 2007, they have received a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to fund an expansion into national services. Some of the grant will go toward a Website, SEEscape.org, that will serve as a forum to connect creative youths and their work with educators and Fortune 500 companies.

When Bryan Thompson addressed the crowd at Marc Ecko Enterprises on Friday, he told them, “When I was kid, I wanted to be nothing but a car designer, but a never knew how to do it.” With SEE, more and more young people are finding out exactly how and, more importantly, that they have the talent to succeed.