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What is job design?

Automotive design: what skills do one needs to be a get a job as a car designer?

  • I am a 24 year old peruvian-italian graphic designer with a bachelor in Communication Sciences, currently living in Peru. My childhood dream: to design things. Specially: cars. So, yes, I'd like to be in Giugiaro, Pininfarina, etc. I'd been thinking in doing a major in Industrial Design, in order to pursue my dream, although I'm very happy in graphic design. Yes I know this sounds titanic. So: What skills should I have? What should I do? Where should I start? Who should I read? Thanks.

  • Answer:

    I think its probably the skills will be easy, getting someone to recognize you will be your challenge. First, I would say, you can sketch out a lot of concepts and be willing to show them off in your portfolio.  Maybe take some design concepts of some major brands and put your spin on them to show how you can work within a system.  There are obvious design cues to most major brands (vertically split grille with vertical slats on BMW for instance). Learn then and go ahead and try to create your own BMW's, Chevy's, Peugeot's, etc and keep them in your portfolio. Next you should try to learn what happens when you use certain proportions on a car, and how it affects what happens on a vehicle.  Like, what happens when you have a really long hood, how does that effect handling and visibility of the driver?  Although many concepts ignore those factors when they are still sketches, once you are in clay you can then know what is really useful for a driver and what is manufacturable or not.  That was always one of the biggest problems that I had with my designers, it was pretty, but often impossible to make, or worse, would make things difficult for the customer. Finally, start trying to network with everyone and anyone that you can that has connections for jobs.  Be willing to show off your concepts, even if there is the hazard that someone might steal your ideas. Otherwise they won't have anything to praise you on when they are recommending you to a hiring manager.

Jonathan LeBlanc at Quora Visit the source

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Car design is no different than any other discipline. This is what you'll need- TalentPassionGritand a little luck never hurts.Just like in your current field, to design cars you need to be able to express and show your ideas to the world. In automotive design, this usually takes the form of a very high level of drawing skill. There's the talent. Cars are hard to draw. But since you are already a succussful, creative person, you have some talent and are not starting from scratch. You'll just need to develop a different skill set using your related talent. But if you can draw like Leonardo DaVinci yet have no passion for cars, design or even drawing, you''ll be going no where fast. You have to have "Gas in Your Veins" as the expression goes. Most car designers love cars. Sounds like you do. :-)Virtually no pro car designer has an easy road to making their dream come true. Design schools are expensive and everyone there is super talented. The competition is insane. This is where your grit is going to need to kick in. Again, I am sure you have some stories about how you struggled to get where you are now. So I'll take it you have some grit as well. Most creative people who dream of becoming a car designer have a secret stash of design drawings they keep to themselves. What you are going to need is a transition plan. If you are interested in becoming a car designer and have some work of your own to show, I would suggest checking out this new program -http://www.howtodrawcars.netThe tutor is an award winning car designer and he can help you get your work to the next level, build a portfolio and offer advice on your transition. The sessions are live, one on one and use your own work. This video will give you some insight into a how a session works : Good luck and stay passionate!

Jody K. Deane

I’d work on learning Autodesk Alias, concept sketching, clay modeling, and rapid prototyping. There’s tons of niches and jobs in the field so it depends on exactly what you’d like to do. Good luck!

Sam Birchenough

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