I Want to Be a Car Designer

Lately, many people are showing a great interest in Car Design field, many of them dream to become car designers. They wish to start working in a competitive design team.

For this reason, I am often contacted to advice and explain how to become a car designer. What school? How to search for one? How to prepare to get admitted? What to expect once in school and what about after school?

Many questions that would require hours of storytelling referring to my personal experience as design student, design teacher and designer.
I will try to be brief and give the necessary information.

The first thing to know is: do I have an artistic talent?

Because let me tell you very clearly Car Design has nothing to do with Math or Mechanics, to be a designer you have to acquire the right communication language which is: draw, draw, and draw. In other words, it is mandatory to have good drawing skills and a great load of creativity. In addition a big passion for cars.

To study Design in general and Car Design means to exercise how to make the right synthesis between creativity and its expression. I have an idea in my mind and thanks to my artistic skills I can sketch it, I can also make a model of it. I express my creativity (ideas) via my drawing skills.

So, the right step is to plan your design school career directing yourself to a Design school, your objective is to get a Bachelor in Transportation Design.
To apply to school you need an entry portfolio to pass an admission test, this entry portfolio will be just a collection of your sketches and illustrations done during your free time and motivated by your passion. It is mainly to show your talent and skills level.

The entry portfolio, if accepted, will open you the school’s door to start your Bachelor.

Once accepted you have to follow with discipline, dedication and passion the school program, follow teachers’ advices, develop the given projects and make at least an internship experience during your student life.

The school is like an amplifier of your talent, it gives you the tools to improve your skills elevating yourself. It will become easier for you to show your creativity.
At the end of the 3 or 4 years of studies you will have a good professional portfolio, it is the most important thing of your school experience, your best projects collected and organized so that you can present them to find a job. Every job interview will be possible because of that portfolio made by you.

How to make a Transportation Design portfolio? For this I suggest you to watch the video lecture dedicated to this topic here in this Hub.

To find a full list of Design schools is very easy using Google or similar methods, go visit their websites and if possible go visit them with your parents.

Since many years, lot of students choose Mechanical Engineering or Architecture Universities believing that it is the best solution to work as designers. Often some of these students go to follow a Master in Design abroad, after it they start visiting design studios searching for a job.
This is wrong!

Please do not do it. You cannot study 5 years Mechanical Engineering and think to become a car designer simply because you made one year of Master in a famous Design school.

To become a car designer you need a Design school. So, I strongly suggest you to start with the right foot going to a Design school. You need 3 or 4 full years (according to the chosen school) to get the right experience and gain your deserved Bachelor in Transportation Design. You need the right time to discover and try hard all technics to improve your skills and learn design process from sketches to final model, it is very competitive and to be one of the best you need a full design course.

Good luck!