How to start car design education - In part 01 we spoke about how to prepare yourself for getting into the car design by sharing some brief details about the topic and what could be the paths you can go ahead. In this part we will be focusing more on the process and what to expect and be prepared for while applying or while studying in the design school and what could be the criteria in choosing the best school.

Entry Portfolio for a Car Design Course

Design schools want you to demonstrate your creativity and talents in your admission portfolio. A decent portfolio will include hand drawings of automobiles, bicycles, and even other things. The key idea is that you demonstrate that you are enthusiastic about drawing, designing, vehicles, and making things. As a result, you must demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for your work. Use classic methods like pen and paper, markers, and pastels, as well as modern tools like Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro, and Procreate. It includes digital renderings created with a tiny Wacom tablet on Sketchbook Pro, as well as some 3D work.

Adding 3D CAD models can be beneficial and provide value, but drawing is required. For additional information, we recommend that you visit Luciano Bove's YouTube channel to learn more about how to create a successful entrance portfolio.

When to choose?

The first consideration is age. If you are young (about 18), a bachelor's degree in transportation design is highly recommended. In this situation, it is preferable to pursue a bachelor's degree in design directly. Do not pick Engineering because it is a different subject that may not be needed in the automobile design sector. If you already have a non-design bachelor's degree and want to become a vehicle designer, it's normal to believe that a master's degree is necessary. Many individuals do this, but the difficulty is that master's courses are only two years long, and most people find it difficult to understand automotive design in two years.

How much time?

As a result, we arrive at the second factor, time. Learning automobile design consists of several stages, including basic sketching, rendering, modelling, and advanced design. This procedure typically takes 3-4 years for someone to learn and polish their abilities to the level required by the business today. As a result, enrolling in a two-year master's programme without first learning the fundamentals is a risk that many people incur without realising it. We recommend studying for a master's degree only if you are already strong at drawing, have a sense of design, and are highly talented. If you are just beginning off, a bachelor's degree is the greatest option since it will allow you adequate time to study and progress.

Why do students struggle?

A fresh student in a master's course, on the other hand, may struggle and, as a result, may not be as excellent. But it's not impossible; every year, a few students who are engineers turned designers graduate with master's degrees. It is critical to understand that a master's degree does not totally replace a bachelor's degree programme. Many colleges have a very permissive approach to master's degrees, and they only care about the number of students rather than the quality. Which is beneficial to the school's operations but not to the pupils. These schools have even fewer successful pupils.

To clear up the master's misunderstanding, make sure you learn and polish your fundamentals before enrolling in school. Give yourself at least a year to study the fundamentals. Don't expect to start from scratch and become a vehicle designer in two years.

Also, once in school, constantly strive to be in the top 5-10%. Staying in the top three in a class of 20 is vital since only the top few students make it into the industry, despite the fact that it's a good batch of 20 pupils. The goal is not to frighten you, but the truth of automotive design is that it is extremely competitive. Being in a good school and being talented is insufficient. You must push yourself to complete your work to the standards expected by the industry. Check at some fantastic projects on Behance, Pinterest, and Instagram to get a sense of the quality that is necessary. In the end, no matter who you are as a designer, pushing the boundaries is essential. There is always room to improve one's abilities and inventiveness in order to develop something new. So, never be satisfied with where you are.

Starting at School

So you've just started automobile design school and you're wondering how things typically go at design school and how to make the most of it. Most design schools provide training in areas such as drawing, exterior and interior design, modelling, CMF, and mobility. A design school will guide you through all of the necessary modules and have you work on various projects both alone and in groups. Typically, an automobile design school begins with a sketching course that teaches the fundamentals of drawing. Simultaneously, other fundamental disciplines like design history, modelling, and so on are covered.

The second phase includes areas such as external design and interior design, which use a more specialised design approach. During this stage, students learn how to design specific automotive segments, interiors, and components. Other applications, such as Alias, can also be taught at this time. By the end of these classes, a student should be able to complete his or her own project.

Choosing the right school

In the next phase, students work on numerous exterior and interior projects. Mobility projects may also be included. There are both group and individual projects. It is one of the most crucial phases since projects completed during this phase are included in the portfolio. As a result, the initiatives must be very imaginative and of exceptional quality. The projects are always completed under the supervision of teachers appointed by the school. Various schools also enable students to perform internships to work on projects, which is even better because students may learn while inside a design studio, and we would recommend completing at least one internship while studying if the school permits it.

The last stage is the thesis, which varies depending on the school. Some schools permit solo projects, while others permit group projects with or without scale models. Some schools may work with a company to complete a thesis, while some may be a particular example, such as IED Turin masters, where they create a 1:1 concept vehicle and display it at the Geneva Motor Show, except in recent years owing to COVID. So, inquire with the institutions about the type of thesis they provide.

Tools Required During your Car Design Education

• Bic pen
• A3 and A4 printing paper or marker pad only for detailed marker drawing
• Pencil: Stabilo original 87/390 blue pencil, Prismacolor very thin/premium pencil, or Faber Castell pencil polychromos.
• Markers in cool grey (C1,3,5,7,9 or C2,4,6,9) or warm grey are required, as are some colour hue
• Wacom / Huion Graphic Tablets
• A PC with at least an i5 processor and an Nvidia GTX1060 GPU
• For on-the-go sketching, Procreate is incredibly beneficial.
• Softwares such as Photoshop, Blender, Alias, Maya, and Keyshot are necessary.

So this brings us to the finish the part 02 of the article. We hope that the knowledge presented above is useful in some way, helps one to follow the proper road, and raises one's awareness of automotive design in general. The objective is to bring fresh young men and women who want to become automobile designers but want to learn how they function.