WHO CAN DESIGN INTERIOR OF THE CAR? WANT TO KNOW?

WHO CAN DESIGN INTERIOR OF THE CAR – Car design is a multi-faceted trade.  Whilst the appeal of drawing sports cars is the usual first sign that you are catching the car bug there is actually a plethora of other ways designers fall in love with designing vehicles. The interior design of cars (here we would clarify that by cars we mean all vehicles) has become more in focus as of late with the evolution and adoption of autonomous vehicles. 

Suddenly, what we do on the inside of our vehicle of choice has added value and new platforms offer amplified versatility.  Having said that, designing the inside of vehicles is a very specialised and complicated job that requires more empathy for the user than say exterior design.

FOCUS ON DETAIL: WHO CAN DESIGN INTERIOR

At Intank.Academy interior car design is covered in detail. It can be broken down into the main areas of the interior: doors, steering wheel, seats, product details (ie. gear shifter or cluster design), and dashboard design.  Once these individual areas are mastered their tutors guide students through the design of a complete interior. It is very important to create a theme or a concept of what you are designing and whom you are designing for, a family of four, sportspeople, young couples, public transport, you name it. 

When you have defined your theme the architecture of that space will evolve and have certain hardpoints and descriptors that set the scene for the evolution of your design.  Function and ergonomics must be paramount guiding paradigms.

One of the students at Intank Academy, named Janosch Mahrdt, has been exploring different autonomous design layouts and themes of particular interest is his last upload for the Autonomous Interior 04 Course where he beautifully uses concentric lines to describe and build the surfaces up like a topographic depiction of the interior.  What he ends up with is a smooth, almost pebble-like, surfacing that runs throughout the interior which is both effective and welcoming.  In its simplicity, it creates a clear and unexpected alternate narrative for the use of a car interior. No steering wheel, no direction, just human interaction which very intentionally defines the exterior shape of the vehicle.

BACKGROUND

Does one need to be a product designer or a car designer to design car interiors?  There is usually an ambivalence about where you get your design education and acquire your skills when it comes to designing car interiors.  Design studios put more of an emphasis, especially nowadays, on the ability to visually represent and communicate your ideas clearly and owning an understanding of universal design; design that has usability for everyone, not just a niche group of users (unless it’s a very specific car segment of course!). 

There is also added value in having a mixed experience background because that cross-pollination of ideas is usually where the really good concepts come from! So, if you like cars but are not that interested in designing the exterior you might consider using your skills to create the interiors of a new generation of vehicles. Industrial and product designers are more relevant to the automotive industry than we think.

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