I'm an architecture student at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield Michigan. The Architecture program is nationally recognized since the college wins a large majority of design competitions. It's really exciting this year since the Transportation Design program was launched and has very talented students - some of which are in my classes. Unlike other programs, the university was approached by industry to develop a program that simulates an automotive studio in the program with the injection of engineering and manufacturing integrated into the design - the same way that vehicles are designed today at the companies. By understanding these requirements, students can go from "sketch to metal" as my instructor has coined the term. This is the primary reason why there are so many great designers in the profession that are not able to produce a great looking products - because they do not understand the engineering requirements, so then their designs get changed by engineers later.

Since one of the Transportation instructors teaches a course where there is a diversity of majors, he will every now and then reference Car Design News website. Since I have become familiar with this website and as an individual that loves cars, I wanted to write this blog to inform students that the expectations from companies are changing and more demanding. What school would I recommend? Lawrence's Transportation Design program since it was created for the car companies. The other unique aspect of this program is that Lawrence also has an Engineering college. Big deal? Well, absolutely! For the reason that this program begins to inject collaboration and integration with the Engineering college on various projects from Formula SAE to SAE Baja to Formula Zero (international competition based in Europe) to company sponsored projects. Only in its first year, the Transportation program has been getting so much attention that there are two major company sponsored projects! What other design schools also has an engineering college? None.

For those that might be skeptical, I understand that Car Design News will be attending the end of year show that is being planned. This is nothing new as LTU has automotive roots since it was established with Henry Ford's financial support back in 1932. Years later, John DeLorean was another LTU graduate that started his own car company. And today, the automotive companies are excited to see the development of their transportation design program to produce the future designers.

It seems for many the main problem with this field is getting the foot in the door, in other words it really doesn't matter what your school teaches as long as its name is worth something.

My question, is LTU worth as much as Art Center or CCS on a resume? In other words if a car company who is hiring is looking at two resumes from two applicants who display the exact same ability in their portfolios and the employer can hire only one, which one would get the job? the guy with art center at the top of his resume or the guy with LTU?

If you look at BMW, the designers went to ACCD, the senior designers went to ACCD, the boss of the senior designers went to ACCD, and his boss too went to ACCD. So they will likely hire another guy who went to ACCD over someone who went anywhere else, if their ability displayed through their portfolios were equal. And with the competition in this field, that is all that matters.

BTW I'd love to attend LTU, just let me wait and see what ACCD says first.

a very good point burns. this is a joke, and likely a post by someone in advertising from that university.
design is seperated from engineering because engineers don't design, and are the main contributor to designs being dumbed down over the years. car companies want inspirational sketches, emotional designs, and new, different concepts. a student who has been taught to always have strict engineering guidelines in their mind won't generate half of the cool stuff someone who went to a more uninhibited art/design school would. and that's what car companies want.. new interesting stuff. people fitting the mold of this school would self perpetuate designs, much like the 90's saw, where everything looked the same.

so, caution to all readers....
this school may be alright, but ACCD, CCS and AAU are still the top ranked in the country, in that order.

this school needs to take a number, get in line and prove something.

Alright...

I've seen these flame wars from people of various design schools getting started on other web pages and I'd like to try and put this out before it starts on CDN.

Let me first say that I AM one of the design students at LTU and I think it's a fine program. No, I have not gone to CCS or ACCD, so I don't have tons of experience to compare it to, I'll admit that.

I'd also like to say that I think my fellow LTU student is a little outspoken and he might not realize the how inflamitory some of his statments might have been.

The LTU program isn't some kind of "Engineers Turned Designers" program as AMD put it. It's a DESIGN program where there's weekly guest lectures by people from the industry (many are, in fact, engineers) who come to teach us about things like packaging, ergo, materials, safety and legal requirements. The kinds of things that are "taught" to new designers when they first get on the job. Nobody tells us to create boring design, they just point out that "if you're going to do that, you might have a problem here." We either find a way to change it or we don't and we keep it in the back of our mind as a feas issue. At least we understand what we did. The result of this should be a group of designers that are ready for industry on day one.

Industry is VERY interested in what's going on at our school. I don't want to get into specifics, but we've met personally with some big name people who are excited about the school's new approach to the subject. The school has a lot riding on this in many ways. Don't you think they'd do their own homework and make sure this program was going to be worth while before kicking it off? Please give LTU and its students a little credit for that at least.

I've seen the "the design world is full of ACCD & CCS managers" argument before as well. No question that you're correct about that. LTU students will have to to prove themselves at graduation and get into the industry before we'll get any respect. I totally understand that. I wouldn't expect any less. Hopefully some day, LTU will have a couple managers out there and they'll be keeping an eye out for their almma matter too. I'd also like to point out that I already work in the industry and I know for a fact that their are graduates from other universities working in the studios. Just because you didn't go to one of the big three doesn't mean you'll never get hired.

I'd like to conclude by saying that the posts claiming that the program is "a joke" or "not worth looking at" just because it's not CCS or ACCD are pretty rude. Most of the these flamers have never contacted LTU or its instructors and have no idea about what's going on there. The TD students at LTU have been watching these posts and keeping their hands off the "reply" button because we know our position as "new kids on the block." Because Buckslayer isn't one of the TD students, he clearly didn't know about our agreement to be cool in the forums. We're a humble bunch of young designers and we know the only way to stop the flame war will be with our work. Unfortunatly for us, we're only freshman. We'll have to put up with three more years of this kind of thing before we're in the industry and we'll be able to be judged by our real life work.

Until then, can we please keep it cool? There are a lot of kids all over the world who read this forum and they owe it to themselves to check out EVERY school from "the big three" to LTU and anybody else before making their big decision. Higher learning is not one size fits all. All schools are different and fitting the person to the school has a lot to do with their ultimate success. In this regard, I've had MUCH experience. From what I've heard, CCS would never work for me. LTU happens to fit just fine.

Well I had no intention to flame, and I'm sure by "this is a joke" AMdesign was referring to the post as being more of an advertisement than a genuine FYI post. And I don't believe anyone said the school is not worth looking at. I don't think LTU students should restrain themselves from posting on the forums, it is one way to get yourself and your school out there in the industry. I also highly doubt you will get flamed or be mistreated for posting because you go to LTU (personally I would like a lot more info on the school's program and I just can't find it, so posting your experiences is welcome).

we'll see.

Hey have met some of you at the Designers night at Camillio's studio. You guys seemed like a really cool bunch. In a couple of years i wouldn't mind seeing some of guess stuff. I am quite curious. I would really like to see you guys comment more on the forums to.

well, ive been accepted into lawrence....

well guitar slinger, you make very good points. i am sorry if i sounded harsh. I know you have no control over what others post, so i can't direct this as you, BUT i would be pissed if there was some freshman from my school who was out on forums misrepresenting our program, etc.

Buckslayer: i'd check yourself before you cast your school in a poor spotlight amongst designers, because we rarely think like engineers, and certainly don't likt to associate our education with theirs.

Hey thanks for the good words everyone!

AM, thanks for the understanding. Again, I'm sure Buck didn't know the impact of what he was doing. He's got to understand that by making statements like this, he only increases the scrutiny on our work when we finally do take the wraps off of it in a couple months.

I guess I didn't mean to say that people were actually flaming here, but I've seen that kind of behavior on other forums and I have to say it really turned me off to the whole group.

I enjoy reading CDN in the morning while my coffee is cooling off and I really didn't want to see things on this forum get ugly. The fact that the first "Shot" was taken by an LTU student made me want to set things straight.

Me and my mates are really excited to be more active on the forums and we will be, once we've got our semester's work completed and ready to show what we can do.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Guitarslinger79,

Over the course of my career, I visited many many design schools. One of my primary responsibilities for Nissan was interviewing prospective designers, reviewing portfolios, filtering out the best prospects for personal interviews, even helping to manage company sponsored projects at such schools as RSDI, CCS, ACCD, AAU and Brigham Young. So I have seen a lot of schools try to get their foot in the door, almost ALL failing to do so. When I was assigned to the Nissan Studio at AAU in 2001, they had graduated a couple of senior classes in Trans - and had NO actual placements in any major manufacturers' studios. Most graduates had gone into industrial design although a few had got auto related jobs (one at Think Motors for Ford, another as a color designer for Nissan, Japan). Finally, after a number of years, they have a group of guys who did make it, and AAU grads are at several of the major studios - and the future looks pretty good for the school.
With the economy going up and down on cycles, a school must maintain excellence through the cycles, even when demand is negative like now, with NDA and Pacifica laying off.
The big problem is getting good students. When the buzz is good about a school, it gets the good kids out of high school and junior college (and you learn as much from the kids as the teachers). Thus ACCD and CCS (in the USA at least) have the big advantage. When I went to Illinois Tech in the 60s, there were two or three great Trans kids in the ID department and all of us got Big 3 jobs. I was lucky to hit a high period for good students and I learned a lot from them. Now IIT lags totally and is not on the map for Trans at all.
So when I see another school try to get in to this field, I have mixed feelings. It may take years to develop the program and longer to create the buzz to draw the talented kids. In the meantime, only the most fantastic ones will make it.
Auto companies, in spite of their managers' loyalty to their alma maters, are always looking for fresh talent, which means that they are very open to new sources - as long as they can find time to monitor those new schools.
L.Tech has the advantage of being in Detroit, so visits (and attention) is more likely. Also good faculty and even sponsored projects may be possible. Still, there is a general over-supply of Trans grads and it is hard to compete with the established schools.
A student can always transfer part way through and some of the best employment prospects will have experience at two schools because no school has a perfect program.