Hi, everyone
I just know about this forum yesterday (because I plan to post a concept design online). I am applying for university by January 7th and commons from your guys will be very useful to me.
My situation is very unique. Although I am really interested in car design, I didn't have any idea about it at all until I talked to someone from CCS by a chance recently. My background is in fine art and I have very good drawing skills. I am also good at math and physics. My family is an immigrant family and definitely cannot support me to go to US. It's more likely for me to stay in Toronto for university (unless I find some really good ones in other provinces).
I have very limited knowledge about the level of each university within Canada which offers industrial design with transportation design option. It seems that the only one offers transportation design in Toronto is Humber College and there is a one in Montreal too.( I don't know any French at all, so Humber College may be the only one in my consideration) They are not seemed to be very recognized and definitely has no comparison with the ones in US.
Since it's not easy to find a job within car design field in general, graduates form not so good schools would have a even less chance. Does it worth it if let’s say I study in Humber College then save some money to read master in US? Or it's better for me to find a better university which offers other types of Design and then switch to automotive design later? If the plan B is better, which program is better to start with (satisfy 1: Good background for automotive design 2: can find a job easily for me to save some money later on)? Any famous university in Canada offers very good design programs?
I really appreciate your guys' help. Thanks so much for your advices.

Hi Chad. In Canada (I'm from there too) the only school that teaches anything like car design is Humber, and from what I've heard and read, they don't do a particularly good job at it, because they don't focus on it too much. There are other industrial design schools, like Carleton University or Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design but they won't really help in a transportation design related career.

Now the number one thing that is wrong with these universities isn't their name (the fact that they're not well known in the industry) it's their lack of focus. A graduate from these schools will likely not have the ability of a grad from CCS or ACCD (Art Center College of Design) because those schools focus intensely on the subject, and offer high quality education in the area, where the Canadian schools may just glance at it. Unfortunately in this highly competitive career, one of the schools in the US or Europe is pretty much your only route, and it would be EXTREMELY hard to succeed going down any other route. BUT if you do go to Humber or any other canadian school, and work really really hard and at graduation miraculously bring your level to that of graduating ACCD and CCS students, then you might have a shot.

But the way I see it, you have two choices:

1) become an industrial designer with a degree from the Canadian schools and design shoes, toys and electronics for a living (not a bad route)

2) become a transportation designer and have a good shot at designing cars, buses, motorcycles, trains, planes, semis, boats etc... for a living.


If you want to do #2, you're much better off at ACCD or CCS than Humber, ECIAD or Carleton. And if it really is your calling in life, than the costs of the american schools are totally worth it, because even in Canada, if you want to become anything decent, you have to pay a lot for it, be it a business major, an engineering major, medicine, lawyer etc...

THX a lot for Mr. Burns advice

BTW, is that possible to choose choice 1, earn
some money and go to ACCD or CCS for a try at transportation design?
Since by that time, I may have a better understanding, enough money and more experience as back up.
What I meant is: is there a conflict of already have an industrial design degree and go to ACCD or CCS for another one more on transportation side?

you can still get a job as an auto design even with an industrial degree...just letting you know

quote:

Originally posted by chad:
THX a lot for Mr. Burns advice

BTW, is that possible to choose choice 1, earn
some money and go to ACCD or CCS for a try at transportation design?
Since by that time, I may have a better understanding, enough money and more experience as back up.
What I meant is: is there a conflict of already have an industrial design degree and go to ACCD or CCS for another one more on transportation side?

absolutely, the average age of first years at ACCD is 24, and they recommend you get a degree before applying anyway. So you don't have to dive into quickly if you're not comfortable.

Get another degree, make some money, have some fun and then if you still want to do it go for it.

Between Humber College and Carleton University, which one is better to start with? Is there a big difference? Or doesn't matter?

It seems that Humber College offers a Bachelor of Applied Technology program which seems weird.

Well I'm not really sure which one has the better ID program or which one is better overall (you would have to extensively research that), but personally I would go with Humber mainly because they at least touch on transportation design near the end of the ID program.

hey chad, im a canadian too.
i used to live in oakville, just about 20 minutes of toronto.

now i reside in colorado, as a high school senior.

i agree with what mr burns said. i would go to humber. they both do suck at transportation design (just being brutally honest) but at least humber offers a little bit of the transportation design program.

oh and about the degree "name"... art center give its graduates a bachelor of science in transportation design.. which i thought was weird too.

but if i were you, i would definitely try for either art center or ccs after you graduate humber, or you could even transfer.

canadian schools are respectable, but art center and ccs are the schools you wanna really challenger yourself for because they're as good as it gets.

hope it helps.

quote:

Originally posted by Vexed&Glorious:
you can still get a job as an auto design even with an industrial degree...just letting you know

i heard you could be a product designer with a transportation major but it's hard to be a transportation designer with an industrial design major.
I'm puzzled. Can you explain more?

quote:

I heard you could be a product designer with a transportation major but it's hard to be a transportation designer with an industrial design major.

I've heard the same thing several times, however, recently I've come to think that it is almost the other way around.

To do product, one has to be able to understand how things are put together, how they work, how is it going to be manufactured and what is cost effective, etc. I'm not sure if trans. really focuses on these kinds of aspects, other than styling something that looks "cool."

When it comes to exterior design, cars are mostly just "styled." With interiors, it becomes more product based, because the person using the vechicle has to interact with everything to be able to drive.

In some regards there is a lot of overlap, and then at times they seem like two distinct disciplines. But hey, you can always do both, which might me advisable considering how tight the job market for auto design can be at times.

good luck,
--cel