Hello my name is Matt and I live in the U.S. I have wanted to be a car designer since I was in 5th grade. Now I'm a junior in high school and need to figure out which college to go to and which classes in need to finish out high school with to have a good start at being a designer. Freshman year I went online to look at how to be a car designer and only found what I needed to be an engineer so I made my classes reflect that. This semester I am taking Spanish 4, chemistry, world history, honors pre-calculus, and advanced placement English. I read the article your website wrote on how to start out and I am looking into adding an art class to my repertoire of study. Please give me some more personal advice on how to achive my goal. Thank you for your time and I would love some guidence from those that are actually living my dream.
hey im just like u in highschool becoming a junior. firstly, decide which art college u want to go to that has transportation design like the art center in pasadena (its really famous do u live in Los angeles cuz itll be very convientant,there one is detroit too really good) theres the only 2 i know that are good in the u.s, but yeah should show us some of the car drawing so we can help u out this is a really great site because im new to this and ive learned alot. ohyeah next time u pose something like this put it in the "design schools" if u want more replies.
I'm just like the both of you. I too am a junior and don't know which major to take. I get confused with the different majors but what I've heard are Industrial Design or Transportation Design to get to where we all want to go. Unfortunately, I am not sure about it. Hopefully someone will reply with the degree/major achieved.
If you want to be car designers in the US. Here's what I can say. You're going to want to attend either Art Center (ACCD) in California or Center for Creative Studies (CCS) in Michigan. These school accept student based on a portfolio. As high school students you should finish all college required classes and maintain a decent GPA. Start sketching all the time, take art class. You probably will not be accepted to one of these schools after high school, so attend a college where you can take your general education class and get some good art and design classes. Most likely the design classes will be industrial design, the design of products in general. After a few year and learning to sketch like a master, you can apply to ACCD or CCS and major in Transportation design. Once there give up your life, sell your soul and bust your ass for 4 years. Maybe when you graduate you'll get a job as a car designer......MAYBE. Have fun guys!
man it would suck if i wasted all these years preparing for a car designer and not be one when i graduate thats what makes me worried i want to work for nissan or volkswagen so badly!!1
If you guys haven't taken any art classes, start doing that - you'll need it, because you will not want to suck. You will want to kick ass because you want that job badly, you want to be the superstar in your class. Even then sometimes you won't get the job you want. To get to the skill level you need to be in - just sketch, sketch, draw, draw anything.
It's too easy to just say you want to be car designer, it takes a lot to be a good one. It's not just the ability to sketch and render cool cars. Good understanding of business decision making, economics, engineering, physics, maybe not so much math and very importantly the vision.
If you want to, you can take the night classes @ Art Center if you are located in California. Observe and get a feel for the pace and the lifestyle after you become a student in one of those schools. If you talk to some of the students there you'll realize they have to take lots of all-nighters to get things done. Be ready to kiss your beauty sleeps good bye. When you're already accepted to one of these schools you'll find out that somebody else will be 10 times more better than you, and you'll have to decide to take on the challenge or just stay at the bottom.
I told my friend once that it wasn't gonna be easy, and I meant it at that time. He moved to California and tried the night classes, what do I know...week 9 of 14 in the night class he gave me a call - he quit it. It takes so much hard work even for the talented ones, if you know that you have marginal talent then you'll have to persist and persevere to convince yourself that your hard work can get you up the par with the rest of the class. It's not fun to be the weak link in the class, I can tell you I wasn't but just be prepared for all the possibilities.
I am not trying to scare/discourage anybody, it was just the reality I was facing at that time. It was the passion for cars and the need to get myself a job after I graduated were the prime motivators to keep my hopes and dreams alive.
Oh, one more thing try find out the tuition for these schools...expensive.
If you can finish all your general education requirements before art school..the better, because you don't want to pay for these classes while you're in a private school.
When you are at school you'll want to go full throttle with your design classes and your assignments.
Visualizing oneself as a working professional in a certain field/company in the future can be good to keep your head straight. Obsessing it however, is going to be tiresome. Try to understand that we are designer first, motorhead second. Name brands and auto heritage stories can get anyone infatuated quick, but the reality of these pre-emptive notions about OEM studios aren't so romanticized. Also, be aware that an industrial designer must be able to invent/conceptualize/visualize broad spectrum of ideas. The auto industry is only one out of many many ways for a trans grad to thrive and make good money while not having to ..."sell your soul". Keep your minds open guys, and good luck.
Hey I got into CCS after high school and got a scholarship too so if you set your mind to it you can do it. Just work on showing a train of thought in your drawings.
