Automotive Designer or Mechanical Engineer? Which is Right For Me?
This blog post was generated by this question submitted by Dhanraj, an aspiring automotive designer:
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“Hello Sir
I am from india, in class 12th. I want to be a car designer like you. Sir I am also interested in mechanical engineering. What would be better for me to do first. Should I do btech in mechanical engineering and graduating from any designing school or is there any other way I can get both fields used as my career. Please help me.”
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It is very difficult to become an automotive designer while trying to study something else. To become a professional car designer you have to spend thousands of hours drawing to master the skills needed to draw cars at the professional level. You also need to develop your model making skills as well. How are you going to develop all the skills you will need to be an automotive designer or even to apply to design school if you are spending all your time in class studying engineering?
If someone came to you and said, “I want to be a professional footballer but while I am thinking about becoming a professional footballer, I’m going to be playing cricket full time.” What would you think of their chances of playing professional football? How could they practice football enough to become a professional? Playing cricket is not going to make them better at football. It’s a different skill set. The same is true for engineering and design.
Becoming an Automotive Designer Takes a Long Time
Most people who become professional car designers start drawing cars when they are 5-6 years old. By they time they are ready to enter college or university, they have been drawing cars for over 10 years. If you have not been doing this, that is a lot of time to make up. The internet helps compress this as you have access to so much information. But in the end, there is no way to make up for the thousands of hours needed to train your hand eye coordination nd muscle memory other than spending thousands of hours doing it. This is impossible to do if you’re a full time student studying another subject. It’s just like being a professional athlete. There are no short cuts. You have to do what automotive designers call, “the mileage” or what pro athletic coaches call “the fundamentals”.
The only way around this would be if you are a prodigy with landmark visual talent. Do you have the ability to draw far above your age? I do not know what your skills are like. You should have a good idea about your drawing ability vs. your classmates. Do people tell you you are the best artist they know? Do your teachers tell your parents that they have never seen anything like your ability to draw? If you are getting this kind of feedback, that is a good thing. To become an automotive designer, you need to have some natural talent.
While the more natural visual talent you have the better, car designers don’t need to know anything about engineering. Car companies have teams of engineers to engineer their cars. As a designer, you’re getting paid to make the car look good and to a certain extent, function. Car designers have an innate sense of how things work. I never worked with a car designer who knew anything about engineering in the text book sense. It’s not necessary. Plus, becoming a professional automotive designer is so hard, when would you have time to do so?
Do You Have the Car Design Passion?
My question to you would be, where is your passion? Do you love the look of the exterior and interior of cars? Does the idea of designing them and seeing your design one day, on the road in the world, keep you up at night? Or does the idea of the how suspension arms work, batteries are made or the idea of making a more efficient air conditioner get you more excited? You can be passionate about both, but typically car designers don’t car about the mechanical aspects of a car. They only care about the emotion. Like an artist, they want to create the part of the car that moves people emotionally.
It’s not to say you cannot go to engineering school, graduate, then spend another few years getting your skills up to apply to design school. If you are able to do this and get into design school, you’d probably be older and more mature than your classmates which would help you. And while your engineering education might give you some advantage, it won’t matter if you’re surrounded by passionate, driven, focused, talented design students who can draw and make models at a much higher level than you. Going to engineering school to ultimately become a car designer would be like trying to win a swimming race while riding a bicycle in the pool. You’re making a very hard thing even harder.
Automotive Design or Engineering?
I would spend the next year or so exploring both professions. It’s OK not to know which you prefer at this point but remember, that pretty much any intelligent, disciplined person can become an engineer. It helps if you excel at math, love solving problems and know your way around a computer. In the end, most people that have a passion for engineering and the skill set mentioned can get hired as a professional engineer in some capacity upon graduation.
But even if you love cars and love design, have the passion, go to design school for 4 or 6 years, draw cars for 8 hrs a day, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition there is very good chance you will never get an offer from a car company to be a designer. This is the track for many design school graduates. Just like many people want to play professional sports and never make it, the same is true for car design. It’s not something you can want to do part time and hope to be successful.
Or to put it another way, most people that want to become mechanical engineers can. Most people that want to become automotive designers can not. This is where the passion comes in. Almost all of the car designers I have worked with HAD to become car designers. They didn’t want to… they NEEDED to. There is a voice deep inside you that drives you to do this. It’s like a religious calling. These are the people you are up against if you’re thinking becoming a professional automotive designer might be a fun thing to do while you’re off studying engineering.
To become a professional car designer you have to be “all in”. Why? Because there are only so many openings for new hires in a given year and many more graduates than openings. So you have to be one of the best. You have to bring something new and different to the table. You have to have something to say. You have to want to change the world. And that comes from commitment. 100% all in. This means thousands of hours of practicing and a willingness to learn new ways of thinking and looking at the world.
Why do it then? Why take such a high risk to become an automotive designer ? Because there is no substitute for the experience of seeing an idea that you once had in your in your mind’s eye on the road or on the auto show stand. Every time I leave my house and see one of my designs on the road, I remember when that concrete thing that is in the world was an idea in my head and it makes me smile. It’s a happiness that no one can ever take away.
I hope this helps.
If you have any questions regarding the information contained in this article, please leave them in the comments section below and we will get them answered. Thank you.
Further Reading About Automotive Design Education
• What Degree is Best for Auto Design?
• What is the Best Major for Automotive Design?
• What Degree is Best for Car Design?
You can just do both
Thank you so much sir , it means a lot that you replied my question with a meaningful solution. Definitely I love designing the cars and after reading your article , I have cleared all my confusions and decided to be a car designer. Sir Can you help me one more time ?. I want to know which is the best designing school in India . And what would be the course duration for that ?.
……………..Dhanraj Malagar
The best school of in India that I am aware of if NID. Several of my students have been accepted to this program after working with me. I am not sure of the course duration.
Hello sir
I am doing engineering from mechanical branch and want to sell my car designs, online to car company. I have no degree of design but I can design best then other more.i want become a better car designer. And other questions is that. Can i become a car designer through mechanical engineering degree .
Please tell about it please
Thanks for writing. Regarding your questions, car companies do not purchase designs from outside their respective companies. They have designers on staff who get paid very well to provide the company with new designs. If you are as good as you say you are, apply to a design school, get a degree in industrial or transportation design and then try to get hired. Car companies do not hire perspective designers without a degree in industrial or transportation design. If you want to be a car designer, you are wasting your time studying engineering.
thanks
Can Mehicanical engineer is become a car designer
As the post describes, anything is possible, but it is a very hard road to travel.
thanks sir, it helped me too, im in the same situton as malagar .It helped me a lot… Sir, but if i take automobile engineer, im i only able to make the design done by the designers into reality by only mechanics?Is the job of auto. engg. is to make engines and the hardware part of car only ?. Which carrier is the best to find job , auto. designing or auto. engg ?. Do companies check where i have completed my acadamics than the marks scored by me ?
One way of looking at it that will help you understand the role of the designer vs. the engineer is designers work on or do everything you can see, engineers work on or do everything you don’t see. Engineers work on all the systems of the car- engine, chassis, electronics, HVAC, all the things that make the car work. Designers work on all the parts that make you feel emotional about the car – exterior design, interior design, wheel design, under hood design.
The disciplines work together but the designers to not engineer the car and the engineers do not design, say the a fender. They will engineer that fender so it can be stamped and hung on the chassis. What the fender looks like is irrelevant to them (for the most part). Their job is to make sure it can be made. Where as the designer may spend a month working with the sculptor to make sure the light pools on the surface of that same fender in just the right way. Engineering is about efficiency, meeting costs targets, use of materials, etc. Design is about art, poetry, beauty and passion. The motivation for each person is much different. Makes sense? Companies care about where you go school. For designers you will have a portfolio. They do not care about marks or grades. Just how well you can think and how creative you are.
Hello sir!
I loved your paid course that was there in Udemy.
Sir but I didn’t get any letter of completion.
Sir if u could get me the letter of completion it would be really helpful.
Also I have spoken to Udemy and there is no response from them .
No one has ever asked for this. Let me know if you need one and we will create one for you. Thanks.
Hello there, this article helped me out a lot. I’m a student in Florida who just started his 2nd semester at a local college, on track to transfer to a university for Mechanical Engineering.
While I’m very good and skilled when it comes to math and understanding it, I care more about design. I’m more excited about improving and seeing my ideas and designs get better than learning calculus and figuring out how to build my own suspension system. Like I’m good at math but I don’t love doing it. I love creating, I keep thousands of car photos on my phone and care more about looks and emotion than performance and lap times. I’ve been drawing since I could remember, but started sketching cars in order to improve since I was in 9th or 10th grade about 3 years ago, and am just starting to develop a portfolio for a design school.
My question is that do you think that in time I could have the skills and ideas to be one of the best to be picked up by a company to design for them? The main problem is that I let myself get scared by how hard it is to be a professional car designer, I let myself get scared that I’ve got little money to even cover the cost of moving to Detroit or California to pay for design school. I let myself get scared that I won’t be good enough. I’ve not been able to meet or talk to any other students who are into car design, people my age, and I don’t know any local resources that can help me. Therefore I don’t really know what to compare myself to or if I’m even in range of decent skill. I’ve talked to an admission advisor months back at ArtCenter who said I had the skill to be successful but that I need to clean up my lines. It’s not easy to hear back from him as of lately, but my problem is time management and overthinking.
What’s a good mindset to adopt that’ll help me keep my head high and take me down the path of success with hours of practice and effort daily?
Thank you
Noah- Thanks for reaching out. I had the same problem you have now when I was growing up and wanted to be a car designer: No one to talk to about it and no one to work with or compete against to try and get better. And I went to a specialized high school strictly for art. But everyone there wanted to work for Marvel, not GM or Ford. Regarding your question about whether I think in time you could develop the skills and ideas to become a professional, there is only one way for me to answer. Send me some of your sketches and I will have a look and let you know. Send them to mi*****@***********rs.net.
Regarding mindset, that comes from within. My motivator was the love of beauty and the distaste for almost all the cars that were out at the time. My high school was across the street from a Ferrari dealership so I spent a lot of time in there getting inspired. That’s the beauty part. The distaste part comes from my dislike of almost all the cars that were out at the time and I knew if I got my chance, I would produce something better. And when I got my chance, I did: The 1995 Car of the Year.
We’re all insecure on some level. When you’re young, you have to allow your passion and your will to overcome your fears. My question would be, who put those fears there? Is there a voice in your head telling you “you can’t do it”? If so, you’ll need to remove it and replace with an inner voice of support. When I was just stating out I created a mantra that I still believe in today: There is a place for you if you’re good. Of course, “good” is a relative term, but after a while you know what good looks like and you have work to surpass that.
Don’t worry about money or if you’re good enough. You should draw and want to practice drawing because it makes you happy. Pro car designers will sometimes draw 8-10 hrs a day during a program. If you don’t love the feeling, it’s not for you. Not everyone can have an idea an express it the way a car designer can. It’s a wonderful skill to have and worth developing.
Many people manifest the very thing they are most afraid of. Why? Because the time, energy and focus spent on being afraid robs you of the time, energy and focus on getting better. If you’re afraid of not being good enough, the energy put into the fear is energy you’re not using to fill another drawing pad with sketches. The result? You never get anywhere because all you could see was what you were afraid of not what you could have been doing to get better. Makes sense?
Send me some sketches and give you some feedback.
Another short term option might be to take the Udemy course – https://www.udemy.com/introduction-to-automotive-design/
Not knowing where your skills are at, it might be just what you need or old news. Watch the trailer to get some idea. I look forward to seeing your work.
Hi there, even I have the same problem as Noah and I really appreciate you breaking down everything in detail and it really helped me understand what and how I should pursue this. But mainly my problem is, I’m a bit confused on whether I should study how a car works in detail or just know it in general before going into automobile design.
Viinuka-
Car designers do not need to know anything about how a car works. Again, car companies have teams of engineers whose only job it is is to know how a car works. Engineers who work with designers are the ones who figure out how to make your designs work. Does it help to know how a car works? Yes, of course. There may come a time where you’re going to need to push back against engineers who want to change your design. Having some knowledge about how things are made can help. Ralph Gilles who is the VP of Design at Chrysler is an avid racer and knows more about how to set up a car than any car designer I have ever worked with. But he is the exception, not the rule.
Your job as a designer is to dream up what the the cars of tomorrow will look like. It’s the emotional part of why we love cars. You want to be the poet. You don’t need to know how the machine that makes your poetry book works in order to write the poem that changes the world or inspires people. I don’t think you realize how hard becoming a professional car really is. If I were you, I would stop wasting time and energy worrying about things that will have no baring on your success or failure as a car designer. Spend your time studying nature, trying to understanding why people do the things they do, surrounding yourself with beautiful things and most of all, drawing all the time.
You’re going to get into a top design school because of your portfolio. (And if you want a top, scholarship worthy portfolio, you should be studying with me!). You’re going to do well at this design school because you can manage your time correctly, have a support system in place to keep you sane, can consistently come up with excellent, creative ideas and have the skills to show them to others and because you have the grit not to quit. At graduation, you’re going to get hired by a car company as a professional designer because through the projects you’ve completed, you can show them you know how to think and represent your ideas better than your classmates. That’s it. There is no prerequisite in any of those steps for knowing how a car works.
Sir I am kaustubh from India and I too have the same problem as Noah. I love sketching cars and love to know about cars. I just gave my senior secondary exams(class 12) in science but wish to become an automotive designer. I and my parents were willing to send me to Germany for my bachelor’s degree. Can you help me with my problem and give me suggestions? If you can have a look at my sketches and show me the truth about them. I would hope you help me out of it as I too need to convince my parents to change my stream.
K-
Please send me your work so I can review and advise. Send any sketches to mi*****@***********rs.net
Hello Michael and other people, my name is Pedro and im from Portugal and since my 4/5 years i draw cars, that’s my real passion, every time i have a quick brake on school i draw cars, mainly sport one, im in the 11th school year, and since my 9th im trying to get the most of information about car design, and finally i found it… Anyways, in Portugal we have ome University (esad Matosinhos) that have car design course, but i don’t if it is “the best” for me, i mean, Portugal has some of us know os not a country that have a great car culture, in the last century we had some cars yeah, but not famous brands like the Japanese, German or British… If you see this and read i want a opinion from you if i do the university in Portugal, or go to Italy or other country (except UK for personal reasons), but my main problem is the houses prices and universities. Tks if you answer to this
Pedro-
Thank you for reaching out. Regarding what school to attend, you need to ask the school how many graduates from their program are working as designers in the car industry. Also ask how many students graduate from their program each year and of those students, how many get jobs in transportation design. Another way to see if the school is any good is to look at the graduating class student work and compare that work to what is coming out of other schools like Art Center and College for Creative Studies. It also helps to go and visit the school and get a feel for how comfortable you are there. At this point, your best asset is going to be a first class portfolio that shows not only your passion for automotive design, but all your creativity. Top design schools don’t admit you for where you are now, but on your potential after going through their program. The better your portfolio, the better your chance of going to the best school of YOUR choice. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks.
M
Hello ! I am Guru from India and i have the same doubts i am passionate about designing cars and i spend my free time designing them i mean sketching different angles ,since NID is the only good college teaching automotive design it will be very hard to get in .My question is many people around me discourage me indirectly saying that “car designing is not worth it ,cause in future there will be electric cars using advanced artificial intelligence so no one will hire a car designer so its good to learn about technologies ” This type of opinions makes me really confused about my career choice to become a car designer.Honestly I love to design cars rather than engineering them.
Will you please answer my question ?
The answer to your question depends on if you feel automobiles will become an cultural object removed from the forces of the market. We have more electric cars now than ever and car designers are more important than ever. Manufacturers and designers who work for them are struggling to give them an identity. If you have more than one company making a product in a free market then you have competition. If you have competition than you are going to need a way of differentiating your product from said competition. The most cost effective way to do this is through design. You get good design by hiring good designers.
The motive power of the vehicle is irrelevant. Who cares if the car runs on gasoline, volts or water. If you need to make your car prettier, more comfortable, more functional and deliver a better user and ownership experience you need talented people to add that value to the car. You’ll either be one of those people or you will not. Someone will. And if someone will, it might as well be you. Regarding AI, by the time AI is so widespread that it is picking and colors and fabrics for car interiors (a job done by car designers), you will be long retired.
My question to you and to anyone else surrounding themselves with people who are not supportive of your dream is, why? Why are you surrounding yourself with people who are unsupportive? Becoming a professional car designer is one of the hardest creative careers to achieve. You need to surround yourself with positive, supportive people. For anyone who is not supportive, you can thank them for their opinion and move along. There was an American writer named Henry David Thoreau who said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Adults will always project their fears and desperation on to your dreams. You need to realize that is what they are doing.
These people telling you, “Car designing is not worth it….”. Not worth it to whom? To them!! They don’t car about it. They are looking at it like it’s just another job. It’s not. Why do you think I always talk about needing “gas in your veins”? You have to have the passion. This is the part they are missing and will never understanding. Stop wasting your time and more importantly, your energy listening to them. Find people who believe in you and your dreams and work with them to make them come true.
Hello sir ,
I am from india and i really wanted to know that which country is best for doing graduation in car designing as from that i can immediately get the job after doing graduation. India is best or any other country like , germany , italy , france etc
Sir please amswer my question .
Hello sir
I am not so good in designing car on paper but i am good designing car on computer such as in maya(autodesk software)
can i do car designing on computer
does it is necessary to do car designing on paper
Which software is best for car designing
This question is difficult to answer not knowing your age, where you are in your education journey and what you work looks like. I am going to assume you are not yet in a top design school but want to become a professional car designer for a major manufacturer. To become a professional automotive designer you are going to need to graduate from a top design school. To get into a school like this, your going to need a excellent portfolio. This portfolio needs to be made up of several key parts. One is a sketch book showing you can draw. You will also need to know how to draw to do the work for all the classes you will be taking.
The question you might want to be asking yourself is, why am I not spending 8 hours a day working on my drawing skills? If you know you are deficient in this area, why are you not committing to improving your skills? There is no easy path here. If you want to be a car designer, you have to accept that you have to work harder and longer than anyone you know. There are no shortcuts.
Computers are just another tool. The problem with the work you produce on them is they don’t show how you think. The reason why a car company is going to hire you is because you have a unique, creative way of solving problems and have an original visual vocabulary. They already have teams of designers who can make pretty pictures on computers. Why do they need you? Drawing is one of the ways you show someone else your design ideas. Each car company uses their own software so trying to learn what software to use is a total waste of time. Plus, you’re going to pay for a very expensive design education. Part of what you will be paying for is them teaching you design software. By not spending your time now learning how to draw like a car designer you’re giving all the top schools a reason not to accept you. Moreover, you’re giving a huge advantage to all they other aspiring car designers who are spending their time learning real drawing skills. These are the people you’ll be competing with for admission to a top school and ultimately, if you’re lucky, a job.
The best software for anyone for car designing is the soft tissue between your ears connected to a pencil and a piece of paper.
If you’re serious about becoming a professional car designer, I would start here –
Introduction to Automotive Design
Automotive Design Level 2
Working on the skills taught in these courses will take your work to the next level. This combined with your digital skills will help you when it’s time to apply to a top design school.
If you want to send me some of your work for feedback, send some images to mi*****@***********rs.net
Best of luck!
hello, i am lokesh from india, studying mechanical engineering (final year), i am almost 21 now and really really passionate about drawing cars. i have been drawing cars for six years now, although not full time as i am an engineering student. after completion of my high school, i wanted to draw cars which is my life’s passion, but everyone(not my parents) laughed at me when i said i wanted to pursue a career that involves designing cars because no one knew that there is a proffession called car designer. arts were not encouraged in my school life though i was always interested in arts rather than science, so none of my teachers had any idea about arts and a carrer in arts. in a larger part of india, even today schools dosen’t have a branch for arts. for a career in automotive design, i asked a lot of people, friends and family but sadly no one knew about it, and my maths teacher insisted that i take maths, physics, and chemistry subjects for my intermediate education and so i did. i was never interested in those subjects and finally coudn’t produce very good grades, i always used to draw exterior of cars on the weekend question papers, that’s all i could do.
even after my intermediate studies i wasn’t being helped at all by any one, so as everyone said i joined an engineering college in the mechanical branch thinking that mechanical is way nearer to my goal than any other branch. i came to know there is a college called NID (national institute of design) and branch called BFA (bachelor of fine arts) transportation design only after joining in this engineering college. i was devastated and stupified for not researching deeply before joining engineering.
the same story again, could not produce good grades (CGPA = 7.5), but still i used to draw cars on the back of the books, collect lot of car pics. but i never lost the passion for cars. i used to draw a lot without knowing the right nomenclature, language and expressions used in car designing until i came across your course ‘introduction to automotive design’ on udemy. now i know that i am not at all good at drawing.
so could you please help me with this as i wanted to take right decision for my masters atleast. i’m in a desperate need of right guidance. i want to join masters (transportation design) in 2021. how do i build a good portfoilio such that i could get into a good university overseas and not in india definitely. i have mailed a lot of universities and few designers but never got any help from them either, i wish you could help me.
i am ready to go to any extent as to pursue a career in automotive design, i can even work more than 8-10 hours a day if necessary for as long as it needs to be.
What cource should I choose to become a car designer?? Many people tell that choose B. E automobile and many tell choose B. Tech machanical, I’m really confused about it, I’m studying 11 std now and I want to make a correct visual of my education in colleges, plz reply me as soon as possible, I’m in a great dielemma
If you want to design the exterior or interior of automobiles, you need to take as many art classes as you have access to. You need to create a top portfolio of creative work so you can get into a top design school. In college, you need to study transportation design at a top tier school that specializes in this. Do not go to engineering school to become a car designer. Go to engineering school to become an engineer. Go do design school to become a designer. It’s that simple.
Plz tell the course name, design school in the means of ??? Then should I not go to college, after 12 , should I directly join in the design school.. This time plz me a accurate answer for my question, I don’t wanna disturb you again, I love learning from you…
Design school is college. If you are in India, look at NID. In the US, we have College for Creative Studies (CCS) and Art Center College of Design. In the UK, there is Coventry and the Royal College of Art. These are all top colleges for automotive design.
Sir now I am 16 and soon I will be promoted to 11th grade. I am from India . I want to become a Car Designer , it’s my dream to become a car designer since 2nd Grade . I always draw cars in free time and also improving my skills . I always keep an eye on new trends in automotive . I am thinking to give NID exam in 12 th Grade . I also get calls from Silica Design Institute for Design Exams Courses. They are telling me to take council for admission in their institute , in their institute they train students for NID and other design exam and further courses . But my father thinks that there is nothing as Automobile Designing and makes no sense doing it . Please help and tell which field Automobile Engineering or Designing will be helpful in future and should I buckle up to achieve my dream or do Automobile Engineering after 12th Grade.
Good evening from Australia, Mr Santoro. Did a quick google on your impressive Vector M12 and decided that i would comment on this thread. I am currently a Year 11 Student and wish to pursue an automotive design career and have planned it out rather well, but one problem. There are no car manufacturers in Australia as Holden is no longer and others have died out. I have made a decision to possibly move to a European state after I finish the Mechanical design practice and simulation courses. What would be the most preferable pathway towards this goal and if there is, what would be the best area to work in for this career.
Thank you for your time and expertise,
Kind Regards,
Riley Goodsell
Riley-
Thank you for your inquiry. There really is only one way to become an automotive designer. You need to put together a excellent portfolio so you can get accepted to a top automotive or transportation design program at a top design school. You need to go through the program and come out as one of the top students in your graduating class. The offers from manufacturers will come as a result of this process. Every designer I know and have ever worked with has been hired through this process.
Regarding having to leave Australia, that is the nature of the game. English is the international language of business so you should not have any problem if you eventually work in the EU, UK or the USA. My question to you at this point is, can you draw? What does you portfolio look like? You’re going to need an excellent portfolio to apply to a top school. I’d be happy to be give you some feedback on where you’re at if you want to send me some samples of your work. Send them to: mi*****@***********rs.net
Thanks again for your inquiry.
MS
Hello Michael!
You have very cool and great tutorials✌✍
Im now living in Germany but before im living in Latvia and many years a go go to highschool SPPI now SPPA in computer designing faculty only go 1curse ,now i try remember to sketch not easy but very hard. the question is – You know what school in Germany the bestest for Automotive designers? Thanks
Arturs –
I do not know which schools in Germany specialize in auto design. I do know there are some but do not know the names. I would search on-line for transportation design programs in Germany. See what comes up. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks!
M
I am not familiar with the top schools in Germany. I know there are several. Do some research. I am sure they will come up.
Hello michael ,I am form india and doin mechanical engineering final year and of age 21, i love the whole automotive culture but designing is what i love i am designing cars since my childhood from age 10.I always wanted to be a car designer as iam from middle class family so i didnt wanted to take risk by just studyin in design school so i took mech engm so i can have a plan B and kept sharpening my sketching skills but i didnt have any one professional to tell me how to do so now i am referring yt videos for that and developing my self .And to add on all of that i love designing cars when i am designing i just forget about the world and just keep doin it and i wish to do it forever my life .so i want help after completing engn can i take masters in automotive design and can you guide me that how i should proceed further to become the best car designer your respones will be so much for me cuz i have no one that can help me here i massaged ro so many online guys but no one have replied if you reply me it will be so helpfull thank you for giving your time
-Hrutwik Tambe
Hrutwik:
Thank you for reaching out.
In order to become a car designer you are going to need a top portfolio to get into a top design school. Masters programs for auto design are much harder to gain admission than an undergraduate program. While you can try to prepare a portfolio on your own, you are at a bug disadvantage because you do not have someone editing or telling you “this is good, leave this out, etc”. Moreover, you’re going to need at least 1 complete car design project in your book to show them what you are capable of. Again, you can do this alone but it is extremely difficult to do it at the level that will gain you admission to a top school.
I have been working with students who are in your position for several years now with great success. I would suggest reading this blog post about my program and let me know if you are interested.
Automotive Design Course
If you are, I will be happy to answer any questions you might have about how it works. Also, I currently have one student who is from India who I have been working with for about 6 weeks now. I am sure he would be happy to speak to you about the benefits of working with me. Please read the post and let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Michael
hello
my name is abizer ,I am in class 11 and i have to choose a career so i thought why not try automobile but the problem is i don’t know what to do or where to start and i am confuse whether i go in designing or engineering so i thought you can help after reading the blog if possible
Abizer –
Thank you for reaching out. While automotive design seems like a great way to make a living, and it is, it’s not like a lot of other careers. What I mean is, just because you want to do it, doesn’t mean you can. In many ways it’s similar to becoming a professional athlete. Many young people dream of being a pro athlete in whatever sport they admire. Typically, any sport requires 5 skills to play at the professional level. Many aspiring professionals have 2 of those 5 skills. Those 2 skills get them in the door.
It’s the same with car design. You need to have the talent to draw to think about applying that talent to automotive design. So I will ask you, can you draw? If you’re 16 or 17 years old and have not been drawing and doing some sort of creative work for most of your young life, how to do expect to compete with someone who has? I don’t mean to discourage you, this is just the reality. You may have been drawing and doing creative work for the last 10 years. If you have, send me some samples at mi*****@***********rs.net and I will give you my feedback. If you have not, maybe you have a latent visual talent that’s waiting to come out. The best way to find out is to enroll in my courses on Udemy. Here are the links to check them out –
Introduction to Automotive Design
Automotive Design Level 2
These courses will introduce you to the basics of automotive design and get you drawing to the point where you will know whether you have the talent or not. Good luck and keep us posted on your journey!
Michael
Hi Matteo, nice to meet you. My dream is to be a car designer. It’s a dream I have had since childhood. I draw on many blank papers I find. I want to know from you how to become a car designer, what qualification is required, and the right way to become a car designer. I need to contact you to know these facts. Is there a way to do it?
Thank you for reaching out.
I can tell you have the passion that you need to become a car designer.
You also need talent. From your drawings I see that you can draw. That’s good.
What you don’t have is a plan.
The path to becoming a professional car designer is simple but very hard to attain.
You need to graduate from a top design college like Art Center or CCS here in the US or
Royal College or Art or Coventry in the UK, or IED or IAAD in Italy. If you do graduate,
there is no guarantee you will get a job. You have to be near the top of your class.
But first you need to get accepted to a top school. In order to do that, you need a
top portfolio of creative work. Not just car sketches but all types of design and art work.
Put together a great portfolio. Apply to a top school. Get accepted. Hopefully get a scholarship.
Survive and thrive in the program. Graduate and get at least one offer to join the design staff of
a major car company.
That is the path.
The part that is missing is the “how”.
How are you going to make this happen?
You have the passion and the talent. It’s up to you to figure out how you go from
where you are to where you need to be. You need to be just as creative about your
life plan as you are in your designs for future cars.
Thanks.
M
Do designers continue to design in sketch today, or are more shifting to Fusion 360 to refine sketch work (or even starting there)? I have a son who has been drawing cars since probably 5 – many, many cars- but in 9th grade taught himself Fusion 360 and is creating a lot of cars with that software as well (still sketches and also many other forms of art, but autos are the passion). Thank you for this discussion- it’s really amazing. What a great way to learn more about the industry- thank you so very much. Hopefully with the innovation in autos today, there may be more opportunities for car designers – but it seems extremely competitive.
Yes, there is no faster way to get an idea out of your head than with a pencil or pen and a piece of paper. Computers have their place but there is no replacement for knowing how to represent your ideas through hand drawing. One of the problems of young people learning software is it can quickly become irrelevant. Moreover, most high school aged, aspiring car designers really struggle with the fundamentals of drawing cars. Time spent learning software could be time leaning more advanced drawing techniques that would really separate their work from other students applying for a top design school and more importantly, scholarship funds. When I tutor a student, I always make sure they know the fundamentals and advanced techniques before trying to put their designs in the tube.
5 is about the age I stared as well. It sounds like he has the passion. Has he been entering the major design contests for high school aged students? There is no better way to fast track his development than entering and winning one of these contests. Again, all students I tutor take part in these. You are very welcome. Automotive design is very competitive. I tell my students all the time that anything in life worth doing is going to be competitive. And it all starts with the passion (and talent). It sounds like your son has the passion. If you’d like some feedback on his talent, you’re welcome to send me some samples of his work. I am glad you found the blog post helpful.
hi Mr Michael.
I’m a student trying studying automobile engineering but i still have a very strong passion for designing cars.
I’ve been so fascinated with the design and engineering of cars for a very long time, I’m getting very good at engineering but i wouldn’t call myself a prodigy in design but I’m still working very hard to improve both.
is there any work around around this? because both take loads of time to do and have no shortcuts but I’m very willing to do both.( posted the text twice because of an error)
What is your long term goal? Do you want to work for a major auto company? Do you want to build your own car? If so, how will you fund it? The reason I ask is because my answer to your question depends
on what you want to do in the long term. Let me know.
i want to build my own cars yes, i want to be an automobile engineer, but i want to have some experience in design as well
Well you answered your own question. You want to be an engineer. If you want to build your own cars, I would carve out some time to study business as well. Nothing eats cash faster than a car program. You going to need to know how to fund your ideas unless you come from a very wealthy family. There are plenty of case studies of people wanting to build their own cars and run their own car companies. A few have succeeded. Most have failed. When you get to the point of needing to come up with the design of the car you’ve engineered, hire me to design it. This way you’ll know you’re getting the best of both worlds. 🙂
Mr michael,
is it possible to do both of these if your very talented? i really have a passion for both automobile engineering and design, but despite the time i believe its possible to do these. thank you.
Your question gets to the heart of what the blog is about. How are you going to compete with someone who has the passion to be a car designer only? While you are spending hour and hours studying engineering, they are spending hours and hours getting better at being visually creative. Car design is not something you can do in your spare time. You’re either all in or you’re not. Unless you are a prodigy. I have yet to have one of those send me some samples of their work. There are many outside reasons why someone would choose engineering over design. Many parents push their children into engineering because they perceive the field as being more stable and easier to get hired into.
Many parents don’t know that being an automotive designer is an actual job someone does. Mine didn’t. Moreover, understand that you can only do one if you’re working for someone else. If you go to work at a car company as an engineer, you will never be responsible for the aesthetic, emotional parts of the exterior or interior of the car. If you go to work at a car company as a designer, you might get to have some input on how things function on the area you are designing. I did this with the door systems used on my Chrysler cars that went into production. I didn’t have to know how to engineer the doors, just that the system was available and it was the best from from an aesthetic, functional, cost and manufacturing standing point. If it wasn’t and it was just something I wanted whimsically included on the car, I would have been shown the door to that particular meeting.
Here is an analogy that might help you. There is a sport called triathlon where you swim, ride and run. To be an elite level triathlete, you have to be very good at all three but…. If a top level triathlete tried to compete with a pure swimmer, cyclist or runner for a spot on their country’s Olympic team, they’d get beat badly. Why? Because while they were spending 1/3 of their time swimming, one third of their time riding and one third of their time running, the athlete who focused 100% of their time mastering their one sport could easily beat them at that one sport. Car design is a one sport game with people spending 100% of their time trying to master their creative visual skills. It’s extremely hard and this is why it is so important to have a deep seeded passion for the work.
i get what your saying sir, so if a person does just design they’ll do a lot better than someone that does both engineering and design, so basically specialization is key? but even though i might not be the one making most of the artistic choices id still like to dip my toes into the field and gander some form of knowledge, because ive had many great design come up in my head and id really want to know how to put those down of paper. thank you. (by the way my name is Red for short i was the one messaging up there and it isnt my real name)
You will not be able to compete for the limited number of positions that are available each year with the aspiring car designers who are 100% committed to making it.
Hi there Michael!
Sorry, I just read through most of the comments dating back to 2018
I’ve always had a very keen interest in the automotive industry. If I’m being very honest, I haven’t sketched a car in a bit, but I did take art in primary- and highschool. I am very familiar with most of the different drawing and scretching techniques and I’m also pretty confident in my capabilities to draw.
I’m conserned about the fact that the opportunities in this field are very limited.
As you said – only the best of the best get hired.
If I deside to pursue this career by studying car design, and I end up not getting a job as a car designer right away, do I have any options to work in a different field with this qualification?
I just need a sense of security in getting employed with this qualification, even if it means that I work as a product designer until I get the role of a car designer.
I hope my query makes sense, and that I’m not bothering you.
~ Christopher Erasmus
C-
There are no guarantees in life. It’s also not fair. Given that, the students I work with know the odds yet they pursue their dream of becoming a car designer in spite of them. Why? Because they HAVE to. It’s in their blood. While a little pragmatism is a good defense against wasting your time and money, look at what you are focused on in your inquiry above. What do all of your statements have in common? “If I…”, “not getting a job….”, “I need a sense of security…”. You’re coming at this from a place of fear. Knowing what you know about this field, if you want to do it, there is only one question to ask…. “If only the best get hired, what do I need to do to become one of the best?” That should be your only concern.
When I started college, on the first day of general drawing class the teacher came in and told the class that less than 5% of the men and even a lower percentage of women who wanted to become a creative professional would be successful. He was not talking about car design. He was talking about all creative fields. 5 out of 100 would make it. 95 would fail. What was my reaction to hearing this very dark news about my creative future? I remember looking around the room at my classmates and saying to myself, “You better make sure you’re in that 5%”. I remember it like is was yesterday. I put my head down and got to work. And I came out of a school that was considered irrelevant by the car design establishment. The odds against me were even greater. And I learned to use that to my advantage.
I don’t mean to be giving you a hard time about how you are approaching this. Your questions and concerns are universal. I am using this opportunity to answer them in a universal way. My response applies to anyone with the insecurities you’re expressing. You have to believe in yourself first. You have to believe in your talent. How do you expect your family, friends and strangers to believe in you or your work if you don’t believe in it yourself? So much of success in this field (and life) starts in your head. How you talk to yourself, the questions you’re asking and where you are putting your energy matters. Learn to understands this.
When I was in high school and told people I wanted to be a car designer, they would laugh and tell me, “that’s not a real job”, “or no body does that”. This happened once a week. My brightest student of the last year year who just received a $100K+ scholarship to CCS was told last summer by a low level car industry person he was wasting his time trying to become a car designer. This really bother him as we just got it resolved a few weeks ago. He carried this insecurity around with him from August to January. This is a guy who was winning national contests. Everyone has doubts. Everyone has fears. The world is full of angry, bitter people who’d love for you to join their club. This is the universe testing you. Religious texts are full of stories of people being tested. It’s how we learn what is truly important to us.
You can get other design jobs with a degree in transportation. Transportation designers need to be good at everything: transportation, product, graphics, etc. When I left Chrysler, I worked at a design consultancy where I did a bit of everything because I could. Transportation gives you that. There were professional graphic designers that worked there but they didn’t ask them to design the interior of a jet. They asked me. They also asked me to design the graphics for a Star Trek product. Car designers wear a lot of creative hats. You have to know how to package yourself and your work for the opportunity you want.
I’d be happy to take a look at any drawings you’d want me to see and give you some feedback. If you’re looking for a way into drawing specifically for car design, I would check my courses on Udemy.
My most successful students start there. Let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns. Thanks for your question.
My doubts pushed me more in the direction of product design, but after what you’ve written to me I think that it would be unwise of me to pursue a career that doesn’t suite my personality – product design, that is.
I’ve dreamt about creating a car of my own since I was a little boy. Every birthday, every Christmas, in fact, any occasion ever that would involve me getting a new toy, I would beg for a new RC Car/Hotwheels. I’ve been obsessed since day one, and it’s absolutely wild to think that there is a small possibility that one day I might see my own creation roaming the streets.
I think I’m going to pursue transportation design, and if once again I can be honest, you sharing that I can take it into any design field as you did if I don’t succeed immediately, helped a lot. I’ve always believed in myself, but I’ve also always been hotwired to think of each and every outcome. I’m very much a realist, but sometimes you need to be reminded to be more of an realistic optimist, glass half full kind of guy, so I genuinely thank you for that.
When I was in 6th Grade I read an article in the newspaper about a guy from Cape Town (where I’m from) who styled Jaguar’s XJ220, worked on their XJ41 convertible, and styled a few of their other concept cars. He started out studying mechanical engineering, but in his spare time he was busy rebuilding a crashed Triumph Spitfire in his parents garage, because see, his true passion was in designing cars instead of putting together their insides. He then studied car design at an art school, which was obviously the better option as this was his true calling. He also worked on a few other projects for Jaguar.
That article was stuck in my head for the better part of my childhood, and it carried me far, but of course life is cruel, and as you grow up, you realize that life isn’t as simple as you had thought. Your dreams fade away and realism kicks in like a soccer ball to the crotch.
Point I’m trying to make is, there are reasons for doubt, but some people like me let it take ahold of your life, and thanks to people like you, hope is sometimes restored.
In addition, to all of the other people in this string who, like me, have doubts… follow your dreams, otherwise life will never be as fulfilling as you had hoped when you were a child.
Thank you for your response Michael – you’re doing great work!
~Christopher Erasmus
C-
The gentleman you are referring to is Keith Helfet. He attended the royal College of Art in London. Now that you have acknowledged you have the passion, you have to ask yourself if you have the talent. I would give this video a watch and take a look at Ahbi’s work as he progressed. See if you see any similarities between the stages of his development and where you are at now. Another option would be to check out my courses on Udemy. They are a great place to start. Students that have gone on to work with me one-on-one and eventually get into a top design school have told me that taking those courses really helped them see a way forward. The dream suddenly become much more real. Drawing everyday and following the lessons allowed them to understand and accept their commitment to working hard and working smart. As I mentioned, I’d be happy to provide feedback on any work you’d want to send me for review. Best of luck.
The response below was to a question asked of me by a student who took my Introduction of Automotive Design course on Udemy. The question was as follows: “I am doing mechanical engineering but wanted to direct myself towards product engineering and design. Would I be able to become an automotive designer going through a path like this? Would companies see me as valuable?”
You state that you’re studying ME but want to direct yourself toward product engineering and design. ME and product engineering can be the same thing. If you’re a ME graduate and get a job engineering lawnmowers, you’re a product engineer. If by “design” you mean product design, that is different. Your ME degree will help you here but how are you going to compete with a graduate of a top product design program for that job with an ME degree? Product design is the marriage of form and function, art and engineering.
However, product designers do not have to know any about engineering. They have to have a sense of it. I have designed hundreds of products and have never opened an engineering textbook in my life. Having an ME degree will help you but it won’t save you if you cannot bring art, passion, and beauty to a project as the designer.
It gets even worse when you start talking about automotive design. Car companies have thousands of engineers to figure out how to make the dreams of their designers into reality. Early in my career at Chrysler, I got the assignment to design a new roof rack for the minivan. I created this simple, non-handed design, did a bunch of DaVinci-like drawings with a ballpoint pen (that can be seen here), and handed them to our studio engineer to figure out how to make it. Not only did I save the company 20 million dollars a year because my design was so simple to make, but I got a patent for the design as well.
My point is, that Chrysler wasn’t paying me for engineering skills. I had a sense of how the rack would work, how it would be made, the materials it would be made from, etc. My job was to solve the problem of the high cost of their current rack by designing a new one that was better looking, better functioning, and cost less to make.
They were paying me for my idea and the marriage of art and engineering that it would express. You get hired as a car designer because of your ideas, your creativity, your ability to solve problems, and because you’re bringing the management of the company a visual vocabulary they don’t have. An ME degree in this environment won’t matter. You can either do the things I list above, or you can’t. And doing the things on that list is very, very hard to do well.
You need to figure out what you want to do because the people who want to become car designers already have and they are pursuing their dream full gas.
Can a College bê helpful more than a high school for me toe become an automotive disigner
Isaac –
You need a college degree to become an automotive designer at a major manufacturer. Check the other blog posts on this site about automotive design education to start learning about what is required to get hired in automotive design. Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks.
Hello sir,
I am a freshman undergraduate student studying Motorsport Engineering at Purdue. I have been drawing cars throughout my 10 school years, I know how important it is to practice free hand line sketching but in the past 3 years I couldn’t do so. Thus could you tell me would it be a good idea to switch from engineering to design even though I am not highly in tuned with design right now. If I don’t have the option what would be the next best step that can help me get into ms in automotive design?
Pralhad –
Thank you for your inquiry.
Unlike engineering, automotive design takes some natural
talent. This is not to say that engineers are not talented. They
are, but in a different way. To be an automotive designer, you
need three things – talent, passion and grit.
The talent comes in the form of visual acuity. This is
expressed in drawing and to a certain extent making 3-D models.
And not just cars, but anything. This comes easier for some
people than others because of this natural talent.
Your question on whether if switching to design
at this point would be a good decision is entirely dependent
on how talented you are, how well you can draw and what your drawings look like.
If you have been drawing for 10 years, your sketchwork should
be above average for someone your age.
Send me some samples of your best work, and it doesn’t have
to be all cars, and I will give you my opinion. Send hand drawings
and some of your digital work if you’d like.
If switching majors isn’t possible, could you recommend steps that would help me become a strong candidate for an MS in Automotive Design?
Whether you switch now or in 4 years the path is the same.
You are going to need to be accepted to a top design school.
To achieve this goal, you will need a top portfolio
that shows your creativity, that you can draw, that you have ideas
and that you have potential in this field.
The students that have worked with me to achieve this goal were
not only accepted to the world’s best design schools but also received
scholarships to attend these prestigious programs.
The steps I would recommend to help you become a strong candidate for
any top design school would be to:
1. Send me some of your work so I can see if you have the talent.
2. If you do, the next step would be to decide if and when you want to transfer to a design program.
3. Pick your schools
4. Figure out when you would start.
5. Work back from there and figure out how many months you have before you need to apply.
6. Let me know the schedule and I can work out how many projects we can
reasonably achieve in the time frame you have to create the portfolio you’ll need
to get accepted and hopefully a scholarship. This is the most critical part.
If you do not get this part correct, you’ll have made this huge change in your
career path for nothing. You’ll have to commit financially and
personally to achieving the goal of getting into a top school.
If you compare the cost of working with me for a few months vs. the value and cost savings
of a full or even partial scholarship to a top design school, working with me will be the
greatest single return on your investment in your entire academic career. I know this because
the parents of my former students have told me so.
You say you have the passion. We need to see if you have the talent. Then you’ll
learn if you have the grit. I hope this helps. I look forward to seeing your work.
Thank you again for your inquiry.
Michael