This years CIA Spring Show was a good one. This was my first time to go back to my old school and really get a chance to go through all the work and get an in depth look at it all. I must say I was quite impressed. The quality of work was high and there was a lot of it. The graduating automotive students had a room all to their selves and they covered every wall from floor to ceiling with models filling the center. The work was so good that Chrysler was there giving interviews during the show of which two students were hired. I’ll let the work speak for itself. Check it out in the gallery.

Along with Automotive, students also study Product and Interior design. These other areas help develop students that have experience in every major area of design. In such a competitive market this school has the work to compete.

The CDf crew would like to thank the automotive design class at Wayne State University for having us as guests during their final crit on May 1st. It was a first semester class for many of the students and they came a long way from where they began. The first class is always the hardest, having to learn how to draw a car with all of the rules and the job of rendering. The teacher, Mike Jou, a practicing automotive designer did a great job getting back to the basics of drawing and rendering. Hopefully many of them will be back for another semester.

Their project was to take a dead brand (Delorean and others) and work as a group to pull out what worked for the company and come up with a new design to reinvent the brand. The surprise for us is the the teams came up with designs that had different platforms and proportions but carried a similar design language uniting them as a brand.

For all you frustrated students learning automotive design, just keep plugging away at it. A few years of non stop drawing will pay off in the end by being part of a very exclusive field of designers.
Happy drawing-

Following up on a post from about 1 month ago. Krysti Scheider a current graduating student at the CIA, has sent us some amazing work from one of her latest projects. We received a few comments about her work in the past few weeks, and we only feel it is fair to give here a little more exposure. Anyone interested in contacting her about a job please feel free to email us at cardesignfetish@gmail.com
I must make it very clear, anyone who is even thinking about stealing her work will be prosecuted. All rights reserved by the designer. Now for all those students out there wondering what you have to do to get a job……… this is a great example.

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After reviewing the work of several students and designers over the past few weeks (which we’ll have a special, snazzy announcement for later on this month) it dawned on me that it can be ever-so important to do some “helpful how-to” work for those aspiring to get in on the annual Design Hiring Blitz.

With that said, I’ll be starting up a weekly series detailing how to interview for a job or internship, and the special preparation that designers need to go along with it, from the assembly of portfolio work to the actual interview and post-interview.

Part 1 of our mind-bending design series:
Selecting What to Show in a Portfolio

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2/3s of the CDF crew were down at the ol’ College for Creative Studies last week for their annual “hire me I am good day”. We saw some great work and some not so great work. We talked with a few “me speak a no Engrish” students as well as some well versed “I speak 11 language students.”

The work was better then it has been in the past few years, and the event went well this year. When our staff was not fetishing over clay models, or licking exploded view drawings, we were taking pictures. We have over 100 pics of work, but only the best of what we saw will be posted. CDF staff saw big wigs from DCX, Ford, GM, the Suppliers, and I am sure a few product firms. In attempts to keep who we are a secrete, we used for the 1st time our extra discrete button on shirt camera.

My biggest concern is the lack of thought the students gave to presentation. Many of the students just put their best sketches on the wall without thought of how to go through a cohesive presentation. Starting with the project brief, going through initial development, then refinement, and onto final build and renderings, it is not that hard, but many students seemed confused how to arrange a cohesive story. Designers are story tellers, both through sketches and presentations; get it right guys and gals.

The next concern was the lack of purpose. A pretty sketch is just that, nothing more and nothing less. Design is about so much more then creating a pretty piece of art. I was hoping to see user scenarios, some innovative features, possibly a reinterpretation of the automobile, but none of this was presented.

CCS did deliver what they are best at (beautiful, fresh automotive art) There were plenty of beautiful sketches to drool over, and we will post some of them here.

Here is the teaser; we will be posting more as we sort them.

Enjoy.

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