Hi my name is Luciano Bove and I am a car designer since 22 years now, I am Italian and when I was young and drawing little sketches on my notebooks I did not know if existed such professional field: the car designer!
It took me a real moment of luck to see, on a special car magazine, an article about Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. That day my dream almost came true!
I come from a little town in South Italy so back in 1983 nobody new the word "design" or "car design". It was difficult for me
What the hell do I have to do with windows and nuts? I want to draw cars like I do at home, I use my colors and I try everyday many many times to get better...and they ask me to draw straight lines or nuts & bolts? How can I amplifye my talent correctly, is out there any school where to learn? Art Center College of Design in Pasadena appeared to my eyes and I showed that article to my parents....please please do something!!!
I left 3 months later thanks to my beloved parents (they supported me a lot and I still thank them) and my willing to make it...dificult choice I did not speak a word of English and I had to survive several difficulties for about 6 full years. However in 1989 I got my BS in Transportation Design, Fiat design center hired me and the rest is history, a happy one.
This introduction (maybe too long) is just to show that to become a car designer is not an easy task, on the contrary it is complicated full of sacrifices and with a high risk to fail with no job at the end of the game.
The talent is the most important thing.
No talent no job, this is sure! How do we do to know if we have a talent for
designing cars?Today it is a lot easier to find it out, Facebook and Linkedin are full of car designers and car design pages where you can post your sketches asking for advices. I do this regularly on my page, another way it is to send your entry portfolios to design schools or design centers to have feedbacks...you must find a way to know if your sketches are nice illustrations or if they have talent, too. Cardesignnews.com is a good place to find infos.
Once we know we have a talent we must choose a design school according to: its reputation (very important for future career development), the teacher's list (who is teaching there designers or retired people?), the entry portfolio selection (serious design schools make selection), and also school artistic production (how known is the school, prizes won, important sponsors....)
Design schools have a cost so this is an aspect to take in consideration right away, sorry but it is that way....it is an investement on yourself. At the same time it is only with 4 or 5 school years that you can improve your talent and skills.
Car Design schools are stressy, difficult, they require lots of work and lots of quality. The objective is to get out of school with the best professional portfolio. Remember that when you get out of school you are in competition with all students graduating from different design schools in the world...so it is not just you and your class friends!
Some good car design schools are:
Art Center College of Design Pasadena US
CCS Detroit US
Phorzheim school in Germany
Strate College France
IAAD Turin Italy
IED Barcelona Spain
So I guess I gave you some tips to find a way to become a car designer find more infos on my personal blog at: www.lucianobove.blogspot.com
Thanks for your attention!