AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN

Explore the course outcomes and assignments, identify key design resources, and discuss personal automotive interests with fellow students.

• Introduce instructor
• Course overview, outcomes, & assignments
• Automotive design resources
• Workshop: Discuss what interests you in car design, get to know your fellow students

Learn how the automotive design industry is structured, how vehicles evolve from concept to production, and why design plays a critical role in brand identity and innovation. This class breaks down key roles, workflows, and the broader historical and commercial context of automotive design. 

• Roles and responsibilities
• Design process
• History of design

Assignment #1 (Optional): Choose a car you find beautiful, striking, or simply cool, and identify what you feel are the most prominent design elements that make it stand out.

Discover how automotive design responds to shifting markets, emerging technologies, and evolving consumer behavior. You’ll learn how to define target audiences, evaluate competitors, and position a design within a meaningful brand-customer relationship while building the foundation for your capstone project. 

• Emerging trends
• Who is your target audience?
• Competitive benchmarking
• Workshop: Discuss where you see the market headed, will certain types of cars disappear or emerge? What do you think the future holds in store?
• Explanation of capstone assignment

Assignment #2: Develop 3 potential vehicle–customer pairings with inspiration boards and initial sketches (minimum 3 pages, including side views). Select one direction to develop further.

Understand the realities of working in an automotive studio, from cross-functional collaboration to critique culture. This class reveals how designers navigate feedback, manage time between ideation and refinement, and grow through structured critique.

• Volunteer sketch critique
• What does the job actually entail?
• How to deal with critique

Learn core sketching fundamentals used in automotive design studios, focusing on speed, clarity, and confident line work. You’ll train your hand to communicate form efficiently while developing a stronger visual language for ideation. 

• Demo: Basic sketching techniques

Assignment #3: Refine proportions and explore multiple perspectives (minimum 5 pages). Complete additional shading studies (minimum 3 pages). Prepare sketches for review.

Explore how light defines form in automotive rendering, transforming simple sketches into dimensional studies. You’ll learn how materials react to light and how to communicate realism through controlled shading and surface understanding. 

• Basic shapes
• Reflection: Showcase form
• Different materials
• Combining simple shapes 

Assignment #4: Complete shading studies progressing from simple forms to complex surfaces (minimum 3 pages).

Integrate AI tools into your design process to accelerate ideation, iteration, and presentation. You’ll explore how platforms like Vizcom support modern automotive workflows while maintaining creative control. 

• AI tools in automotive design
• Demo: Walk-through of VIZCOM AI design tool

Assignment #5: Develop sketch renders and sectional studies (minimum 3 sketch renders + 3 section drawings). Refine 3 key views using digital tools and AI.

Push your visual storytelling through dynamic compositions, advanced rendering techniques, and AI-assisted environment creation. This class focuses on making your work visually compelling and presentation-ready. 

• Dynamic perspectives
• Make your renders pop
• Advanced AI for design
• Recommended next steps

Explore the role of AI in design practice, focusing on authorship, judgment, and creative responsibility. You’ll learn how to curate AI outputs and refine them into intentional, designer-led outcomes. 

• What’s you, what’s AI?
• How AI helps, how it hurts
• Case study: Sketch to final renderings walkthrough of VIZCOM AI process

Analyze interior automotive design principles and how they align with exterior intent. This session explores UI/UX integration, spatial storytelling, and how interiors define user experience. 

• What does an interior designer do?
• Interior–exterior design cohesion 
• UI/UX and infotainment systems 
• Interior component design 
• Case study: Communicating intent with interior design (Honda Civic vs Ford GT vs Cadillac Celestiq)

Assignment #6: Design an interior (or exterior if focused on interiors) through sketches and sketch renders (minimum 5 pages).

Understand the transition from 2D design to physical and digital modeling, and how designers collaborate with sculptors to refine form in three dimensions. 

• Digital sculpting
• Clay sculpting

Assignment #7 (Optional): Create a small-scale physical or digital model of your design (~1:18 scale).

Interpret real-world consumer feedback through the lens of design intent, learning how to separate noise from meaningful insight. You’ll also engage in structured group critique to refine your project direction. 

• Why are clinics important?
• Sifting through the information
• Workshop: Run a group critique on a provided vehicle. Discuss what you like, what you don’t like, and what changes you would make to improve the design

Craft a compelling visual narrative that presents your design with clarity, hierarchy, and intent. This class focuses on presentation skills and how to curate your work like a professional portfolio. 

• How to make your work speak for itself
• Graphic design for car designers

Assignment #9: Develop final presentation layout and complete renderings. Practice a 3–5 minute presentation.

Prepare for entry into the automotive design industry through portfolio development, networking strategies, and role specialization guidance. 

• Networking 
• Next steps 
• Resume and portfolio advice
• Learning new design tools
• Specializing

Present your capstone project to the class, sharing your design journey, key decisions, and final outcome. Receive direct feedback from the instructor to refine your work and strengthen your portfolio direction.

• Capstone project presentation
• Feedback & advice

Continue capstone presentations for students who were unable to present in the previous class. Wrap up remaining feedback and receive final portfolio guidance from the instructor. 

• Capstone project presentation
• Feedback & advice