ACCD's BMW Exa project image via Cardesignnews.com
Dear friends,
In Car Design Education most of young fresh students believe that the hardest thing to accomplish is to be accepted at a good competitive design school!
“Hey to be accepted I had to go through a selection with interview and entry portfolio review, now I am in... I made it!”
You know what? In a way you are right, the first step is done and you did it, so congratulations!
What you do not know yet is that you just made the “first” step and many more are to come with an increase of difficulties that you cannot even imagine. This is the reason why today I’ll ask you to be good students all the way to the end!
However what does it mean to be good students?
Now follow me just to understand better...
Way back in school we were considered good students when we came home with high grades. We would make our homework and later we could go play with our friends or watch TV or go to do some sport. We would come back home and find a nice dinner made by our beloved mother.
But what happens when we get into a Design college (ex like Art Center or CCS or IAAD…) to study Transportation Design?
Your life will change for the better even if you will have to do several sacrifices about your personal life. That is it! If you want to be a good student all the way to the end it is going to happen to you and you have to learn quickly how to cope correctly with it. You have to if you want to accomplish your mission which is to become a car designer with talent and strong skills. You have to learn how to take care of yourself (apart, bills to pay, food, cleaning), but you have to discipline yourself quickly to be productive in school (projects, assignments, presentations, models, portfolio,…)
During the last 25 years of professional life (of which 10 spent as design educator in 3 different schools) I saw 2 students’ categories:
- 1. The good students
- 2. The mediocre ones
The good students are:
Since the very beginning students that take this experience very seriously. They are students that are hungry for success, they know that they have been selected because they have a talent to develop, they dream to be good designers, they dream to become useful to community, they are ambitious, they have a feeling for strategy and organization, they are managers of themselves, they like discipline, they work hard, they are in love with their experience and feel the importance of it. They work on improving their skills and try to exercise their creativity to be better than their colleagues in class, when they make a rendering or a model they are willing to re do thinks if necessary, for them quality is important. They think about their school projects because they know that those projects might have a potential to be in their portfolio. They are interested in internships and often they get one just because they deserve one, they learn fast how to be in relation with the real designers’ environment to be appreciated.
In a few words those are students that have only one thing in their target: to do all it takes to become a car designer.
A good student is always a humble one!
The mediocre students are:
Those that think Design College is like the previous school they were in; generally they realize too late that it is not the same thing.
Those that do not work as hard as requested to improve their skills, they fall in love very quickly with their first nice “cool” sketches and sadly do not realize it was just their start!
Those that still do not know: how to draw wheels in perspective, what is a focal point, a dynamic composition; how to push to the limit their creativity.
Those that cannot find the right discipline to finish correctly a project. Often their projects are finished, but still need to be re worked to be included in a portfolio.
Those that are arrogant, that cannot miss their weekends at the sea or who knows where… those that always have an excuse ready for something they did not do or completed.
Those that instead of bringing the 50 required sketches arrive with 40 because 40 is already a good number! Of course; they will not be considered for that day and it is not such a good thing!
In a few words mediocre are those students that do not take seriously this experience for which their parents pay money, lack of maturity but also sense of responsibility. In conclusion
So, do not forget to be a good student all the way to the end, it is for you! You are investing on your future often with your parents’ financial and moral support, do not miss this opportunity. Be concentrated on your goal and take advantage of all tools your school will offer to accomplish your mission.
Good luck!
-
