How the automobile designs are made?

How the automobile designs are made?

Engine performance, advanced braking technology, in-car computer and security systems mean that the number of parameters that separate a good car from an "ordinary" car are increasing day by day. What about the visual part of the job? So, what we're talking about is that we get the automobile character we met and stop it from seeing it as a 2-ton steel pile: Design!

Source: theverge.com

A car is a clear status symbol or a passion for some, and for others it is just a means of transportation ... According to Renault's chief designer Laurens Van der Ecker, the consumer acts with their logic when making car choices, but the winner in the buying phase is still feeling. That's precisely why the design is so great for automotive, a giant industry.

Here is the exciting design journey of automobiles that excite us with their outer appearance and make our life easier with their interior details ...

Who does what in a design department? 

Automotive design is a multi-disciplinary field. For this reason, many different disciplines from different fields of expertise work in a collaborative way ranging from user experience design to textiles and fashion, from industrial design to technical drawing. For example, concept designers trained in industrial product design decides how cars will look and perform. So, for concept designers, we can say that a new car is the first creative entrepreneurs in the design process.

Alias designers make 3D drawings from concept designers through software called Autodesk A-lias. Thus, automobile designs, made up of sketches and technical drawings, turn into a 3D digital output in the hands of Alias designers.

Color and material designers are engaged in the part that appeals to the eye and the senses. In general, the members of this team graduated from fine arts faculties decide on the color shades, textures and materials to be used in the automobiles. Today, women constitute an important part of the color and material designers working in the automotive sector. In other words, it is possible to say that "elegance of women included" to the designs of cars that make a difference.

For design engineers, we can call the unifying power of automobile design. Because design engineers have the ability to act as a bridge that transfers data from design to production. In addition, design engineers also determine whether the design is in accordance with the norms of production and automotive market. On the other hand, it is the job of the design engineer to perform ergonomics tests of automobile design.

In addition to this skeleton crew, it is also important to remember the designers that physically model the product created in the design departments or in independent design studios, and who also produce the by using clay or 3D printers. The technicians responsible for the operation of the CNC stand to be used in model making and many assistant staff contribute to the process with their knowledge and skills.

Where do you start designing a new car?

The process from the idea stage of a new automobile to the market takes about two and a half or three years. And the process never goes out of the imagination and sketches of teams in design studios. The marketing department of the brand always ignites the fire of the creation process of a new car or model.

At this stage, brand marketing consultants and analysts conduct a detailed analysis of the brand in accordance with its marketing and profitability goals. From these analyzes, the synthesized information such as changing trends in the automotive market, purchasing behavior of consumers, and reshaping lifestyles changing with time is the first step towards designing a new car model.

What happens during the design process?

The design request from the marketing department is almost like a road map that tells you what kind of car design the it needs. The design studios that evaluate this road map will first conduct a brain storming meeting where the team is given the name "Whiteboard meeting" and all ideas are written on the white board and then, evaluated again by the team.

Along with the outputs of this meeting, concept designers get to work to determine the character of the new car to be designed. The work of concept designers producing dozens of alternative themes in this process is usually reduced to 3 in the last stage and necessary adjustments are made on the designs that remain on the short list.

These draft themes, which are rendered in 3D with the work of Alias designers and all interior and exterior spaces, play an important role in the final selection from the short list. While color and material designs of the car are going on its final theme is determined. So, a new adventure for car design starts: prototype production

During the prototype production, an intensive effort is made to harmonize design and engineering. In this process, which is controlled by design engineers, various factors such as not overlapping the design elements with the R & D facilities of the brand, or the inability to produce an automobile in accordance with the design material can slow down the process considerably. In order to overcome such difficulties, automobile companies usually work with solution partners whom they give the name 3rd Party. That is, the firm can make an automobile seat or rear-view mirror design produce that it does not prefer to produce in its own company. These productions can be installed in its own facility though they are produced in a different company. Of course, all this solution partnership process goes on in strict confidentiality.

After all these stages, the prototype is ready for an intensive and demanding test process. These tests, which are performed by independent users protected by the confidentiality contract and the users’ views on the design shape the final appearance of the prototype. After roughly 30-35 months of hard work and the difficulties that come up in the design phase, the automotive world's new design is ready to show up and survive in competitive environment.