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Where the hell was this? Car design summer camp launched for Michigan high school students
Design sketch by program director, Vance Hanna
Dude, I would not be blogging right now if this were offered to me in high school. Actually, more than one of us had that reaction to this news item. High school students with a desire to get into automotive design are being offered a unique summer camp opportunity from Lawrence Technological University this summer. The Southfield, MI tech school has been providing Detroit with mechanical engineers for more than 75 years, but as a way of introducing the world to its new Bachelor of Science degree in Transportation Design, Lawrence Tech will be offering its first automotive design summer camp for high school juniors and seniors. The one-week camp runs June 25-29 and runs $200, or $350 for students who choose to stay on campus for the week.
The camp will be run by practicing automotive designers, Vance Hanna and Keith Nagara. They are the co-directors of the new transportation design degree program at Lawrence Tech. Campers will learn about designing and developing concept cars, and will actually produce sketches and scale models. They'll see how the pros do it and will have their own work professionally evaluated, as well. "Top Camp" students can even win scholarships for the transportation design degree program with their work. Follow the Read link for full details and the application form if you're interested.
[Source: Lawrence Technological University via TopSpeed.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
stephentur 7:04PM (5/01/2007)
This is a great idea!! Gets kids to start tinkering with their skills to get a better idea what they are capable of. Other industries should follow suit.
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Scoobyless 9:08PM (5/01/2007)
Damn!!
I'm graduating from LTU in 3 months with a Mechanical Engineering degree and if I knew about this, I would've spent the last 4 years making a portfolio instead of learning Fluid Mechanics and Differential Equations.
D'oh!!
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SilverAero 7:29PM (5/01/2007)
My god that car is lame
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gus 8:55PM (5/01/2007)
A second term ArtCenter student can do a sketch better than the one shown above. OMG.
Stick to engineering, leave the art colleges teaches art, thx.
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alex 8:57PM (5/01/2007)
Did the same guy design the Toyota "CHiL"?
The front end is pretty similar.
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Will 9:26PM (5/01/2007)
Is 30 years old too old to sign up?
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TLM 9:31PM (5/01/2007)
SilverAero,
It's better than anything I've ever seen from you.
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jalopyjunky 7:58AM (5/02/2007)
so.........this "new" bachelors of science degree will be for people who are unable to get into CCS because of their skill level just can't cut the mustard?
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Car Designer 8:21AM (5/02/2007)
GM offers a high school class at the GM tech center for students to learn from real designers. It is run by Kirk Bennion of the corvette team. Also, GM sends designers down to public schools in Detroit to teach high school kids in hopes of getting a few into a real future and off the streets. And no offence, but a tech school is not going to be your best place to learn design from. As a professional designer, I can tell you there are a few obvious choices as well as a few shools that many have never heard of, though they produce many professionals. The list I recommend includes: The Cleveland Institute of Art, CCS, Art Center, Univ. of Cincinnati's DAAP program, BYU...in no real order. CCS and Art Center have the most graduates, with Cleveland in a near third, though they are more of a product design school with trans. as an elective, many have gone on to the car world. Cincy has a lot of pros up here as well, and believe it or not, BYU has a good handful too. Don't waste your time any where else, and don't be fooled into engineering if you really want to be a designer.
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Nellydesign 10:24AM (5/02/2007)
As a BYU grad (Car Designer do I know you?) I know they have quite a few highly placed designers throughout the industry, especially at GM, as well as your rank and file designer (i.e. me).
Unfortunately the program at BYU has since been absorbed into Product and no longer seems to have dedicated automotive course work. Has this changed? Are they still getting sponsored projects from GM there? I know we had one every year while I was there.
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BuccialiTAV12 4:02AM (5/03/2007)
Car Designer and Nellydesign, Thank you for your great advices! How about Rhode Island S of D?
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Nellydesign 1:52PM (5/03/2007)
Here's the key for choosing a car design school...
The most important factor is "Do they have sponsored automotive projects?" If not it's a waste of time and money, because you'll never get the kind of direct feedback and face time from people in the industry that you need in order to build your portfolio and reputation.
The next key is training. Do they have a dedicated Automotive Design curriculum, or is there one class on drawing cars?
And lastly, are you willing to work your ass off? Sometimes hard work can make up for lack of training. If your school's curriculum is limited (as mine was) in comparison to full art schools like CCS and Art Center, you make up for it by doing TONS of research and sketching your brains out. And you can still end up with a job. Remember that it all boils down to your portfolio. A kick ass portfolio from Podunk University will still get way more attention than a half ass portfolio from Art Center, (though Art Center doesn't really stand for much half assedness)
Anyway, good luck.
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