Automotive Designer Interview

Automotive Design is not just about cool sketching skills but also about translating a brand's vision into an aspirational product for the end customer !

Sharon Ramalingam, our next pathbreaker, works as a Senior Automotive Designer (Interior Design) at TATA Motors European Technical Center ( Coventry, UK).

Sharon talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy fromThe Interview Portal about shifting gears after his BTech (Mechanical) and doing his Masters in Vehicle Design from Royal College of Art ( RCA, UK) which laid the foundation for his design career.

For students, Automotive design today is not just mainstream exterior or interior design. It is now branching into various sectors like UI/ UX Design, Brand Design, Colour /Material Design, etc.

Sharon, Your background?

I grew up in a small town in Tamil Nadu, Kovilpatti, where most of my family members were professional artists. My grandfather was a renowned artist back in the 80s, who used to make paintings for the calendar industry. My uncle who was working with my grandfather used to teach me sketching portraits, live drawings when I was young. That gave me the realisation of "I need to pursue something as a career that involves art in it", but I didn't know what it was at that time. During my schooling, my dad showed me an article in a magazine about a car design studio with a picture of a designer sketching a car, which intrigued me and gave me a realisation that an industry like automotive design exists, and that made me pursue this career.

What did you do for graduation/post-graduation?

After my schooling, though I was clear that I wanted to become a designer, I didn't know what to do or study to become one. I did a bachelor's in mechanical engineering (4 years) from Chennai followed by a one-year master's course from Royal College of Art, London. As, the bachelor's education is not related to what I am doing right now, I had to take a year break after my bachelor's to prepare for the entrance exams and build my portfolios for Design schools in India. But I was fortunate enough to get admission in RCA, London (Royal College of Art), which is one of the best places to study car design.

I applied to RCA because I wanted to explore European design studios, especially Midlands in the UK, which is a hub for car design. So, I thought studying there would increase my chances of getting into any of those places. There is also Coventry University which provides a similar education in car design which is great as well. But at the end of the day, it's not about the university really, its about how you portray yourself and what value you provide as a designer. That's what matters.

What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Vehicle Design?

During my bachelors, I was lucky to meet Sathiyaseelan Gangasalam, a famous design leader from a big automotive brand in my college event, who helped me to shape my career in Design. I used to visit his design studio space (at his home) after my college hours, and on weekends to learn the basics of sketching cars. I was lucky to meet, interact and learn from professional designers without being in a design school. Usually, people who want to pursue a career in design will have a bachelor's in industrial design which I did not have, but the time I spent in his studio while doing my engineering gave me the confidence to pursue a career in design further. It laid the foundation to developing my portfolio for my master's in design.

How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path

My time during my master's at RCA opened the gate to experience the European design studios. I was studying at RCA along with professional designers who already had 2/ 3 years experience in the industry as well as people who did a couple of internships in many of the fancy studios in Europe or USA, which often made me think, "Did I overstep my bounds?". It was quite a challenging time for me to learn and adapt to the basic technical tools like Photoshop and 3D modelling software in a very limited time.

I was fortunate to win a design competition conducted by SAIC Advanced London (termed as MG Motors) within the European region design colleges and secured an internship through the competition. My task was to sketch initial ideas for a concept car that they were building and work in parallel with their main office in China. Typically, the brief in the automotive design industry would be like imagining how their brand and the products could look like in the next 10 or 20 years. I imagined a performance sub-brand for MG Motors, did the branding philosophy, designed a car and built it into a 1:4 size ratio model. I won the competition and was amused when I was asked to travel to China for an event in their main studio. I also did my master's thesis with GAC Advanced Design (a Chinese automotive brand), Shanghai through my college.

How did you get your first break?

I was sending applications all around the world and reaching out to design leaders for my first opportunity. I had to return to India due to visa restrictions, and covid was a big concern when trying to get a job anywhere outside our country. At that time, Ola Electric Mobility in Bangalore was building their design team in an international setup which seemed interesting. Hence, I sent my portfolio to them. I was lucky to get an internship which was converted into a full-time job further and it kick started my professional designer journey in a very flexible and enjoyable environment. I learnt a lot in the two years at Ola working not only on cars but also on 2 wheelers, future mobility, brand design etc

I joined Ola mainly for car interior design. They have a startup culture where a designer is not limited to one particular department. So, I worked on their future 2 wheelers concepts as well. Further, my proposal for a 4-wheeler program got picked and I was asked to travel to the Ola UK studio for 3-4 months to develop it further.

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

I had to do my master's during the covid times. Within a couple of months of landing in the UK, covid started and I had to do everything online. It was challenging for me to learn everything by myself without interacting with colleagues and professors in person. Self-learning technical skills from Youtube videos and tutorials helped me to cope up with this situation.

Challenge 2: Culture shock was something I faced when I shifted from Chennai to London, and it took me a lot of time to adapt to it where most of your interaction with other students from different nationalities is only through online calls and not in person.

RCA is quite expensive. For me, its self-funded actually. But there are scholarships like Inlaks and few others which provide financial assistance. Unfortunately, I didn't get it. They provide scholarships for 15 students in a year out of few lakh applicants which is very competitive. Regarding the selection criteria, I put together all of my sketches and sent the application to the college, they gave me a brief asking to do a mini project in a weeks' time and after that I had an online interview and got selected.

Where do you work now?

I currently work as a Senior Automotive Designer (Interior Design) at TATA Motors European Technical Center situated within the Warwick University campus in Coventry, United Kingdom.

The cars are for the Indian market and there is a studio in Pune as well. The reason for having a studio in Europe is to get a different perspective. Not only TATA, almost every studio in Europe has designers from all around the world like Japan, Korea, China and USA with different cultural influences. Getting design suggestion from a setup like that will open up a different perspective. Otherwise, the design process is nearly same everywhere.

What problems do you solve?

I work in the Interior Design Department. My task would be to design the overall interior experience a customer would get in a car, building a strong story around it (who is it for? Why does the design look like this? .etc) and make a presentation to the management showing my vision in the form of sketches and cool images. Most of the time, I will be generating interior ideas for different product portfolios underneath the brand.

What skills are needed for your role? How did you acquire the skills?

Being creative, open minded, having problem-solving ability and constantly learning from my peer colleagues will always help. Creativity is always an attitude you should have and it's not about just sketching cool cars but also to develop a personal style/ taste which will help stand out and define a new perspective to the brand's design vision. Good sketching ability and fluency in some 2D/3D software are some of the technical skills that help in showcasing that individual taste of yours in the portfolio.

What's a typical day like?

A typical day would be like solving problems in a creative way by interacting and communicating with different departments like 3D modelling, Visualisation, UI/UX Design. etc and making sure the project is directed as per the vision. These communications will be mostly through sketches, presentation documents and inspiration boards.

What is it you love about this job?

The thing I like about this job is that I get paid for doing what I love, and it is not a repetitive job. I have something new to do and explore every day.

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