To design is to love...

Why do we design? I have asked myself this question many times. Why is there a need to design? Why do we have to make things look nice and not just functional? I figured that the best way to answer this question would be to keep myself in the equation. Why do I like design? A deep insight gave me the answer. We design to compete with God. God, the greatest creator of all, designed this beautiful, functional and perfect universe. Each component is beautifully designed with the most minute details. Maybe, just maybe, we as humans try to achieve the same sense of aesthetics, functionality and perfection in our creation. Hence, we design and design. Because we never know, how perfect is perfect?

I don’t exactly remember when did I start to design. It was somewhere in my first year of engineering. Well, whenever it was, it pushed me to pursue a further course in design and my love for cars urged me to do automobile design. So, here I am, designing my first car.

Contrary to popular belief, car design is not just sketching a few lines on a piece of paper. It involves a whole lot of process starting from design brief, research, ideation and right up to a physical model.

So when I got my brief to design a hatchback for 2020, I was excited. We also had to take up a brand for which we had to design. I thought, wow! This could be something new. A new car. A new design trend, maybe. Hence I embarked on a new journey, this journey to design an exceptionally beautiful hatchback. To challenge conformism.

In any design process, the research phase in the most important one and at the same time a lot of fun. Now I did not have a single clue of where to start the research from. The first thing I did was online research. I started reading more and more . What are hatchbacks? How are they different from station wagons? What are the proportions? A lot of reading and internet surfing also lead me to decide my brand for which I would design. After some consideration, I decided to go for Renault.

The next step was to start the interviews. Talk to people, ask what is it exactly that they require in a hatchback? So, I started to fix appointments and meet people. Now, the best part is that this also helps in developing the communication skills and at the same time helps in socializing. I guess that is why designers are cool people. They are busy all the time, the pressure, the stress is way more than an engineering or management student. But we still take out time for everything. We socialize more, we observe more. We are obsessed with what we do. We eat, drink, talk and sleep design.  If we are out with our girlfriend, there are more chances that we will talk about design. So practically, we guys work all the time.

So, I interviewed a group of people comprising of both, male and female candidates. I went out for a cup of coffee with them. I tried to judge their personality, their lifestyles, their moods. It was almost like I was Sherlock Holmes, trying to crack a case by studying my subjects. I asked people about their favorite color, their favorite drinks, their favorite music, etc. Stuffs which were more humane, rather than technical. I did not ask them directly that what did they like in a car or what do they think about a good design in a car. My approach was different. It was more psychological. It was more personal. There was more connection involved in it. I felt like I knew the candidates from a long time back. I feel that the choices that a person makes has a lot to do with his personality. I used this to create the persona for my user. After conducting the interviews, making mind-maps and analyzing a number of users, I concluded my initial research. The next step was to sit with my mentor and discuss the persona. After much consideration, we settled on one of the users. Now this persona was a female and it also lead me to determine my theme for my car. A hatchback for females. Now that was something exciting!!!

After getting the green signal, I started to develop the persona board of the user. A persona board is where you put the picture of your user, mention their basic information in minimum number of words possible and create a nice photo collage of their likes & personality.

The next step is to make a mood board. Now, a mood board is a much more complicated thing. For if it goes wrong, the design will definitely go wrong. Mood board is a collage of abstract photos that define the mood of the product. Now since I am making a hatchback for a female user and also considering some input from the user, I had this image of a sensuous, curvaceous car, a car which looked feminine and cute. A design which defines the gender of the car as a female. A design which is an avatar of the female driving it. Now, this was really the best phase and probably my favorite one. I set the mood of my car as feminine, sensual and prestigious. I started to go through a lot of photos of beautiful, voluptuous women, trying to find a photo which gave a sense of sensuality and not of vulgarity, because there is a very thin line which separates both. So, after much searching, I made a mood board having the pictures of these beautiful and erotic women, a women eating strawberry with chocolate sauce dripping from it to depict sensuality.  I took the mood board to my mentor and thought I would get some appreciation. But I was in for a surprise. My mentor could not relate the photos to the mood that I was trying to develop. He told me that it was more like a mood board to seduce someone and would probably develop into a car for a playboy. So disheartened, I went back to searching images again. Now this time, before selecting an image, I tried to figure out that what exactly is sensuality? Is it just a sexual feeling or is it more than that? I searched and found that sensuality has an altogether different meaning. Sensuality is something which appeals to the senses. Now this is a very subtle definition. I tried to showcase sensuality through a different medium. I went on to search for architecture, sculptures and arts to portray the theme. After much searching, I settled for Zaha Hadid’s architecture. And it actually did miracles. All the photos in the mood board were in complete harmony with each other. The mood board was perfect. But it had to pass the approval of my mentor. I showed it to my mentor, and to my happiness, he liked it. Seeing the mood board he even told the name of the car which resembled my mood board. It was Alpha Romeo Brera. When I saw the car, I was awestruck! It was the kind of car I had in mind.

In the design process, after the mood board a design language board is made. Now, this board is where you put photos of existing product which are in harmony with the mood board and have feature such as surfaces or textures which you are going to use in your product. This is to give a more realistic feel of the design before actually designing the product. I was a bit confused with the mood board. I had to change a lot of pictures and then had to get it approved by my mentor before I could start the ideations. It was a bit irritating and at times I use to feel really low. Because I was unable to get the exact picture of the surfaces and products which I wanted to portray. I was furious and frustrated. Some of my frustration also came from the fact that my mentor didn’t like the photos I was putting in my design language board. Where was I going wrong? Then my mentor gave me a direction. He said, don’t think of the car, think of any other product which comes to your mind when you see the mood board. And simply put that product’s photo in the design language board. Hence, I was able to create a design language board which was in harmony with the persona board and mood board.

Next was the ideation phase. I had to make hundred ideations in all. Out of  these hundred, final three had to be selected. So far, the journey has been quite exciting.  I presented the ideations which I developed on the basis of design language board. Unfortunately, none of the ideations qualified to be taken further. The reason being my mood board was not in harmony with the design language board and also my ideations did not develop the sort of emotions that the mood board was developing. So once again, I had to make some minor changes in the design language board and I was also asked to bring in 10 more ideations.

I was making a car which should have a feminine character. So I decided that the best thing to create a sensuous form for my car would be to take some inspiration from female body. The curves of a woman has always fascinated me. So I decided to make some of the character lines by taking inspiration from those curves. So I made the form from a sketch I made of a woman lying in a fetal position.

I went on to develop 10 more ideations. Out of these three ideations were selected.

Then the stage of concept detailing came. Now I had to sketch 3 different views for each concept. Then a final concept was selected out of those. At present, the concept is being developed into a physical scale model of 1:5 ratio.