Industrial Design Hosts Third Annual Automotive Design Workshop

What makes a Buick or a Mercedes a Mercedes? Brand DNA is one of the things that students learned from one of the top automobile designers in the world, Boris Fabris, designer of the SP1 Ferrari. Fabris held an Automotive Design Workshop in School of Industrial + Graphic Design at Wallace Hall from May 8–12, sponsored by the IDSA student chapter and the School of Industrial + Graphic Design.

Industrial design students, as well as students from Mechanical Engineering, were immersed in the actual automotive design experience as they worked under Fabris’ direction to develop a new concept for a vehicle that combined the features of a wagon and a coupe, following two guidelines of sportivity and versatility and respecting specific brand languages.

“For most of the students, it was a totally new experience to draw and design cars from a stylistic point of view,” Fabris explains. “But they enjoyed understanding the process of taking their idea to a technical drawing.”

Other activities during the week included lectures by Fabris and Industrial Design’s Robert Capps on building a DeLorean mockup; tours of the Mercedes-Benz Plant and Museum in Vance, Alabama, Barber Motorsports Museum in Leeds, Audi Performance Racing in Auburn; and famous Wallace Hall cookouts.

“For the third year INDD has run a very successful workshop at Wallace Hall led by Italian automotive designer Boris Fabris,” says Clark Lundell, head of the School of Industrial + Graphic Design. “Our partners at Mercedes Benz, Barber Motorsports Museums and Audi Performance Racing also have been very supportive and gracious with their time and effort.”