Ferrari Designer Presents Auto Design Workshop

Students with a passion for automotive design had the opportunity to learn from one of the top automotive designers in the world right here on Auburn’s campus. For a second year, the School of Industrial + Graphic Design hosted an Auburn/IDSA sponsored Automotive Design Workshop at Wallace Hall presented by Boris Fabris, designer of the Ferrari SP1. Fabris shared his strategies for designing a functional, attractive and successful vehicle in a week-long workshop, from May 9–13, that included not only instruction in the automotive design process but also tours of the Mercedes Benz manufacturing center and museum in Vance, Alabama, the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, and Audi Performance Racing in Auburn.

Students from the College of Architecture, Design and Construction as well as the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering were introduced to strategies for using computer tablet drawing techniques in automotive design. As Clark Lundell, Head of the School of Industrial + Graphic Design explains, “Students worked with an automotive package that identifies the body style, physical proportions, brand and form characteristics of a particular vehicle. They then developed the design of a new model through scaled drawings and digital imagery that would accommodate the existing brand identity.” They made presentations of their work and were awarded certificates of workshop completion.

SIGD’s Robert Capps also gave an overview of DeLorean fabrication—special insight he gained from creating a DeLorean on a golf cart chassis for the half time show at last year’s Georgia game. He and David Cowan and Eythan Carter modified the DeLorean design so that Aubie could get in and out of its iconic gull-wing doors.

“The workshop was a great success, and we thank all our contributing partners for making this week long activity so eventful,” says Lundell. “Boris Fabris, who has taught and worked in the automotive design field in Japan, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Finland and China, continues to enjoy working with our students at Auburn. He has tentatively agreed to run a third Auburn Automotive Design Workshop, May 8–12, 2017. We are also negotiating to offer a similar workshop in Birmingham at the CADC Urban Studio, June 5–9, 2017.