Car Design China Award Winners at Umeå

CDN 中国汽车设计大赛获奖选手在 Umeå

Two of the Car Design China Award 2012 winners won the fantastic prize of a two-week fully funded placement at Sweden's Umeå Institute of Design to mix with like-minded young designers and learn new skills with some of the latest technology available.

We spoke to Umeå's Programme Director for Transportation Design Education Demian Horst to find out how Fang Siyuan of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry and Huang Hongliang of Huazhong University of Science and Technology got on.

After arriving on 21 September the two students joined up with the course's 20 international students – including two Chinese students – in the studio before undertaking their first task, which was to join both transport classes in a sketch workshop with BMWDesignworksUSA designer and Umeå alumnus Tommy Forsgren.

After their first weekend they were officially introduced to the entire school before being briefed on their main assignment for the visit – sketching Alfa Romeos. 

In the workshop students had to sketch sports, sedan and SUV versions to encourage them to consider proportions while perspective drawing, line quality and basic shading techniques were also covered.

This was just one module of a five-week Skills & Techniques course, aimed at getting Umeå students up to scratch on the basics, for example sketching. The sketch workshop was facilitated by Volvo designer Joel Alexandersson and consisted of demos, a lot of individual practice and some reviews.

During the time spent in Umeå Siyuan and Hongliang were also treated to the traditional welcome party organized by Umeå's student union for all new students.

On their last week Horst spent some time looking at the portfolios and discussing how to improve the presentation of their work in the future.

Horst says, "These two guys were really dedicated and worked quite hard to get the most out of their stay at the school. I was amazed with their productivity. One of them, Fang, even worked on a self-motivated side project, which he presented to me on the last day."

"It was a pleasure to have them with us and I hope they are carrying positive memories of this time in Sweden."

By Rufus Thompson