Success stories from Car Design Academy: Alireza Saeedi and Agri Bisono

Design Schools 10 Jul 2019

Alireza Saeedi and Agri Bisono, professional car designers and former students at Car Design Academy, talk about their experience at the online design school and give some suggestions to prospect design students.

Q. What is your current Job?

Alireza Saeedi: I work at Kiska as a designer. It is a combination of product design and transportation design which is the ideal combination for me.

Agri Bisono: I’m Studio Sign’s Automotive Designer at Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd.

Q. What was your experiences with the instructors at Car Design Academy?

Alireza Saeedi: I mostly worked with Mr.Can (Instructor at CDA). It was a pleasure being instructed by him. Although I got my feedback in a video format from him, the communication and the input that I got from him was amazing. I would get 20-30 minutes of feedback every time I submitted my work. He pushed me a lot, and that helped me to get better.

Agri Bisono: The lesson that had the most impact for me was when Nori san (Mr. Nori Kurihara) gave me a design task to create 60 sketches with 3 views (180 sketches total!!). That was a challenge because it made me work constantly non-stop, but this had a major impact in all my following works. My room was filled with sketches lol.

Another important lesson came from Can san, who taught me that new shapes, new graphics and making new compositions are things that Japanese companies are looking for.

Q. Could you give some suggestions to those who want to become car designers?

Alireza Saeedi: Anything you do in life is to express yourself to the best of your ability, no matter what you do as a job. Car design just happens to be a job, but as long as you love it and find it to be a path in life where you can challenge yourself and grow, then go for it.

My daily motivation is to do the best I can, as far as my abilities allow me to. Currently it is a learning process, where I can learn everyday and grow as a better designer and individual. The fact that I get to work with extremely talented people inspires me to improve and get better day by day.

Agri Bisono: Just do your best and never surrender. Do something different and do something that distinguishes you from everyone else, and, if you want to work in a Japanese company, learn Japanese. Constantly practice on sketching and design taste.

Q. What are the challenges that car design students are going to face?

Alireza Saeedi: There will be lots of ups and downs in design. There is and will be always somebody more talented than you, there will always be a different opinion than yours but what counts is to have drive and persistence.

Persistence helps you to focus on the process, and not care about the final result. That’s where the growth happens, as you go through the process.

The process however can be frustrating and seem disappointing. But as long as you are willing to be honest to yourself, to know that you are not good enough, to know that the final result of your work is not guaranteed to be amazing or good, then you will focus on the task at hand. Work hard and do it every day, and you will see improvement.

But keep in mind to be conscious about the purpose of what you are doing. Don’t design just for the sake of designing. Find your reason why it makes it significant to you. For each one of us that “why” is different, but that’s OK as long as you know it and do it to the best of your ability.

Agri Bisono: When I was depressed, a good friend of mine told me to not be too carried away by the works of my competitors (great car designers), but to strongly focus into my own. You have to be positive, to be an idealist.

I was always comparing my works with great designers’ works. By spending that time looking at my own allowed me to put aside my competitors’ works, helped me find improve in my own skills and ultimately gave me more freedom.

Q. How did Car Design Academy help in your design training process?

Alireza Saeedi: It was a difficult time for me to stay focused on car design while studying industrial design at school. I needed something to help keep me motivated. And other schools for car design were too expensive for me.

A major benefit for me was to be able to work hard at home. I kept on sketching and I got better. I got more comfortable at developing car design concepts and presenting my ideas.

Agri Bisono: CDA has helped me build my portfolio, and the things I have learned were very similar to my internship.

Also, I feel that many schools across the world do not support the job search process, but CDA was very aggressive in the job search process in the Car Design industry.