Vice-President Peter Stevens, on eccentric designs and aspiring students

The first problem with being a design student these days is that the pressure is on to… “GET A JOB”.

The second problem is that no one is sure how to do that?

The suggestion from teachers is to fit to what the industry wants: if you want to work for VW, for example, draw Volkswagens. But VW has a whole lot of designers who can already draw Golfs and Polos in their sleep. What difference will you, the student, make?

What the best design studio chiefs want, is to see work they never saw before that shows how the mind and soul of the designer works.

Some of the most creative designers may decide that this industry is not for them and that using the automobile as a ‘blank canvas’ on which to impose their personality is what they really want to do. Some people think that this turns cars in to art, but actually… it’s still design, and that is fine with me.
Such is the pressure on young designers to get their portfolio together that they miss out on what a rich and varied world car design can be.

Hands up those who have heard of Baron Margo! Margo is a Florida-born but Los Angeles-based artist/designer who builds his own fantastic machines, anything from robots to spacecraft and boats, bikes and of course, cars, which he drives on the roads of California. When he is asked where his inspiration comes from he will say “from everywhere”: there is a bit of Steam Punk, a bit of Jules Verne and a lot of Margo in these machines. The great thing is that the workmanship is fantastic, the engineering works properly and the look is very different – and he is a car designer – how cool is that?”