Crown Unfiltered - Car Design Podcast

ABOUT ANDY:

 

Andy is a Digital Design (Alias) Modeller living in Munich. He studied Automotive Design at Swansea University and did his Postgraduate (M.A.) at Coventry University in the U.K. He's worked as a Product Designer as well and has shown a natural aptitude for Car Exteriors.

 

Andy spoke very openly about his time at University and how he struggled with Alias as a program. It turns out that both he and I had the same difficulties, despite having a natural aptitude for 3D. The other strange thing is that we were both at Coventry at the same time. We probably were in the work-shop or the clay studio simultaneously, yet we never met during our time there.

 

I worked alongside him as a Concept Modeller and I learnt an immense amount from him at a point when I thought I knew it all.

 

He was the single-most 'in demand' modeller, particularly among the Exterior Design team. This is primarily because of his exceptional design sensibility and understanding of Exterior Proportions. Andy can also sculpt beautiful body-side's in a way that many struggle with and at an unprecedented pace.

 

Erik Skoglund was our boss at the time. As mentioned in Episode 3, he runs an extremely tight ship and does not let people of the hook easily. Andy was able to get away with murder in his team, because of his brilliance.

 

Last, but certainly not least, he is one of the funniest people I have ever worked with and the combination results in the perfect colleague.

 

Andy can be reached here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-fraser-a4744b38/

https://www.instagram.com/ezymango/

 

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ABOUT ME:

I am a South African Designer, Digital Modeller and the host of Crown Unfiltered.

 

I will be talking to a cross section of people that work in the Car Design Industry. These will include designers, digital and clay modellers, vis artists and colour & material designers. The focus of our conversations will be centered around personal processes and experiences within the business.

 

My aim is to demystify some of the preconceptions about this industry and give people an unadulterated glimpse into the business. I also wish to give the younger generation the opportunity to see that the people that these professionals come in different shapes and sizes and some of them will be unknown. The intention is to see that you should always be yourself and not let your job define or change who you are.

 

Please get in contact if there is something specific you would like me to cover. I would also be really grateful if you could subscribe and share the podcast with anyone that has an affinity for cars, design or both.

Thank you!

Sam

 

FIND ME HERE!!! :

https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/

https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz    - I am still working this out. Somebody help!

https://www.facebook.com/crown.unfiltered.7     - It's been a long time, but I am back!!!!

ABOUT FLORIAN:

 

Flo is a German designer/Entrepreneur from Berlin now living in Stuttgart.

He studied at the prestigious Pforzheim University and worked primarily as an Interior Designer for a consultancy. Here he worked on a range of projects that included products as well as cars. He later landed his dream job at Porsche as a full time Interior Designer and 2 years later, he walked away from it all to pursue another dream. One where he could define his own rules and work entirely on his own terms.

 

He navigated the uncharted waters of Crowd-funding and built a community around his vision of creating Card Sculptures of Automotive Icons. Paperlegend was born in 2019 and Florian has been working tirelessly on this venture full time since then.

 

We talked about extensively about his experience at University, anxieties surrounding the transition into employment and obviously the biggest transition of them all, the unknown venture of Entrepreneurship.

 

Flo is a super friendly approachable dude and can be reached here:

https://paperlegend.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-weber-a37bb069/ https://www.instagram.com/paperlegend_/

 

============================================================================THIS IS FREE. WILL CONTINUE TO BE FREE. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL BY SUBSCRIBING ============================================================================

 

ABOUT ME:

 

I am a South African Designer, Digital Modeller and the host of Crown Unfiltered. I will be talking to a cross section of people that work in the Car Design Industry.

 

These will include designers, digital and clay modellers, vis artists and colour & material designers. The focus of our conversations will be centered around personal processes and experiences within the business. My aim is to demystify some of the preconceptions about this industry and give people an unadulterated glimpse into the business.

 

I also wish to give the younger generation the opportunity to see that the people that these professionals come in different shapes and sizes and some of them will be unknown. The intention is to see that you should always be yourself and not let your job define or change who you are.

 

Please get in contact if there is something specific you would like me to cover.

 

I would also be really grateful if you could subscribe and share the podcast with anyone that has an affinity for cars, design or both.

Thank you! Sam

 

FIND ME HERE!!! :

 

https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/ https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz - I am still working this out. Somebody help! https://www.facebook.com/crown.unfiltered.7 - It's been a long time, but I am back!!!!

FOR CONTEXT ABOUT THE START: James and I were talking about speaking German.

 

ABOUT JAMES:

Hailing from the home of Autodesk and the mighty Neil Young, James Hope indulged me for an hour about old school renderings, full-scale tape drawings, China, as well as business ownership.

 

He's a Design Director that has primarily worked on Car Exteriors. He's been responsible for countless icons such as the insanely cool FordGT90. In the early 2000's he was in charge of a team developing interior concepts with touch surfaces and was trail-blazing UX/UI design 15 years before it became a buzzword in hipster start-up culture.

 

Most recently, him and his team transformed the Chinese brand, Chery, by giving them a visual identity that the company can now call its own. There are simply too many accolades to mention!

 

They say that a true master is someone not with the most students, but the one who creates the most masters. James is certainly en route to this status, having mentored brilliant designers like Alan Derosier, who I interviewed in episode 2. He is now also passing the torch on to the next generation.

 

James is known for being someone who champions teamwork. People that have worked for him have personally told me about how he goes out of his way to empower each team member and publicly recognise their work. He is a true gentleman and an example of a great leader.

 

This discussion is for absolutely anyone interested in Car Design. If you're an experienced director or you're still in school, there is something for you. Enjoy!

 

==============================================================================

THIS IS FREE. WILL CONTINUE TO BE FREE. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL BY SUBSCRIBING ==============================================================================

 

ABOUT ME:

I am a South African Designer, Digital Modeller and the host of Crown Unfiltered.

 

I will be talking to a cross section of people that work in the Car Design Industry. These will include designers, digital and clay modellers, vis artists and colour & material designers. The focus of our conversations will be centered around personal processes and experiences within the business.

 

My aim is to demystify some of the preconceptions about this industry and give people an unadulterated glimpse into the business. I also wish to give the younger generation the opportunity to see that the people that these professionals come in different shapes and sizes and some of them will be unknown. The intention is to see that you should always be yourself and not let your job define or change who you are.

 

Please get in contact if there is something specific you would like me to cover. I would also be really grateful if you could subscribe and share the podcast with anyone that has an affinity for cars, design or both.

 

Thank you!

Sam

 

FIND ME HERE!!! :

https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/

https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz  -  I am still working this out. Somebody help!

https://www.facebook.com/crown.unfiltered.7  -  It's been a long time, but I am back!!!!

For context at the start:

Tarek and I were talking about remote working during Corona, particularly from home.

 

About Tarek:

Tarek is an Interior Designer with both concept and production experience, initially from Portland, Oregon.

 

He studied at the prestigious Art Center in Pasadena and spoke extensively about his time there and what made the experience so special.

 

He and I have worked together on a few projects and I can personally vouch for his incredible ability to create beautiful environments that we subconsciously love to experience in Automotive Interiors. His sensibility towards luxury is unusual for someone his age. He has an exceptional ability to come up with elegant solutions to complex problems that many would simply convolute. 

 

We covered topics such as internships, preparing for interviews and also feeding off colleagues. The importance of the people you surround yourself has been preached by countless successful people from the RZA to Oprah. Tarek gives examples of this in his own words through his own experiences.

 

Unfortunately, we came had to come to an abrupt end, due to another guest arriving and so no proper good-byes were said on camera. I felt that in this moment we had covered everything there was to cover without starting a complete new subject for which we simply did not have time.

 

Both he and I are immensely inspired by the discussions that Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell are currently having and we were thinking about doing something similar to this in the future - obviously design related.

Please let me know if this is something of interest. I hope you enjoy this!

Sam 

 

ABOUT ME:

I am a South African Designer, Digital Modeller and the host of Crown Unfiltered.

 

I will be talking to a cross section of people that work in the Car Design Industry. These will include designers, digital and clay modellers, vis artists and colour & material designers. The focus of our conversations will be centered around personal processes and experiences within the business.

 

My aim is to demystify some of the preconceptions about this industry and give people an unadulterated glimpse into the business. I also wish to give the younger generation the opportunity to see that the people that these professionals come in different shapes and sizes and some of them will be unknown. The intention is to see that you should always be yourself and not let your job define or change who you are.

 

Please get in contact if there is something specific you would like me to cover.

 

I would also be really grateful if you could subscribe and share the podcast with anyone that has an affinity for cars, design or both. Thank you!

Sam

 

You can find me on: https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/

                                 https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/

                                 https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz       -  I am still working this out. Somebody help!

                                https://www.facebook.com/crown.unfiltered.7      - It's been a long time, but I am back!!!!

Erik is a Digital Design Manager in a Car Design Studio. He oversees a team of Digital Design Modellers as well as a Visualisation team. He Studied Transportation Design at Coventry University and has been working in the business for almost 20 years.

He is a master at bringing seamless automation to a very complex operation and is thorough in every aspect of leadership. He is also my former boss, hence the candid moments that you will have the pleasure of experiencing.

There is so much to get out of this conversation whether it be career planning, self-awareness or Digital Design Modelling. I hope you enjoy it! 

 

Please like, share and subscribe. This will be a weekly upload on Saturday's at 18:00 Central European time. Also, not hesitate to get in contact with me. I can be found here:

https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/

https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz - I am still working this out. Somebody help!

 

Thank you for listening,

Sam

Alan is a French exterior designer with an incredible bio. He studied in France, then Italy and started his career in Japan. He has extensive experience in both concept and production cars. He is one of the most accomplished designers of his generation.

 

We met about 5 minutes before we started the interview. It was an extremely hot day in Stuttgart and I was stressed, because the apartment that we had booked to stay and film in was nothing short of squalor. Fortunately, he saw the humour in it and it ended up being nothing short of phenomenal. 

 

Please like, share and subscribe. This will be a weekly upload on Saturday's at 18:00 Central European time. Also, not hesitate to get in contact with me. I can be found here:

 

https://www.instagram.com/samofsowitz/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-ofsowitz-8b7a531a/

https://twitter.com/SOfsowitz - I am still working this out. Somebody help!

 

Thank you for listening,

Sam

This is the very first episode of Crown Unfiltered. I was excited, nervous and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I sat down with my friend and ex-colleague Aldo Maria Sica, an interior designer for a prestigious car brand. We discussed his time at University, transitioning into employment and long commutes between work and the cultural melting pot of Berlin. Fast forward to 7 mins to skip the small talk. Enjoy!