Transportation Design - 1st Term.. T-3 Days

Art Center - Transportation Design - First Term -
Prologue...

The economy killed my career in construction management. My last project was definitely one to remember, and if you ask me, I'd consider it "going out on top." The Beverly Hills Montage has become a landmark destination and will always be among the tier-1 boutique hotels across the nation. Upon the project's completion, the general contracting firm laid off a grip of engineers, and unfortunately I was one of them.

My job search was speckled with interviews - few and far between and never fruitful. There were always more experienced candidates that the companies hired in favor of an "mid-new" 5-year experienced construction project engineer. As frustrating as it was, I'm beginning to believe that this recruiting dry spell was a blessing in disguise.

There were days on the construction site when I simply wished I was doing something else with my life. Construction is rewarding, but mostly in hindsight. Being able to point to a building and say that I played a big role in the construction of the building was a great feeling, but the time spent in the trenches, figuring out coordination and scheduling issues led me to wonder if I was truly passionate about construction. I began to wonder if my ability to put ideas down on paper through illustrations and drawings was my true calling in life.

During my time away from work, I enrolled in Art Center's night program that was open to the public. My first class at Art Center At Night was Intro to Transportation Design. Without going into too much detail, I found that although I could see myself burning the midnight oil drawing cars, I wanted to wait out the construction freeze to see if I could regain my footing in the industry and resume making a decent income.

It wasn't long before the itch to draw cars began to set in again. In addition, the construction job market still wasn't showing any signs of renewed life, so this led me to take Intermediate Transportation Design. I struggled with this course because I was unaccustomed to using markers and Nupastel to render cars. It wasn't until after the term was over that I slowly began to grasp the concept of color rendering.

The Intermediate course, quite honestly instilled in me a seedling of doubt in my future as a car designer. I began to doubt whether I wanted to pursue a degree at Art Center and so I continued to wait for the construction industry to turn itself around. Still, my hopes weren't entirely vanquished by this setback.

With unemployment benefits running out, I decided that waiting around for the construction industry was simply not an option. I needed to be more productive. If ever there was a time for me to pursue my passion in car design in spite of the Intermediate class, it was now.

I got down to business and finally applied to Art Center's Transportation Design program. It took me two attempts to gain admission, however I'm happy to report that I am now officially an Art Center student.

Today was the first day of orientation and I couldn't be more excited. I've become well aware of the lifestyle Art Center students live throughout the duration of their 8 term stay and their war stories - very little sleep, no time to eat, and an incessantly increasing amount of homework and projects. This hasn't diminished my excitement, however. I'm still very much looking forward to my first day at Art Center!

I've created this blog in order to hopefully shed some light on some pretty typical questions someone might have if they're interested in pursuing a degree in Transportation Design at Art Center such as:

1. What does a typical day/week look like?
2. How hard is it really?
3. How many hours of homework is there?
4. Do you really have to lose sleep in order to survive at Art Center or is impeccable time management the answer?

I'll also post some drawings and/or projects I'm currently working on, so please continue to check back from time to time!