General Motors China Advanced Design Center 2.0 Is Launched

On July 5th, 2021, the General Motors China Advanced Design Center entered a new era. More than 100 guests from the Pudong New Area government and related fields attended the event.

Advanced Design Center

The expanded Advanced Design Center now covers an area of over 5,000 square meters, equipped with full-size clay milling platforms, a color and materials studio, an immersive virtual review room, and a virtual reality review room, achieving full coverage from conceptual innovation, digital design, application of virtual reality and immersive technology, to physical model making and design verification. After its launch, the Advanced Design Center will focus on the development of future concept cars such as pure electric intelligent networked vehicles and autonomous driving vehicles, and actively explore more possibilities for travel.

My Connection with Design

I am someone who is familiar with the automotive industry, although I have never worked in the field of automotive design. During my college years in the United States, I attended the University of Southern California located south of downtown Los Angeles. People who are familiar with design should know that Pasadena, a city located in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles, is home to the Art Center College of Design, referred to as ACCD, a world-class design school that also produces many automotive designers. For example, Chris Bangle, the former BMW design director who introduced the Flame Surface concept into BMW’s body line.

As a mechanical engineering student who participated in the FSAE racing team, I was obviously a hardcore fan of cars, and a stubborn one at that. Therefore, although I had no artistic background and couldn’t even draw a ball (literally), when I learned about ACCD, I naturally signed up for an amateur course. I even thought to myself that perhaps I could brag about attending classes at such a top-notch school in the industry in the future.

Unsurprisingly, the first class was all about drawing a ball. Then we also drew cylinders and such (there is no visual record of this). As I immersed myself in the fact that I had actually learned to draw a ball with light and shadow effects, I also noticed a problem. My classmates all drew very well and were not even close to being at my level. This course is basically a stepping stone for many aspiring students to enter the school, and many Korean-designer-hopefuls put in an awe-inspiring amount of effort.

After buying a bunch of art supplies, I realized that my time (of course, mainly my talent) was not enough to support running dozens of miles here every weekend to attend half-day classes and then completing tasks that only Korean classmates who desperately wanted to become designers could handle.

I don’t remember who our teacher was, but I do remember him saying that one student had to choose between Mazda and Nissan and chose the latter because he could participate in the design of the GT-R. And at Mazda, you know, the design that looks good is usually not going to be mass-produced.In view of my school’s reputation for both parties and homework load, I can only say I have wasted the tuition I paid to ACCD.

Although I did not become a professional car designer, I did become the chief designer of a bicycle project a few years ago. It was because when my ex-girlfriend and I traveled to the Nordic countries, we saw a cargo bike called Bullitt. Although that trip turned out to be our last, I was left with a good impression of that bike.

At that time, it was very difficult to buy a Bullitt bike in China, firstly because there was no authorized dealer, and secondly because the Danish brand did not pay much attention to Chinese customers for fear of being copied. So I decided to make this bike myself. Fortunately, I happened to have a friend who owns one and we studied the most critical part of the bike, the steering system. This was the only part that I designed on my own. After all, I couldn’t compromise on the quality.

Taobao is a great resource. I found my bike frame supplier there, convinced them of the potential of this product category, and together we designed and manufactured my bike frame at a good price. I chose to use chromium-molybdenum steel because it is easier to weld, cheaper than aluminum alloy, and more elastic. This bicycle factory, located in Tianjin, which mainly specializes in exported products, also became my OEM factory.

There is so much to say about part selection and communication, but given the limited space, I have to let it go. In the end, I got the project results after spending half a year as the chief engineer, procurement director, product manager, and angel investor. Moreover, my steering system even sold a full set and helped recoup some of the costs.

Experience

Although my experience is not professional, it made me truly respect the entire process of creating something. Building a car is even more complex and systematic, and what I witnessed was merely the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, the main business of this place is focusing on the hottest domestic new energy track.

During a presentation of paper installations on walls by the Color and Material Studio designer, I proposed a glass enclosure solution that could be applied to the interior. She seemed to find the feasibility of this idea quite reasonable, and even asked which media I worked for. This interaction made me feel very gratified. It seems that I still have some design sense, at least in my imagination and words.

I also discovered that the putty I was using was actually a German eraser brand that I had bought for my ACCD amateur course before; the putty scraping tool was an incredibly thin stainless steel piece that was very easy to accidentally cut oneself with; and the small proportion of the putty model was only solid on one side, with the other side reflected by a mirror for easier modelling.

There were many other details that reminded me of my experience studying in the United States. This place located in Shanghai has décor styles and hardware that smells like toilet deodorant, but also exhibits many high-tech objects.

3D models are created by scanning the manuscripts and using software. The interior design is validated through VR; and 1:1 putty models are processed using CNC equipment, etc.

Personal Thoughts

To be honest, everything above is routine work, but I really appreciate the foresight of the Innovation Design Center. This place will stick to using paper and pen. I am not sure of the gap between the “performance” of paper and pen versus that of a tablet, but the feeling of familiar mechanical tools when mastering basic skills is truly irreplaceable by electronic devices. Returning to the original intention is important because you need to know yourself first in order to know your cognition, so that you can know what products you want to make.

As for how the media can differentiate its products at the scene, Mr. Shi answered in this way.

When you are in a crowded market, you need to know yourself.Fully understanding oneself, not losing sight of the brand positioning and not deviating from established goals, are the core elements that enable a brand to endure. Even after adopting the Ultium platform, this remains unshaken.

And it seems that I will have to find the opportunity to read this automotive design bible-grade book published by ACCD.

🔗Source: General Motors China

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.