Specializing Master in Transportation & Automobile Design

The Specializing Master in Transportation & Automobile Design is a Master in Car Design of the Politecnico di Milano and it is a pathway to excellence for those who seek scientifically rigorous training to meet the professional challenges that automakers’ design departments are offering in this era of far-reaching change and radical innovation in the industry.

Reliance on facilities at the Design Department at the Politecnico di Milano, such as its prototype workshop and its virtual prototyping workshop, enrich the learning experience by assuring the availability of equipment up to the task of the Specializing Master.

Degree Awarded

The Specializing Master grants 60 CFU, equivalent to 60 ECTS. Upon completion, students earn a Politecnico di Milano first-level Specializing Master.

The goal of this Specializing Master is to train a professional designer to develop her or his own creativity, while innovatively integrating it with the academic knowledge specific to the syllabus. At the same time, the student is expected to experience the whole style-development process typical of the automobile industry. This Specializing Master is designed to enable graduates in industrial design, engineering, or architecture who are interested in a career in automobile design to bring rigorous focus to their curriculum.

This Specializing Master produces an innovative professional with advanced skills related to the main tasks involved in creating an automobile’s style. Its goal is to give students the chance to enter the production stream for auto-industry design. This is not limited to traditional roles or companies but encompasses a network of enterprises that interact and collaborate with corporate design departments on co-design projects. Acquired skills include teamwork and conflict management.

Professional outcomes:

• Exterior Designer – Designer involved in the exterior design process, for new products as well as face-lifts and derivatives. They also work on the exterior details, such as wheels and lights.
• Interior Designer – Designer involved in the design of the interior of the vehicles. They may be involved in the design of the whole living experience, or focus on the many components of a car interior, such as the cockpit and the seats.
• Color & Trim Designer – Designer involved in the voice of materials, colors and finishing. They may work together with suppliers to develop new materials, to research colors, new technologies and new trends.
• Visual Designer / Multimedia Designer – Designer who creates visual contents. They create graphics, digital rendering and videos and they may be involved in virtual reality content creation.
• Surface Designer – Designer working together with the design team to create 3D digital models.
• UX Designer – Designer involved in the definition of the user experience on board of vehicles. They focus especially on the infotainment systems and the issues connected to human interface interaction.

Didactic Plan

The Transportation & Automobile Design Specializing Master is made up of lessons, project seminars, workshops, and a final Master thesis. The course plan consists of 17 learning modules, selected so as to provide a mix that will assure the theoretical and practical knowledge essential to developing transportation-design projects with full awareness of the context.

Didactic modules

• Car Design Studio
• Exterior Car Design
• Interior Car Design
• Alias modeling for Car Design
• Car Design Culture
• Transportation Design Workshops
• Multimedia Tools for Car Design
• Adobe Tools
• Vehicles Architecture
• Experience Interaction Design for Vehicles
• Colour & Trim
• Ergonomics
• Presentation Techniques for Car Design
• Creative Group Empowerment
• Portfolio Empowerment
• IP law in Automotive Design
• Internship or Project Enhancement Studio

At the end of the training course, students will have the opportunity to carry out a Project Enhancement Studio, under the guidance of the course lecturers, which will enable them to further refine the skills required to enter the world of work. Alternatively, they will carry out an Internship at design studios and companies in the automotive sector.

• 1st in Italy
• 4th in Europe
• 8th in the World

Politecnico di Milano - QS Ranking 2023 in Art&Design category