We have all grown up drooling over the lines, textures, shapes and forms of many legendary automotive brands such as BMW, Cadillac, Porsche to name a few !

Harish Kumar, our next pathbreaker, works as Lead Designer at the Chrysler Exterior Design Studio (Michigan, USA) which is part of the Product Design Office of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram Design.  

Harish talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about beginning his career in product design, but setting his sights on Automotive Design, and getting the opportunity to work on the flagship brand of GM, Cadillac !

For students, have a playful attitude towards continuous learning,  exploring and do not be afraid to make mistakes.  Keep a mindset of a  marathon rather than a sprinter and you’ll go a long  way. 

Harish, Your background?  

I am a millennial who grew up in East Delhi, we  were an average Indian family of modest means.  My dad was a gazetted officer at MTNL, Delhi and  my mother is a house wife.  

From a young age, I was drawn to cars and drawing  in general , perhaps my favourite subject  alongside physics. Though I was a good student, I always looked forward to doing drawings, paintings assignments from school as it would be considered  homework. I would spend hours enjoying myself drawing without looking like I was avoiding  studies. Drawing, painting were the only things for which I could skip playing with my friends. I would often help classmates with arts assignments, because any excuse to draw was fun for me, especially drawing  illustrations for biology and physics classes.  

Like any parents in those days (1990s), the emphasis was on studies; and arts was seen more as an  extracurricular activity which we were free to  indulge in as long as school assignments were  done.  

I had a fairly normal childhood, in those days we would mostly play cricket, badminton etc and participate in local tournaments.  

I used to participate in art competitions during  school/college days and won many of them as well.  Teachers and friends recognized my drawing skills and always encouraged me.  

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?  

I studied science in school and then computer engineering for graduation. After finishing school, I had appeared for the entrance exam for the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, which I cleared with an all India 36 rank without much preparation. But I was advised to study engineering for better career prospects. During my last year in engineering, my best friend  who was studying in another college, got to know about Design education at the National Institute of Design (NID). I was quite lucky that I got to know that there was something  like design as a career option, and so I applied for NID Ahmedabad entrance and luckily cleared it on my  first attempt. So right after graduating from engineering, I studied Product Design at NID Ahmedabad.  

But I always wanted to do automotive design. Right  after finishing my studies at NID and my automotive  design internship at GM Korea, I applied for a Masters of Transportation Design course at the  Pforzheim University, Germany. Again I was fortunate that I was able to clear their test and pursue  my dream of becoming an automotive designer.  

What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional, and unique career in Automotive Design?

I had a huge personal interest in  cars, and was fortunate to get to know about design as a  career through my best friend during the last  semester of my engineering college.

Studying at NID Ahmedabad and Pforzheim, Germany gave me very diverse exposures, which is one of the best teachers. So were my internships at GM Korea and BMW, Munich.

How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Tell us about your career path  

Like I mentioned briefly before, the closest  thing to automotive design I could study in those days was Product Design which I did at NID  Ahmedabad. During NID, we had exposure to  international students who could come there as part  of an exchange program. That’s how I got to know about Pforzheim University in Germany which is one of  the best schools of automotive design in the world.  So I knew I had to study a bit more to learn about automotive design because you can  only get so far on your own . 

At the end of my studies at NID, I got a chance  to do an internship with GM in South Korea. That  internship was my first exposure into the world of real car design. I learnt a lot during that 6 month internship, especially technical skills like markers, renderings, photoshop etc. But I knew I needed  more time to learn and develop my own design  philosophy and ethos. During this internship, I learnt  a lot about the principles of car design, its various  elements and how to observe proportions, features,  graphics etc. I worked on all sorts of ongoing  projects of exterior car design, graphics, wheels,  accessories, presentations and used learnings from those to create my first ever concept of a crossover SUV and a 3D clay property of that.  

After my internship at GM Korea, I studied for a Master of Arts in Transportation Design at  Pforzheim, Germany. During those 2 years, I  developed a lot as a designer not only from a  technical perspective but also from an intellectual and philosophical point of view. For me, design is not just about sketching cars but also about a way of thinking, research and  designing objects that hope to add value to people’s lives. During my tenure in Germany, I got a chance to do my summer internship at BMW, Munich design studio and this time I did an automotive interior concept. It was more advanced and conceptual in approach, looking towards the future based on applications of advanced materials and technology.  

My Master’s Thesis ‘Project 20/20’ was an experimental study in interior design which looked into the why, what, and not just flash and styling by asking a simple question: what if visual validation is the last stage of this design, not the first. It was akin to a philosophical critique of the automotive design which generally is concerned with the ego and personality of the designer rather than the quest of design as a medium to bring value to its users. And bigger the personality, bigger the tastes and biases tend to be, which one has generally acquired unconsciously and is not aware of.

This project delved into the quest of finding new forms and expressions by abandoning the typical approach of starting with the sketch and illustration, but with experiments of blindfolded tape drawing, sketching, blindfolded painting experiments with a group of people, texture and surface experimentation considering skin is the biggest organ of human body. By deliberating blocking the vision in experiments and hence visual editing, we found some novel cues in the quality of lines, textures, shapes and forms which were then extrapolated to create an interior concept which relied more on the sense of touch and interaction in order to experience and understand the design rather than just visual. I would imagine if a blind person would interact with this interior space, would that person enjoy it. I always wanted my design approach as to be something which helps me evolve not just as a designer but also as a person. This project certainly gave me an insight that made me wary of mental blindness. It is not about creating design which catches only our ‘eyes’ but about creating an ‘experience’ which engages our senses. Therefore, a designer needs to be very aware of what he/she is creating, as mindless creation also leads to mindless consumption.

After completing my masters, I worked at GM for 12.5 years. I was lucky that I got the chance to work on various brands in several studios at GM. I got to work on interiors, exterior and advanced design projects throughout my time between GM North America, GM India and GM Korea. During my time at Cadillac since 2018, I mostly worked on the interior design projects. And it was the perfect time as we were working on redefining the Cadillac brand and it’s future in the EV space. I was lucky that I had the opportunity to design and execute the interiors of Cadillac XT4 2024 OPTIQ and pen the design for the ESCALADEIQ and ESCALADE 2025, LYRIQ show car floor console design. 

My design approach for all these interior projects was about giving the users a sense of spaciousness and comfort both in visual aesthetic and experiential sense, by integrating the future tech in such a way that it is serving the user, and making the space cozier rather than overwhelming. Of course, it was challenging but also gratifying to find design solutions within the boundary of financial, engineering, timing, scope, safety, and technical constraints.

I have studied both industrial design and automotive design. Industrial design taught me to focus on users, empathize with them, and imagine to be in their shoes. I learnt this especially from working on the systems design project at NID which was about designing tools to enable blind students to get primary education in their local government school alongside normal sighted students as not every blind student is able to go special schools.

So, I founded Logically Intuitive with the motto that form and function are one and the same thing. Logic reminds us to look for objective cues, and intuition reminds us to be stay empathetic. Logically Intuitive is a side project for design research and services, we are working in the background pursuing some ideas and projects which we will share when we have made substantial progress.

How did you get your first break? 

During my studies at NID, GM was visiting the  campus to develop relations for future projects and collaboration with the school. As a part of that  initiative, they sponsored a 6 months internship at GM Korea and I was fortunate to have been selected for that.  

Due to my prior relationship with GM who had sponsored my first internship at GM Korea in 2007, after finishing my internship at BMW in 2009, I wanted to finish my master’s studies rather than going for another internship. I reached out to GM for sponsoring my master’s thesis project, which they did as we knew each other from before. During my thesis, I developed a good working relationship with GM. After finishing my thesis project, I got an offer to work with them and I joined them in Bangalore, as they were looking to work on a lot of new projects in Asia Pacific.

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address  them?  

I think the first challenge was of not knowing about design as a path for higher studies and as a career path. Internet was still new in those days, and nobody knew what design was. Otherwise, I would have loved to study design instead of engineering. I wanted to study automotive design, but there was no transportation design school in India at the time. So, I studied product design at NID and since there was no automotive design culture or community in India, we had to learn even the basics of things in a roundabout and hard way. Basically, trial and error meant we initially lacked technical skills like illustrations, renderings using markers, clay and 3D etc, which were easily available to students in countries with transportation design schools. But myself and two other students from my batch at NID were interested in automotive design, we stuck together which helped learning faster.

In general, it’s the lack of exposure and education content which can be easily mitigated these days with so many learning resources (free and paid) available on YouTube, social media, online course etc. Today if one is interested in learning, then all they have to do is google it and get started.

Where do you work now?  

I work as a Lead Designer at the Chrysler exterior  design studio which is part of the Product Design  Office of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram Design.  

What problems do you solve?  

My job is to create new exterior design concepts and execute them for a particular segment of the  market. In simplest terms, we create the most  aesthetically pleasing and functional designs which  meet all the engineering, safety, legal and customer  requirements. But it is easier said than done,  typically many requirements are in conflict (e.g.  safety requirement is adding weight but at the  expense of mileage of the car), so we all work as a  big team of designers and engineers for 3-4 years  to make a single car design from a paper sketch  into a real product. 

What skills are needed for your role? How did you  acquire the skills?  

A good sense of imagination, aesthetics and  illustration, as well as know-how of 3D digital and clay model  development. Skills of sketching and rendering can be acquired through regular practice (like learning to play a  musical instrument). One can also learn 3D development in digital software and clay so that you can transform a 2D sketch into a reality. 3D software can be easily picked up via YouTube and  other online tutorials.  

What’s a typical day like?  

A typical day includes meetings with stakeholders  like senior design leadership, engineering and  digital/clay sculpting teams.I also give design directions to the teams looking for directions and create new design solutions/ideas (via 2D/3D sketches, renderings, animations) based on input from senior design leadership  

What is it you love about this job?  

Working with so many people with such diverse  skillsets. It’s truly a team effort like an orchestra  playing a symphony.  

How does your work benefit society?  

We create vehicles that cater to very specific needs  of customers of specific market segments. The needs of a family  with young kids are different from that of a young couple and it’s our job to provide them with a solution that makes their lives easier and more convenient, whether it is carrying out the daily chores or taking kids to and from school, or on off-road adventure trips. Various needs and lifestyles of the society need various types of vehicles that provide the  freedom to fulfill those needs.  

Tell us an example of a specific memorable work  you did that is very close to you!  

Full Interior design of Cadillac OPTIQ 2025, Interior  design of the Cadillac ESCALADEIQ and ESCALADE  2024 including interior dashboard, console and door design.  Cadillac XT4 2024 dashboard design to name a  few.  

Your advice to students based on your  experience?  

Keep a playful attitude towards continuous learning,  exploring and do not be afraid to make mistakes.  Persistence and Perseverance are important, your  100th sketch will be better than your 10th and your  1000th better than your 100th. Keep a mindset of a  marathon rather than a sprinter and you’ll go a long  way. 

Future Plans?  

Finish ongoing projects, learn new skills and continue to engage with design students, share my experience and skills.