Renault launches Design Academy to foster fresh talent in car design

An exclusive six month-training programme in car design will be offered to the select six design graduates, post which they will get a professional internship certificate.

With an aim to nurture fresh talent in car design, Renault launched a Design Academy in Chennai. The academy will commence on April 3, 2017 and will operate out of the Renault Design Studio in Chennai, India, a brand new facility fully equipped to develop new vehicles.

As part of the programme, an exclusive six months training in car design will be offered to select six design graduates. On completion of the course, they will not only get a Professional Internship certificate, but the best two candidates will receive a permanent designer job offer from Renault.

According to Patrick Lecharpy, VP Advanced Design, head of Renault Design India studios, “India remains one of the important markets for Groupe Renault. The start of the New Design Academy is a testimony of our strong customer-centric approach and long-term vision to strategically develop the skill-set of its workforce.”

Talking of the initiative, he further added, “With the Design Academy, we decided to take an extra step to train young talents, select the best and put them together in one of our foreign design studios. We will give a project to develop for which they will get the chance they were waiting for to unleash their creative abilities and skills.”

The Design Academy project in India is organised by Renault Design and developed under the lead of Patrick Lecharpy and Luciano Bove, design academy head of programme and advanced design manager; Alain Lonay, new design director, Mumbai & Chennai studios; and Philippe Ponceau, general manager, Chennai Studio.

A total of 400 entries were received from various parts of the world, including Italy, Russia, India, Brazil, Argentina, Poland, France, Germany, Iran, Korea, Japan, China and the US and UK. The judging panel comprising Lecharpy, Bove, Lonay and Ponceau, selected the six candidates on the basis of their creativity and skills level. The selected students are:

1. Rohit Dhiman, India (IAAD Design University in Torino Italy)

2. Smitesh Chavanke, India (ISD RUBIKA Design School, Pune, India)

3. Nikhil Sorte, India (ISD RUBIKA Design School, Pune, India)

4. Yimeng Li, China (CCS Detroit Design School, USA)

5. Alireza Salehi, Iran (IAAD Design University, Torino, Italy)

6. Gautam Muthuswamy, India (ISD RUBIKA Design School, Pune)

During the six months internship programme, these selected six candidates will be working on a project given to them, under the watchful eye of a team of 12 Renault designers (from France and India) including Lecharpy and Bove. The candidates will have several projects progress meetings and a final presentation to the top management. The various training modules that will be provided to the candidates, include exterior & interior design, C&T & Trends, digital modelling, manual modelling, French automobile design, design management, and so on.

Renault Design has a long history of ties with design schools worldwide. It has been offering internships to talented students in its design studios across the global design organisation in France, Korea, Romania, Brazil and India.