Designs On Cars
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 10, 2007
A young man travels the world living his childhood dream, writes Peter McKay.
You've got to envy a bloke who from year 1 knew exactly which career he wanted to pursue. "Designing cars is something I wanted to do since I was six, though back there I didn't know you got paid for that work," says Nicolas Hogios, the design manager of styling at Toyota.Hogios is a key member of the team that played a significant part in the design of Toyota's new Australian-made family sedan, the Aurion, launched late last year.Designers are the glamour boys and girls of the car business - the industry's rock stars. Hogios doesn't like the description. "There are no superstars here - we're all team players."From where he works in Toyota Style Australia's design studio in Melbourne, Caringbah-raised Hogios is evangelical about the industry, a massive and complex beast that he says has tremendous scope and potential for employment and advancement.Peter Sturrock, who will retire as chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries this year, says the industry provides wide-ranging careers in disciplines from design and engineering through to logistics, information technology, supply, marketing, public relations, finance and administration, legal and human resources, showroom sales people, repairers and service staff.It can be a volatile industry, as the 600 workers made redundant by Holden this week in Adelaide will attest. But Hogios says that, with car exports growing and the local industry working to position itself as a major production and innovation centre in the Asia-Pacific region, work in a styling studio is exciting and satisfying. The skills and innovation capabilities required have advanced dramatically in recent years with technologies such as mechatronics emerging and an increased reliance on computer-based design and engineering tools."Car design in Australia is really shining and it's attracting good young talents," says 32-year-old Hogios, acknowledging that Ford, Holden and Toyota are expanding their design departments. "While it is growing, it remains very competitive and you have to give it your all to find a place - there are very few working car designers here, perhaps 100 or so."Hogios says the craft is "extremely specialist" in nature. Auto exterior stylists rarely come from other industries. Most have grown up dreaming of styling cars."Only in the colour-and-trim area of interior car design are there outsiders - people from the fashion and furniture industries," he says.Hogios's path to design project leader began with a degree in industrial design. After graduating, Hogios started working in industrial design and the vehicle after-market with Roman Autotek and Wayne Gardner Racing."Auto industry design is very Melbourne-focused and I learned that it's hard to find a way into the industry from Sydney. Monash Uni and the RMIT are the main stage for young auto designers."Salaries for graduate designers are not great: about $50,000 a year. But the international design tsars can earn millions annually.Hogios's break came when he won the Ford-Wheels magazine Young Designer of the Year competition in 1999. Moving to Melbourne to take a job with Ford, he spent four years working on the new Falcon and V8 Supercars projects such as Craig Lowndes's "green-eyed monster".Keen for his work to have an international focus, Hogios moved in 2003 to the newly created Toyota Style Australia (which is linked to other Toyota studios around the world) and was almost immediately a part of a talented team designing the new Aurion. For much of 2004 he worked in Japan on that project.Designing isn't just playing with an HB pencil and sketchpad. "One day I might be brainstorming concepts - putting ideas on paper or on a computer or getting stuck into a clay model with a modeller," he says. "A few days later, in another country, I might be in a room full of people, negotiating a project content issue or in a heavy discussion with marketing, engineering purchasing, production planning, manufacturing ... "The ultimate buzz comes when, after several years' work by a huge team of people, their creation is seen everywhere on the highways of Australia."That's what it's all about," Hogios says. "It's absolutely about the consumers and how they feel when they see this car that has been a big part of your life for several years."Hogios says he is "unbelievably fortunate" that his passion for cars is matched by his passion for his job.Motor heads* Australia's automotive industry employs 39,500 people in vehicle and component manufacturing.* Another 12,000 are employed in vehicle importation, distribution and logistics infrastructure.* Retail new vehicle trade comprises 3,000 dealers and 60,000 employees across Australia.* Local industry manufactured 330,000 vehicles in 2006 (of which 132,000 were exported); forecast for 2007 is for an increase in production and exports* New vehicle market was 962,000 sales in 2006. Sales are 9 per cent higher so far in 2007.* Exports, mainly to the Middle East, amount to $5 billion annually - ahead of wheat, beef, wool and wine.* Further export expansion is forecast, to the United States, South Africa and South America.* Global opportunities exist for Australian designers/engineers.* Big employers: Holden, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi.* Salaries: $18,000 (apprentice mechanic), $50,000 (graduate designer), $90,000 (area sales manager), $100,000-plus (dealer sales manager), $300,000-plus (managing director).
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald
