Brandy Ryan
Blake Avery
Three years after our first conversation with Antonio Bailon Borja, Executive Director of the School of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University, Blake Avery and I sat down with Antonio again. This conversation takes place in a very different design landscape than our 2022 conversation.
New tools, like AI, have reshaped how ideas are being generated and visualized by students. The automotive industry continues to evolve, opening up new possibilities in how vehicles are designed and experienced. But, Antonio notes, the foundation of the Industrial Design program hasn’t shifted.
Students are still expected to design with empathy, ground their work in logic, and develop concepts with a clear sense of aesthetic intent. What’s changed is the pace—and the need to be more deliberate about how ideas are developed and evaluated.
In this Design Studio blog post, we’re highlighting a few moments from our conversation to offer a closer look at how Antonio and his team are guiding students through that shift.
You can also listen to the full conversation by clicking the button below.
Designing for context
One of the challenges Academy of Art University students face in 2026 is their proximity: to technology, to experimentation, and to a culture that tends to move quickly toward what’s next.
In the speed of Bay Area design culture, ideas can sometimes get ahead of reality.
“We want to ensure that our students acknowledge where the rest of the world is at … and where the rest of the world is comfortable being.”
That perspective shapes how students approach any brief, whether it’s a global competition like the Autodesk Student Design Competition or other studio projects throughout the semester. Rather than defaulting to familiar assumptions, they’re encouraged to consider how solutions might shift across regions, infrastructures, and cultural expectations.
In one example, a student team explored mobility in densely populated areas of Southeast Asia, where waterways are a defining part of the urban landscape. Instead of relying on road-based systems, they developed concepts that worked with those conditions, responding to congestion, geography, and existing patterns of movement.
The goal wasn’t to design the most forward-looking solution, but the most appropriate one, one grounded in context and responsive to where people actually are and how they actually move around.
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From exploration to perspective
When preparing students for competitions, Antonio describes a deliberate shift in how projects unfold.
Early on, the focus is on openness. Ideas are generated broadly, often with the entire group contributing at once.
From there, ideas are grouped, stretched, and evaluated. Students begin to see where concepts may be too conservative—or too far removed from reality.
As projects progress, instructors ensure that students are aware of the importance of structure. Teams define deliverables, storyboard their presentations, and build toward a clear outcome.
“Completion is more important than perfection.”
The shift from exploration to execution is often where students struggle. Because they are good at what they do and want to succeed, their instinct is to refine their designs endlessly, focusing on surface quality and detail.
Antonio brings them back to process by asking a simple question: “Why should I care about your concept?”
It’s a question that cuts through everything else. Students are asked to go beyond the surface and articulate what makes an idea meaningful: what problem it’s solving, who it’s for, and what makes it different from what already exists. If that foundation isn’t clear, no amount of refinement or visual polish will carry the work.
Before detail, before fidelity, the idea needs to stand on its own, and it needs to be communicated in a way that others can immediately understand and respond to.
Using AI with intent
AI has changed how quickly students can work. What once took hours can now happen in minutes, allowing more ideas to be explored at higher fidelity.
But that speed comes with trade-offs.
“We have to use these tools in such a way that they amplify our creativity, not replace it.”
Concepts can come together quickly, but it’s only when you start questioning them—how they work, who they’re for, and why they matter—that you see whether they truly hold up. This comes back to Antonio’s “Why should I care?” Ask a few basic questions, and ideas that look convincing at first can start to break down.
That validation step is critical. It’s where concepts are tested against real user needs, constraints, and intent. Without it, the work risks staying at the level of appearance, resolved on the surface but not fully thought through.
For that reason, foundational skills still matter. Sketching, modeling, and prototyping remain essential, not just as outputs, but as ways of thinking through a problem. What the program wants to impress upon its students is that while the tools may be new, the role of the designer hasn’t changed.
Expanding the definition of “automotive design”
For many students entering automotive design, there’s still a perception that the ultimate goal is to become a lead or head designer for an OEM, that success is defined by owning the final vision of a vehicle.
The reality is more competitive and more nuanced. Those roles exist, but they’re limited. We want students to recognize that the industry offers a wide range of specialized roles where automotive designers contribute to the design project.
Antonio encourages students to take a broader view.
“That hot sketch–that’s not where our
design ends. That’s actually where it starts.”
At the Academy of Art University, that perspective is grounded in how students engage with industry. Each semester, they work with corporate partners on real design briefs, receiving feedback not just from designers, but from modelers, CMF specialists, and digital experts across the process.
That industry exposure helps reframe the field. Automotive design isn’t a single role; it’s an ecosystem. Alongside exterior and interior design, there are critical paths in CMF, clay modeling, digital modeling, and interaction design. All these roles shape how a concept is developed and brought to life.
Antonio points to one recent example: an alumnus Santiago Bastidas who, just a few years after presenting a student project, returned to Pebble Beach as part of the team behind Cadillac’s Elevated Velocity concept. In that same space where he once showed student work, he was now contributing to a production-level vision for the brand.
Part of the program’s educational mandate is to open up more alternative paths, showcasing how many ways there are to contribute meaningfully to the final outcome.
Designing for impact at scale
For many students, the turning point comes when an idea becomes tangible—when a prototype not only looks right but works as intended.
That moment builds confidence. It validates the process and makes the work feel real. It also reinforces something that runs through the Academy of Art University’s approach: design isn’t just about generating ideas. It’s also about carrying them through to something that can be experienced, tested, and ultimately used.
“When you’re creating ideas that can impact people at scale, that’s where the true magic happens.”
Throughout the program, that mindset shows up in different ways. In how students are encouraged to ground their ideas in real user needs. In how they move from broad exploration to a clear point of view. In how they balance new tools with foundational skills. And in how they’re exposed to the full ecosystem of roles that bring a design to life.
By the time they reach those final presentations—or step into industry—the expectation isn’t just that they can generate compelling concepts. It’s that they can think critically about them, communicate their value, and follow them through to a meaningful outcome.
And while the tools, workflows, and industry will continue to evolve, that throughline remains consistent.
Design, at its core, is still about making things better—for more people.
Academy of Art University + Industry: collaborations
The Academy of Art University is proud of its industry partnerships and the collaborations they inspire. These are a few of their recent student projects.
This story was developed using a blend of human expertise and AI tools supporting the research and drafting. Our team shaped, edited, and fact-checked the final content to ensure accuracy and alignment.
Keep an eye on our blog for more design education content among other design stories and Autodesk solution updates.
Stay connected with the Automotive Design team – browse our videos on our Autodesk Design Studio YouTube channel and get the latest from our Autodesk Automotive LinkedIn page.
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