INTERVIEW WITH JOHN FRYE
DTD INTERVIEW – VEHICLE DESIGNER – JOHN FRYE – Vehicle Designer.
John Frye has been drawing vehicles since he could hold a crayon which led to him graduating from Art Center College Of Design in Pasadena California. His past work has been with Activision, Hasbro, Boeing, John Deere among others. John is currently group leader for digital modeling and visualization at Honda R&D and has been with the company for more than twenty years. He is also an instructor for vehicle and mech design for video games, movies, and toys at Concept Design Academy in Pasadena.
John has an unquenchable thirst for pushing himself to the limits and learning as much as he can which has been key to his success in the industry. In addition to his professional work, he draws daily in the evenings often posting his “fun” work on instagram and facebook.
Don’t miss this interview. We will cover a lot of different topics.
Process and Topics discussed:
- Developing a passion to draw at a young age
- The book that impacted my life!
- Early interest in how things work – Being Curious and Creating
- Reading History Books
- Leveraging Star Wars Books
- Experience at Art Center – Struggles and Aptitude
- Design Jobs Post Graduation
- Design is not about Art
- Working at Honda
- Using 3D modeling to enhance your design skills
- Experiences in the Industry and collaborating with cross-functional teams
- What students should keep in mind when designing a vehicle
- Fun design projects from Sprumeister to the Batmobile!
- Book recommendations – DK books – Using books to understand details.
- Sketch Swap! Process with working with other designers
- Batmobiles/Anachronoid/Bat Buggy/Superfuel Detonation at .25 mile
- Tools to use when drawing digitally and traditionally – Wacom Cintiq 21UX, 17 flatbed scanner/Photoshop CS6
- Importance of drawing by hand and learning fundamentals
- Future of Design Education and Online Learning
- When is it too late to pursue a design degree – 1Hr 22min
- Future of Transportation Design
Where to find John Frye:
https://www.artstation.com/frye
John is open to answering questions so if you have questions, please be sure to comment below.
