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He’s young, talented and definitely one to watch. Barely out of university, this young Bulgarian’s portfolio is full of impressive concepts. Ferrari have just snapped him up to work for them at their headquarters in Maranello. We wanted to find out more…
Who is Miroslav Dimitrov?
I am a 24 year old designer from a small town in Bulgaria. I graduated in England with a BA in Automotive Design and after working for a couple of years as a freelance transportation designer, I am now about to join Ferrari which is what some people would call a dream come true. If you ask me, I am a happy person most of all. I am happy to be who I am and what I have done so far. I would love to do much more in the future. I am an ordinary but positive person that looks upon the future with a smile. I should say we all have dreams to follow, no matter how far or impossible the final destination seems. We just have to believe in our dreams and trust ourselves.
From your CV I see that you studied industrial design and fine arts initially, then studied car design in England. Yet you worked as a graphic designer for a while. What made you go back into car design? Was it a natural progression from your studies or did something change your mind about graphic design?
My parents & relatives spotted my love towards drawing and painting at the very early age and I was enrolled in a primary school where art was a major subject from first grade. Even before that I was sketching my vehicles everywhere I find place for them, all the time! At the age of 13 I realised I want to combine my passion for cars with my drawing and creativity skills. It was the cornerstone moment for me, because my parents wanted to divert me into architecture while I wanted to study Industrial design and then follow my dream – become a car designer one day. Despite my parent’s will, I started studying Industrial Design & Fine Arts in a professional high school/college in another city in Bulgaria – It was the best place in our country for it. It took me 5 years to graduate with top grades and lot’s of skills in my pocket such as graphic & industrial design, painting, traditional drawing, sculpture, fine art, colour science and many others. In the last year of this school, I started looking for a university where I can continue my study chasing the car design career. I spent lots of time finding the right school for me (at this times there was just a bare information about car design in the internet and there was absolutely nobody to ask about it). With excellent portfolio in hand I attended an interview in the Coventry School of Arts & Design in England where they accepted me in the second year in the industrial design course. Two years later I graduated with BA Hons in Automotive Design. My diplom work attracted the most attention on the degree show and I had spoken to many professionals on the exhibition. There were only several design positions available worldwide at this time and none of us got a job after his degree. I was the only graduate offered a design place on the degree show – Land Rover proposed me a non-paid job for a start. I wanted that place but I couldn’t afford it because I didn’t have enough of money to make a living and my parents didn’t want to help at all. I had no choice but turning it down. I started sending my portfolio to the companies and while waiting for an answer I still had to make a living. So I decided graphic design is a good option while waiting for a good offer to arrive. Several months later I started offering my services as freelance transportation designer for more than two years and I’ve worked on a variety of design projects.
How do you begin to design a car? What kinds of things inspire you? What kind of a process do you go through on the initial sketches?
This is a very simple question. It all starts from the heart! It’s the feeling, it’s the line, the curve… then the proportions …it’s the passion to create something that moves. We need our brain to guide and make the things feasible, reasonable and usable of course. We all start with the pen and paper, this is how we generate our ideas. From the hundreds of ideas, only some of them are translate into few defined concept directions. Then we spend more time thinking and designing the concepts. We create visuals as more detailed sketches, CAD generated models and clay models. The last two are very important as they translate what’s been on the paper into a real life subject. All this time we work close with engineers, ergonomists, design managers etc. and we exchange mutual feedback on the product we’re working on – the deeper we’re into the project the more restrains you have on the design freedom. It’s quite often that we have to go back and redo something, discard an idea we’ve long be working on or just start thinking in a completely different direction. How I got inspired? This is easy for me, but I always find it hard to explain. When asked what inspires me, I say: It is all self inspiration! We all like beautiful things, we all cherish harmony and purity, we all have things that keep us moving, motivate us and light the fire in our souls. So it’s all within us, it’s the very deep in our souls. I don’t need to seek for something to inspire me. Yes, sometimes It happens to justify my designs showing what’s the idea or subject it resembles in order to be understood.Nowadays we’re surrounded with so much information trying to penetrate our mind that we got over saturated and we feel drained and confused – it obstacles our vision. We all have the inspiration it’s infinite and it’s within us. We just have to chop away the unnecessary things and let the inspiration breathe. I still find many colleagues struggling to understand me.
Congratulations on your appointment with Ferrari – it must be a pretty exciting venture for you. What are you going to be working on for them?
Thank you very much for the compliments! I am excited and I am not hiding it, Ferrari has always been my favorite car manufacturer. My old childhood room still stays with the Ferrari posters on and many times looking at them I wished one day I would be one of the people shaping these cars. Now given that chance to work for Ferrari I see this dream happening and there is no point saying how I feel. I just wish everyone experience such a joy in his life – when you achieve something you always dreamed of.Joining Ferrari this September, I will be working on the road cars the company will produce in the future. I don’t think I am allowed to reveal any more details on their future plans, however I am sure when the time arrives you will see what we’ve been working on.
Your portfolio contains a wide range of designs and concepts for supercars. Would you ever be interested in working on more commercial projects?
We all want to create exciting things, things that are cool! I prefer doing for my portfolio more conceptual and exhilarating vehicles rather than boring production stuff. When an assignment arrives you have to keep close to the brief no matter what the car is going to be – conceptual, production or anything in between. It often happens in the industry that you have to do non-exciting things such as door handles, tricky corners around the grill or many other minor issues that nobody notices but need your most precise attention. Moreover, in my freelance design work I’ve been doing such things too but it’s part of the job and I enjoy doing it.
Where do you see yourself in ten years time?
I am looking forward with great enthusiasm into my career at Ferrari and I wish to contribute the best I could for the company I adore most and I will be quite happy to enjoy a long and successful work in the Italian company. On the other hand, life is full with other opportunities and I could be running my own car design studio…
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