Testimonial: Dimitri Rivault, Year 5, Mobility Design
Dimitri Rivault is a 5th year student pursuing Mobility Design directed by Mike Levy at Strate School of Design, Paris. He agreed to recount his Strate journey through these few questions!
HELLO DIMITRI, CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF?
Hi, my name is Dimitri Rivault. My profile is a kind of hybrid between transport design and interaction design. I oriented my professional experiences in studios allowing me to exploit this double cap – from Renault to Porsche via Skoda. More simply, I like sharing ideas with others and working on cool projects.
WHAT WAS YOUR JOURNEY BEFORE ENTERING STRATE?
I have always liked solving problems, equations, or Rubik’s Cube. I passed a scientific baccalaureate in Angers. In parallel with the college, I took classes at the Beaux-Arts, it was the creative part of the week.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO MOVE TOWARDS DESIGN AND WHY IN STRATE?
My parents tell me that I remembered my uncles or aunts only by the model of the car they drove. As far as I remember, I always wanted to become a car designer. I discovered Strate on their booth at the world of cars, one of the students had drawn me a Cadillac, the drawing was hanging for months in my room. When choosing a post-baccalaureate option, I visited Strate, which was an opportunity to discover the industrial-style building, the good atmosphere, and the level I dreamed of reaching. I had an interview directly. The school offers a strong vision of the place of design in the world of tomorrow and it always puts the human at the heart of all its problems.
HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN MOBILITY DESIGN? DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WANTED TO DO THAT BEFORE ENTERING STRATE?
During the 2nd year of the Design curriculum, a quarter is tested on each of the courses available at the school. The final choice between Transportation Design and Interaction Design was not easy. But the passion for the car has won, “Choose a job you love, and you will not have to work a single day of your life!” Fortunately, from the 3rd year, I was able to do an internship at Renault in Guyancourt which confirmed my interest in mobility.
YOU MADE A GAP YEAR, WHAT MOTIVATED THIS DECISION?
Looking for a 4th year internship, I applied to Porsche. They had already finished the selections, but a few months later they contacted me again to find out if I was still interested. Rather than return to class, and with the agreement of the administration, I took a gap year to take advantage of this internship. At the heart of Design in the UX department of Weissach, I was able to work on the most “badass” projects I had seen until then. I produced scenarios of use until the final detail. I have, for example, made gear lever proposals that should go into production soon.
The team was great; they really shared her knowledge and gave me a lot of freedom. Then I went to Skoda where I conceived interactions at the heart of a vision (these are concepts that are not revealed to the public), it was a great challenge to be responsible for all the interface part of a concept. Living in other countries has allowed me to discover different mentalities and to train my English.
YOU ARE IN 5TH GRADE, WHAT IS YOUR DREAM TODAY? HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AFTERWARDS, AFTER YOUR STUDIES?
Like all students, I intend to take advantage of my latest school project to have fun without the constraints of large-scale production. Today, I dream of discovery, I had the chance to visit nearly a dozen countries in 2018, I love meeting new people, discovering new cultures, and observing different practices.
The automobile is still my driver, I hope to find a workspace in which to create a future that meets human needs and develop responses to new uses.
Thanks, Dimitri!
This article was translated from French. You can read the original article here.
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