Petr Dobias (Petr Dobiáš) — Industrial Designer · Portfolio

A bunch of students who never built a car before came together.

...and among them - us designers.

I was responsible for leading the design process.

First we had to define the concept of ARIA.

What problem do we address?

How could the automotive industry do better?

How do we want the car to look like?

What silhouette should it have?

Full-scale blackboard sketch helped us define proportions.

Our sketches turned into a surface 3D model.

First in Blender, then Alias, then a solid one — which I had to split into body panels.

Meanwhile, our engineering team collaborated with us to design a steel chassis based on the exterior design

We sent our surface 3D models to a mould-making company.

Stack of MDF plates CNC-milled into shape

We took turns drilling vacuum suction holes.

Then we sanded the surfaces

...and applied non-stick polyurethane coating.

Another company took the moulds and vacuum-formed our panels.

Each panel had to be precisely cut and trimmed by hand.

Not much room for error

A little test run

Demonstrated the importance of traction control.

Aligning and adjusting the panels was perhaps the most challenging part of the process

And demanded multiple long days (and nights) of work

Company Van Wees worked closely with us to manufacture our interior out of their cross-ply panels

Composite blend of shredded Carbon Fiber and polypropylene

My colleague Andrés designed these beautiful 3D printed seat frames

And stitched the upholstery himself.

Picking the right wrap and visitng the wrapping company

We felt blue was the most representative.

I had the pleasure of presenting ARIA at Evoluon (Eindhoven)

...and narrate the unveiling itself.

A great conclusion to more than a year long project.