No K(W)idding!

Moneet Chitroda is one of the youngest automotive designers at Renault to see a design proposal all the way through to production.

How did you become passionate about automobile design?

MC: I was a very curious, inquisitive and enthusiastic kid, with a very sharp grasping power. I had a huge appetite to learn anything new, which led to constantly evolving interests. My interest in automobiles was undoubtedly influenced by my elder brother, Mineel, who currently runs a car customization business. I played with his dinky cars and collection of Hotwheels, and filled the back of my school-books with sketches of cars. Soon, however, illustrating an existing car didn’t suffice and I started coming up with my own ideas. My childish handdrawings gradually migrated to the computer and I began drawing cars on Microsoft Paintbrush — unconsciously adding my own design elements—and also naming them.

All this was just an engaging hobby for me. I planned to pursue a career in automobile or aerospace engineering, until a sudden encounter with a career counselor in an aptitude test revealed the existence of Industrial Design as a career at the National Institute of Design (NID). Those casual sketches and digital illustrations became my eventual portfolio to apply to NID. I took up Product Design as my specialization at NID. I believed it was the closest way then to approaching automobile design, as transportation design was not offered as a specialization at that time.