Inside Our Design Studio

Meet some of the designers, sculptors and engineers who are shaping things to come

By Rivian

September 30^th, 2018

To put something in the world that wasn’t there before, we had to start with a clean slate. Quite literally. The bright, white walls and gleaming floors of our open studio are meant to invite a new way of thinking in the door and welcome a host of colorful characters inside.

“There is no other automotive design studio like this,” Studio Manager Jim Frye says. “We got rid of the walls that traditionally silo designers and engineers to create an inclusive environment that invites people to collaborate and think outside their roles.”

Jim has 18 years of traditional automotive experience under his belt, but the former bassist and part-time deputy sheriff bucks any tradition that stifles the imagination. The electronic beats that echo throughout the airy space originate from his desk, though you’ll rarely find him there. Instead, he’s typically huddled in the center of the studio where the clay models take shape, along with his team of artists, skaters, a drummer, a mountain biker and a blacksmith — who also happen to be some of the most gifted sculptors in the business.

“Sculptors are the unsung heroes of the automotive industry,” Germain Simoneau professes and grins without taking his eyes off the steering wheel he’s meticulously shaping. “While we may not design the vehicles, it’s our job to interpret a sketch and materialize the designer's vision. Clay is the ideal medium for refining an idea — there are subtleties that the eye can’t pick up that the hands can,” he says.

Germain has been building cars since he was 13. His uncle, an industry veteran, introduced him to clay modeling and he’s been hooked on making things with his hands ever since. You name it, he can build it, weld it or fabricate it.

“Everyone here is a doer,” Wes Woods says.“ That’s what keeps things interesting. The more you see and do, the better designer you become.” When Wes isn’t in the studio building clay models, he’s at home building bikes, racing them and taking his young ones out on as many trails as possible.

“A couple of years ago, when my wife and I asked our kids what they remembered most about the previous year, they gushed about the experiences we’d had together. Camping up north or swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. Not once did they mention something that was purchased, so we decided to stop putting a bunch of stuff under the tree each year and go somewhere together instead,” Wes says.

As sunlight pours into the studio through steel-frame windows, our sculptors bend and twist over the life-size models, skillfully hogging, raking and steeling — terms used to describe each phase of the modeling process — while ribbons of clay fall to the floor and the vehicles’ features begin to emerge.

Just a few feet away from the spectacle that humbly began as a one-dimensional sketch in a notebook, the vehicle design team has a front row seat to the evolution of their ideas.

“Seeing the sketches come to life can feel like Christmas morning,” VP of Vehicle Design Jeff Hammoud says. At age six, Jeff declared he was going to be a car designer; he hasn't stopped sketching since. The former Chief of Design of Jeep Brand now leads our design team with the same enthusiasm and conviction that led a kid from a small town in Canada to the Motor City. “The chance to be part of something like this from the ground up is the kind of opportunity you dream about,” Jeff says.

VP of Design, Jeff Hammoud (Left) and Sculptor, Wes Woods (Right).

Roman Mistiuk was one of the first designers to join Rivian and is who we affectionately like to refer to as Employee Number 3. If he hadn’t gone into transportation design, he thinks he would have gone into the arts.

“Cars are moving sculptures and for that reason, they’ve always captivated me,” Roman says. The self-proclaimed urban nomad rides his bike into work most days and went back to using a flip phone because his smart phone was distracting him from the world around him. He likes to spend his lunch time wandering outside of the studio, where he says, “There’s always more than meets the eye. You can find interesting things to look at everywhere you look.”

It’s not uncommon to find Luke Mack doing kickflips on his skateboard in between sketches. “All of my interests influence each other,” Luke says.“ I became interested in art because of skateboarding. Boards always have a graphic element to them, which led to an interest in graffiti and painting, which led me to the fine arts,” he says. “And my experiences in automotive design have been a big influence on my painting. It all connects.”

While some see a vehicle as a means to get from point A to B, trained-architect-turned-automotive-designer David Schneider sees a building on wheels. He has a very human-centered approach to transportation that stems from studying and designing the places we live in.

“Where we spend our time has a profound impact on our wellbeing,” David says. “I always start by thinking about what a person will do inside a space, how he or she will use it and what I can do to make it a transformative experience. Then I generate vehicle concepts around that,” he says. “I also think a lot about how the vehicle looks when it’s parked, how people who pass by it might feel when they see it and how it could add value to the space around it — much like I would if I were designing a building."

The other thing that’s shaped David’s perspective on transportation? His 24-day pilgrimage across Spain on the Camino de Santiago.

“When you have no other means of transportation other than your feet, you begin to appreciate things on wheels in a whole new way,” David says. “Not long after I returned, I made the decision to go back to school for transportation design, which is what I’d wanted to do all along.”

CMF Designer, Sophia Park, experiments with texture and color.

Sophia Park speaks in colors, materials and finishes, but before earning her Master in Color and Materials Design, she studied art therapy.

“A car is a second home. We spend a lot of time in it, often alone, so the environment should feel restorative,” Sophia says. “Real wood has soothing properties so you won’t find the fake stuff inside our vehicles,” she says.

Sophia Park, Color and Material Designer

You wouldn’t be surprised to learn our Director of Advanced Design is a dreamer. It’s a job requirement. Nick Malachowski always has his mind on the future, or inside a VR headset, crafting a new reality.

“I’m interested in things that haven’t been done before. Vehicles that challenge what we think a car can be,” Nick says. “As a designer, it’s always more fun to take on something that there’s not an answer for in the back of the book.”

Unlike many of the other designers on the team, Creative Director Larry Parker is not an artist and never has been. He went into design because he wanted to make things that solve problems that people didn’t even know they had.

“The most important part of our process is the in-field research. Our consumers ski, surf, race, climb and camp, among other things, so we have to, as well,” Larry says. “Our designers and engineers spend a lot of time outside the studio, in the elements, to make sure we thoroughly understand, as a team, what the real challenges are. We ask a lot of questions and sometimes we even embarrass ourselves on a mountain in the name of research. Then we get back to work.”

Eric Griffith, Body and Release Engineer

Eric Griffith is a body and release engineer, and will be the first to tell you designers and engineers think differently. It’s the reason most companies separate them and it’s the reason we keep them in close proximity.

“I was sent to Flagstaff with a designer and strategist to spend time with a community of overlanders,” Eric says.

"Overlanders" are off-road enthusiasts whose flavor of adventure usually entails camping for extended periods of time in remote corners of the world.

“It was incredible to experience. Not only did it help us understand some of the people we’re making these vehicles for and how to better serve them, it also changed the way we collaborate as a team. I learned a lot about how a designer thinks and vice versa.”

Executive Director of Engineering and Programs Mark Vinnels looks for one specific quality when hiring an engineer. Courage. If the former executive director of product development at McLaren Automotive learned anything during his tenure in the world of super cars, it’s that you can’t be afraid to take leaps.

“Engineers tend to think conservatively. And that’s a good thing, but I’ve always been a bit rebellious,” Mark says with a cheeky smile.

They say how you do one thing is how you do everything. If we’re going to build considerate vehicles that champion adventure and inspire people to explore the unknown, our automotive design studio has to do the same.

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Some images shown may contain pre-production vehicles and vehicle specifications mentioned in this blog post may have changed. Please refer to our website or reach out to Customer Service for current vehicle information.