Conversation with the one and only Harald Belker!
By Harald Belker and Harish CB The exciting chat session is a purview to Harald’s long career as an industrial designer , taking us through the wide spectrum of domains he is been working on from entertainment industry to car and toy design. He would also be deliberating on the process, ways of inspirational thinking and sharing his works, during his enriching career in his studio, industry and Hotwheels – Mattel. He will be dwelling on how aspiring transportation/industrial designers could contribute to Toy and Gaming domains in the modern era.Harald Belker and Harish CB
Harald Belker – Industrial Designer
Harald Belker is a force of nature in the area of automotive design with a list of design credits that include the Smart Car for Mercedes Benz, the Batmobile for the Warner Bros. Batman and Robin film (1996), and the futuristic cars of Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. Other movie credits include vehicle design for Armageddon, Oblivion, Total Recall (2012) and Tron Legacy (2010). Mr. Belker has been involved in the design field for roughly 30 years. After graduating with honors from the Art Center College of Design, Belker fell into the dream design job of designing cars for Porsche AG and Mercedes Benz Advanced Design.
A glance at Harald Belker’s body of work shows a great range of styles. He describes his visual style as “graphically bold, with the sensitivity and vision to push new forms???. He continues: “I like to design everything and I do. I am working on furniture, sports equipment, bags, toys, cars etc. I don’t want to do the same thing over and over.???
He has published several books that reflect his passion for automotive design. The ‘PULSE’ in particular featured his view of the future of racing vehicles. After SEVEN years as the head of hardware design at of Anki, Inc, a consumer robotics company located in San Francisco, he is now jumping back and forth between Film Design and Conceptual Design projects for companies like Apple, Samsung, Waymo, just to name a few. He has also worked for Mattel Toys – Hot Wheels.
Moderator: Harish CB, Associate Professor, Head of Dept. – ATD (Automobile and Transportation Design Dept.)
Harish is an Industrial Designer with competent skills and has expertise in the process of learning and system of design education of the present day. An academician with zeal towards collaborative projects with students and flavoured with teaching methods that resonate with latest industry trends practiced in the domain. He has won award as the best faculty, being one of the founding members of a prominent Design School in India. He has always believed in giving exposure to students to win awards, converting the course outcomes to results worth competing out there in the design world, mentoring students on the way, to garner awards in SIAM – ADC, Bentley Awards, RVID International train design contests, DMI conference etc. After his design education from Industrial Design Center , IIT Bombay, his paper on urban electric taxi was presented in EVER Monaco Conference, Montecarlo. His work on three wheeler design is well appreciated. He has been involved in several industry academia endeavours of Autodesk, General Motors, TCS, Wacom, Huion etc. He is currently heading the Automobile and Transportation Design Dept. at Unitedworld Institute of Design, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar. He believes “Design has to encapsulate aesthetics and usability, to come together, to impart an enriching experience, adding positively to lifestyle.”
