Daily Inspiration: Meet Hayden Ahn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hayden Ahn.

Hi Hayden, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Ever since I was a little kid, I loved to draw cars. I remember myself telling everyone in second grade that I’ll become a car designer someday, which was a statement no one-including myself-took so seriously. Now expecting to graduate from ArtCenter College of Design next year after taking internships on multiple continents, I am standing closer to my dreams than I have ever been, feeling the weight of what it means to become a car designer.

I guess my story until my teenage is not too uncommon in LA. My Korean parents looked for better opportunities and brought my family here. What was uncommon is that I never grew over my eight-year-old self and decided to draw cars for the rest of my life. It was pure luck that one of the few design institutions that have an established automotive design curriculum was in Pasadena, near my hometown in Orange County. I enrolled at ArtCenter College of Design straight out of high school, which was not very common back then.

Last year I gained a great opportunity to take an internship at Renault, and the position brought me to Paris. Exploring Europe was my first international exposure since my immigration to the US when I was little. During my stay in Paris, I fell in love with a variety of cultures, including a vastly different car culture from the US. There, I gained the belief that having international exposure is crucial to broadening my sight as a designer. And thus, I told myself that I will be open-minded to all opportunities that may or may not be given to me, regardless of where they are.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was 2018 when my immigrant family left the United States. I had my 20th birthday a month ago.

Some might say it’s for the better, others might say otherwise, but one thing that’s for sure is that it was not something I expected to happen. Leaving the American Dream behind and readapting myself to the rules of my old motherland came with pain. South Korea, which was once my home, had changed so much over the years while I was gone. I blamed myself for leaving the country because I wasn’t American enough, but it turned out that I wasn’t even Korean enough to live in modern-day Korea.

It triggered a chain reaction that led me to sign up for compulsory military service, which I thought was out of the equation in my life ever since I immigrated. During that period I wasn’t allowed to visit my old friends in the US, who were pursuing their careers when I lacked such an opportunity. The feeling of being adrift from my own generation and being left behind when others are advancing haunted me for years until I was cleared to move back to the US and continue my studies.

It was around then that I began to build my social media presence. I couldn’t attend classes or see my friends, but I could still continue my creative journey using my own luck of being assigned to an office job and having enough freedom to do so.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in automotive exterior design. Nowadays, the field of automotive design is divided into three fields- exterior, interior, and CMF design which stands for color, material, and finish.

Exterior design is, as the name suggests, the sector of automotive design where you design the exterior body sculpture. A car is a moving object, so the number one principle of exterior design is to design a car body that captures the sense of motion. It is also the sector that has excessive competition to find a position in the field – at the end of the day, we’re all passion-driven automotive designers, and since the car culture is so widespread, there are so many passionate car designers out there. Other sectors of automotive design are also very competitive for the same reason. But that’s also the reason why I live my profession- when I see car designers, I can immediately go on for hours debating about cars with them.

My proudest achievement so far is my social media presence. As I have said earlier, it was my effort to stay on track when my life was hitting the lowest point. I gained sizable traction in the automotive design community on Instagram over the years when I couldn’t continue my studies by trying hard to show perseverance by posting my work regularly over the years.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Self-empowerment. There was a time when I thought friends were everything. But when shit hit the fan, I found little people staying by my side. I think that’s the process of adulting- understanding that you have to take care of yourself because no one else will do it for you.

Self-empowerment, in my dictionary, also means solidarity. A man who’s only interested in empowering himself is an egotist. As a member of a minority group in the United States and after going through a surge in anti-Asian rhetoric during the COVID years, I feel the need for utmost solidarity to uplift our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: haydenahn.com
• Instagram: @hayden_design
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/haydenahndesign/