ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on research into one particular community of practice that of aspirant car designers and their concomitant journey towards gaining a passport to this professional community of practice as professional car designers. It suggests that the Communities of Practice model is extremely effective for labelling, describing, understanding and explaining how groups of practitioners come into being and operate. According to Wenger, communities of practice have a 'developing history' and the history of the professional car design community of practice stretches back to the early part of the twentieth century. The Car Design News website was founded by the car designer Brett Patterson when working for GM Europe Design (Opel) in Germany. The chapter presents the results of an initial study carried out by the Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design (CEPAD) into the impact on third-year student car designers of the Car Design News website, an online tool of the professional car design community of practice.
