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2004 Canadian International AutoShow
World Automotive Design Competition
Sponsored by Alias® "The Future of Design Starts Here"
WINNERS ANNOUNCED
BRITAIN IS BEST IN FOUR CATEGORIES
February 12, 2004:
Britain's School of Art & Design at Coventry University in England was the big winner here today, garnering four of the eight prizes, handed out at the press conference announcing all winners in the third annual World Automotive Design Competition, sponsored by Alias, and hosted by the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Students from twenty (20) distinguished design schools from China, Brazil, Japan, France, Korea, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, India, Sweden, the USA and Canada competed to win over US$140,000 in prizes.
Coventry won in four of the eight categories as follows: Leon Comben, a 3rd year Transportation Design student won the overall grand prize of US$10,000 for his innovative portrayal of what a Land Rover would look like in the year 2015; Blake Cotterrill, also a 3rd year student in the same faculty, won the Ballard Powers System's Best Application of Technology award for his 2015 rendition of a red London double-decker bus; while Coventry University itself won the prestigious "Best Design School" award, sponsored by IBM, over 19 other schools from around the globe.
Organizers remarked that this is the third year in a row that Coventry University has won a World Automotive Design Competition Award. Their students previously won second place in 2003 (Per Magnus Skold) and in 2002 (Bob Graham Dolton).
Both students as well as Coventry Senior Lecturers Tim Ball and Neil Birtley were on hand to personally receive the awards from the competition judges. Professor Birtley exclaimed, "Fantastic! We've been second two times in a row and now we've pulled it off". His colleague, Tim Ball, added: "We are absolutely delighted that the efforts and expertise of our students and our teaching staff have been recognised on an international stage by this prestigious array of awards."
Coventry's School of Art & Design had originally received over 30 entries from their Transportation Design Students. Professors Ball and Birtley then decided to hold an internal competition, from which they selected the maximum of 5 entries that went on to actually enter the World Automotive Design Competition sponsored by Alias.
The British Consul General, Geoffrey Berg, was on hand to personally acknowledge Coventry's success in the competition.
The second grand prize winner was again Blake Cotterill from Coventry School of Art and Design and the third grand prize winner was Won-Kyu Kang from Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, USA.
Full details, and quotes from all winners in all eight prize categories follow.
Ninety-four of the world's future leaders in automotive design submitted sixty-six entries, representing twenty internationally recognized transportation design schools. Either individual students or teams were asked to take a popular vehicle that has been manufactured and well-loved in their own country and project it to the year 2015.
Their 2015 design needed to predict the needs of the local market, and, at the same time, reflect emerging propulsion and manufacturing technologies of the country where the students' live or study.
The students' innovative solutions to this year's challenge, were judged by some of the world's foremost authorities on automotive design, representing an impressive array of critics, historians, academics, design media, and past and present active production and concept car designers.
The judging panel included, in alphabetical order: Robert Cumberford (Automobile and Auto & Design magazines) Paul Deutschman (Canadian independent designer of the Callaway car series and Porsche Spexter) Akira Fujimoto (Chief Editor, Car Styling magazine) Ken Gross (Automotive Industries and The Robb Report magazines; Chief Class Judge Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance) Peter Horbury (North American Head of Design, Ford Motor Company) Tom Matano (Director, Industrial Design Department, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, and former VP - Design, Mazda Motor Corporation)
The twenty design schools were, in alphabetical order: Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, USA), College for Creative Studies (Detroit, USA), Coventry School of Art and Design (Coventry, Great Britain), Créapole (Paris, France), Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (São Paulo, Brasil), Hong Ik University (Seoul, Korea), Humber College (Toronto, Canada), Istituto Europeo di Design (Torino, Italy), Istituto Europeo di Design (Barcelona, Spain), Musashino Art University (Tokyo, Japan), National Institute of Design (Ahmedebad, India), Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), School of Industrial Design, Swansea Institute (Swansea, Wales), Seoul National University of Technology (Seoul, Korea), Strate College Designers (Paris, France), Tokyo Zokei University, (Tokyo, Japan), Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Umea Institute of Design (Umea, Sweden), Université de Montréal (Montreal, Canada), and the University of Tsukuba (Tsukuba, Japan).
FIRST PLACE:
First prize of US$10,000 went to Leon Comben, School of Art & Design, Coventry University, UK
The judges stated that Comben's design was "Well thought out, thorough, redo of a British icon. It captures everything Land Rover's have done for a half-century and more. "
They added that his entry reconfirms the fact that "car" is a "moving machine".
Leon Comben flew in from Coventry in the UK to accept the award in person from competition judge Robert Cumberford. How did Comben feel when he first heard the news? "Complete disbelief (for about a week). I don't think words can do justice to the feeling I had when the call came through. I can only compare it to the jubilation a person must feel when they win the lottery and the realization hits that this could be potentially life changing. Mind blowing to say the least."
When asked what are his career objectives, Comben's replied: "Call it coincidence, but the dream would be to become a Computer Aided Industrial Designer operating Alias Autostudio."
What will he do with the US$10,000 prize money? "First and foremost, if the opportunity of a placement comes up, I will use part of the money to help with the cost of housing / food, etc., whilst away from university. Secondly, I would invest in some more Autostudio Tutorials, and finally I would save as much as possible to put towards my final degree show in 2005."
SECOND PLACE:
Second prize of US$5,000 went to Blake Cotterill, School of Art & Design, Coventry University, UK. Blake also won the Ballard Power Systems "Best Application of Technology Award".
The judges felt that Cotterill's London red double-decker bus "fit the design brief well. It was a realistic attempt to change their city's transportation."
THIRD PLACE:
Third prize of US$2,500.00 went to Won-Kyu Kang from the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, USA.
The judges commented that Kang's entry was "a good reinterpretation of an American icon showing flexible use of road space and utility." They added that "the Model T was a simple universal concept that has bee updated in a fresh way."
ALIAS BEST PRESENTATION AWARDS
The "Alias® Best Presentation Award" was inaugurated in 2003 to reward the student with the best computer generated presentation. This year, in celebration of the company's 20th anniversary as the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology and automotive design, Alias has generously expanded the award to include first, second, and third place prizes.
"Alias believes that investing in students, helping them to expand their skills and knowledge, is critical in maintaining the automotive design industry's high standard of excellence," said Thomas Heermann, Product Manager, Design Products, Alias. "We are eager supporters of the World Automotive Design Competition, a pivotal forum for developing the finest talents of future automotive designers."
The first place winner are Seo Bum-Seok and Ahn Kwang-Hoon from Hong-IK University in Seoul, Korea. Both Seo Bum-Seok and Ahn Kwang-Hoon won the company's top of the line AutoStudioTM software valued at US$72,000.
The judges chose the entry entitled "Swim and Run" because "every design element was well represented: sketches, photos, drawings. All showed a fine understanding of the Alias technology with a whimsical element." They added, "not only does 'Swim and Run' follow the design brief beautifully, but it is a terrific novel design."
The second place winner, Wang Xian Long, from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China received Alias StudioTM package software valued at US$32,000 for his entry entitled "Start".
The judges praised "the good balance of the unique shape and the power of expression". They added, "This is clever and shows a good understanding of the computer software in a variety of illustrated methods."
The third place winner were a team of students, Chen Xiao, Xu Zheng, and Xu Dan from Tsinghua University in Beijing who received the Alias DesignStudioTM package (US$14,500).
The judges said that strictly speaking the entry did not conform to the design brief. However, their entry entitled "Desert Cruiser" was one of the best computer generated renderings. "Truly excellent computer generated work".
In addition, to their respective software packages, all winners receive copies of Alias' PortfolioWall and ImageStudio software.
The three awards from Alias were presented by Peter Mehlstaeubler, Vice-President, Product Development.
BALLARD BEST APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY AWARD
The winner of this award is Blake Cotterill, a 3rd year transportation design student from Coventry University's School of Art & Design in England. How did he feel on hearing the news of his win? "I felt shear delight at this wonderful news. This was a very fantastic day. Not only did I get to enter the competition (as a result of an internal Coventry competition) but I had also won a prize!
Cotterill added: "I'm looking forward to traveling and to visiting the Ballard facilities. This will be my first time outside of the UK."
Ballard Power Systems, the world leader in the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology, created the new technology award to acknowledge the student that most accurately depicted, and incorporated into their 2015 design, emerging propulsion and manufacturing technologies from the country where they live or study.
Mr. Dennis Campbell, President and CEO of Ballard, said "the design competition provides an excellent opportunity for students from leading design schools to design purpose built platforms that optimize the technologies of tomorrow, including fuel cells. We look forward to welcoming Blake Cotterill to and showing him the future of clean, quiet and efficient power generation.
As sponsor, Ballard Power Systems is offering Cotterill an all expense paid trip to one of Ballard's facilities where he/she will have an opportunity to tour the facilities, meet with staff and receive Ballard's fuel cell education package on CD, currently being offered to universities worldwide.
IBM "BEST DESIGN SCHOOL" AWARD
Twenty (20) distinguished design schools from China, Brazil, Japan, France, Korea, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, India, Sweden, the USA and Canada competed for the honour of being chosen the IBM "Best Design School" for 2004 by the judges.
The judges chose the School of Art & Design at Coventry University in England because they submitted the body of entries that most consistently reflected the 2015 design challenge as well as the character and culture of the city where the students live or study".
As a sponsor, IBM® will donate to the winning school a "state-of-the-art" IBM IntelliStation Z Pro workstation with dual Intel Xeon processors certified for Alias Studio software.
IBM's Worldwide Director for IntelliStation® Workstations and Linux Clusters, Mr. Bob Lenard, declared in a recent interview, "We've been thoroughly impressed with the stature and growth of the World Automotive Design Competition over the past three years as the world's premiere design competition. Our sponsorship is consistent with IBM's vision of developing technologies to help professionals solve design problems, improve design processes, and ultimately, to inspire better design."
Senior Lecturers Tim Ball and Neil Birtley were on hand to personally receive the award. Senior Lecturer Tim Ball exclaimed: "A superb prize and timing, as it will very likely go into our recently opened research facility based in the newly built 'Bugatti Building' next to our School building here on our Coventry campus. The facility has been established for continued development of automotive research activity and allows for both full-size conventional clay modeling/reverse engineering through 3-D scanning and virtual reality form development and evaluation. Further access to Alias will be a fantastic asset for staff and students. We are all very much looking forward to taking delivery of the new system".
All of the World Automotive Design Competition entries are on display within the Design Studio exhibit during the Canadian International Auto Show from February 13 - 22, 2004 on the 700 level, South Building, Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
However, you don't need to live in Toronto, Canada to view the entries. The public can view the competition entries on-line via the auto show web site at: www.autoshow.ca/designcompetition.
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