Registration for the 2013 IM Design Awards is now open - Enter Now
Your chance to take part in one of the most important events on the design calendar, and to display your talent and fresh thinking to the world's top vehicle designers and automotive press.
The theme of this year's competition is ‘The Connected Car’. To help inspire you in your design process, Interior Motives collaborated with co-sponsors Ford and Volkswagen to come up with four challenging, thought-provoking briefs:
Jozani and Kasirifar’s imaginative ‘Autopool’ project won 2012 Student Design of the Year
Internal and external connectivity – Internal connectivity means the car´s interaction with devices inside the car and the car´s interaction with The Cloud and other vehicles. How does the future car electronic system support communication and data transfer internally? How are the occupants connected to the car and how do they communicate with the outside world? Imagine an interior that presents its occupants with a mixed reality concept – one in which virtual technology will allow them to see behind and inside buildings as they pass through urban environments, and that will receive information relevant to the driver’s (and the car’s) needs. Consider how this human-machine interface will look and function.
Changing modes – How can or will the interior layout change with the arrival of a fully automated driving scenario? What does the transition from active driving to fully automated driving mode look like? How do the driver and passengers experience this change of function?
The three-in-one interior – The arrival of automated driving systems will allow the car of the future to perform three very different roles: performance car, office/workspace, and living room. Create an interior that is able to satisfy all three functions while respecting the dynamics of a mobile environment. Explore each scenario, always keeping in mind that this is a moving vehicle that turns, accelerates and decelerates. The ergonomics will therefore need to be different to an office or home living space, while still giving the same feeling.
A private world – Connectivity and fully automated driving technology will create a true separation between the vehicle’s occupants and the environment they are driving through. With the need to be visible to pedestrians and other road users no longer applicable to the car, what opportunities for interior privacy will be created? Design an interior that feels like a truly immersive, private world for its passengers.
Entries will be assessed by a judging panel comprising some of the biggest names in vehicle design, including Volkswagen's Romulus Rost and Wolfgang Müller-Pietralla, and Global Director of Ford Interiors, Amko Leenarts. In addition to the category winners, the overall 2013 Student Design of the Year – a title that carries with it prize money of $5,000 – will also be named at a glamorous ceremony in Frankfurt on 9th September, the eve of the first Frankfurt Motor Show press day. There shortlisted students and finalists will have the opportunity to show off their work and mingle with the some of most influential vehicle designers working today.
The contest is open to anyone enrolled at an accredited undergraduate or graduate design degree programme, both in the automotive and non-automotive fields; those studying fashion design, industrial design, architecture and other areas are also eligible. Entries must have been designed during the current 2012/2013 academic year, and be submitted no later than midnight on 12th April 2013.
We wish everyone who enters the best of luck and look forward to seeing some of you at the awards ceremony in Frankfurt on 9th September.
School success gets an Award, and is recorded in new CDN league table
Car Design News acknowledges that great teaching, as well as raw talent, is needed to shape the work of students on their path to being the next generation of car designers. So along with the student finalists to the 2013 competition came finalist schools, as measured by the success of their students in getting to the shortlist stage, becoming category finalists, winning an award or becoming overall winner.
To back up this new annual Award, CDN has created a global league table of success among design schools. In it we assess their teaching performance by recording the results achieved by their students across the past 5 years of this competition. See the league table here.
Awards categories and prizes
Prizes for students will be awarded in the following categories:
- Best eco interior
- Best use of technology
- Best innovative interior
- Best ergonomics
- Best conceptual interior
- Best production interior
- Best conceptual exterior
- Best artistic visualisation
One of these winners will be the overall 2013 Student Design of the Year.
Each winner receives $500, and the overall winner a prize of $5000.
Hundreds of entries from dozens of schools: the competition process explained
Selecting the shortlist From hundreds of entries from dozens of design schools across the globe, the shortlist will be made up of all the designs which received at least one vote from one judge. The judges will work individually in the quiet of their own studios in their locations in different parts of the world. The identity of the works they are reviewing is hidden behind an ID number, so that images and, often crucially, the explanation provided with them, are all that is assessed.
Down to sets of three In each of the Awards categories, the three shortlisted entries with the most votes become the finalists.. The all-star judging panel will then all gather in summer to debate out the winners through an intense round-table judging session. In a night which will mix the cream of the professional design community with the excitement of the students, the work of the finalists will be displayed on boards and on screen.
The winner is... Each of the student finalists, and a friend, will be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony in Frankfurt on 9th September 2013. There the winners in each category will be announced, and a trophy and cash prize awarded. And then, as the ultimate accolade, after all of the have been re-assessed by the judges, one will be rated as outstanding. That is the Interior Motives Student Design of the Year. See the previous winning designs here.