2009 EyesOn Design Awards

The winners at the fourth annual EyesOn Design Awards held at the 2009 NAIAS in Detroit last week read like a serving of alphabet soup, with the top awards going to Audi, BMW and Cadillac.

Presided over by 20 top design executives from automotive manufacturers and by academics from transportation design programs, the EyesOn Design awards are presented by the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology (DIO) - an internationally recognized non-profit organization known for helping the blind and visually impaired.

Founding Chairman Tom Gale (former Vice President of Design at Chrysler) selected the following people to head up this year's jury: Chris Bangle, Director of Group Design for BMW; William 'Willie' G. Davidson, Senior Vice President and Chief Styling Officer of Harley-Davidson motorcycles; and Chair of Transportation Design at the College for Creative Studies, Larry Erickson. In order to be eligible for an award, the nominated designs had to make their debut at NAIAS 2009. Among these were the Audi Sportback and Cadillac Converj concepts, and the Audi R8 V10 and BMW Z4.

For the first time since the inception of the EyesOn Design awards in 2005, German automaker Audi took home two awards in each of the two categories. The Audi Sportback concept was awarded the coveted Design Excellence Award in the concept car category, while the Audi R8 V10 took victory in the production car category.

Christian Bokich, Manager of Midwestern Communications, took the stage and expressed how he was both "pleased and humbled" to accept the award on behalf of Wolfgang Egger and the Audi design department, adding that the R8 V10 was the "biggest halo car" for the Ingolstadt brand and how "at Audi we don't know compromise".

After previously winning awards with the production CTS-V and the CTS Coupe concept at NAIAS 2008, Cadillac again won a Design Excellence Award in the concept category for the Converj concept, designed under the direction of Simon Cox, Design Director at GM Advanced Design in the UK. During his acceptance of the award, Cox thanked the design team who worked to create the "dramatic, elegant but very relevant" vehicle. As he reflected on the current economic climate, Cox said he "knows it's going to be tough", before adding that "design can be the catalyst for the future".

BMW Group design chief Chris Bangle also urged designers to push the envelope and create vehicles that were relevant to consumers' needs. He was visibly delighted when members of his own team - Nadya Arnaout and Julianne Blasi - took home the Design Excellence Award in the production category for the redesigned BMW Z4 roadster. While presenting the award, Gale said how "different tastes redefine form and function while expanding new horizons for packaging" - elements that led to the selection of the redesigned Z4 as one of the category winners because it "stood out in its form innovation".

Senior designer Arnaout said that it was "truly an honor and a pleasure to accept the award" for a design that she and her team had worked so hard to create. The design of the new BMW roadster was awarded to Arnaout and Blasi after a period of intense internal competition. Design manager Chris Chapman added that the award was significant because it was the work of "a female design team in the male-dominated auto design world".     

Another woman that's had a significant impact in this male-dominated arena is Anne Asensio, Vice President Design Experience for sponsor Dassault Systemes and former Executive Director of Advanced Design at GM. Speaking at the awards, Asensio stated that "designers have always played a critical role", asserting that "challenging times [are] an opportunity for designers to take a critical look and redefine, reinvent".

We're looking forward to the next EyesOn Design event - entitled ‘The Automobile in Advertising and Design' - taking place in Michigan in June.

By Eric Gallina