Audi hosts student workshop in Design UNIverse

Audi has hosted a Design UNIverse event in Ingolstadt as part of its plan to support the next generation of automotive designers.

42 student designers from four European universities were challenged to create models of a futuristic Audi that embodies the idea of "Vorsprung Durch Technik" while working closely with designers and discussing trends and how to create emotional products.

The students – from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Slovakia), Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan (Italy), the Offenbach University of Art and Design (Germany) and the Royal College of Art London (Great Britain) – created 46 different models.

"University collaborations like this are an excellent opportunity to recruit young professionals," says Wolfgang Egger, head of Audi Design. "Many designers have taken this path to a job at Audi."

Among the models were potential solutions to traffic issues during Expo Milano 2015. Students' models were 'innovative and uniquely interdisciplinary' and were called 'smart solutions that blend automotive design with textile design, art and nature as inspiration'.

By Rufus Thompson