CDN-GM Interactive Design Contest 2012 finalists announced

The CDN-GM Interactive Design Competition judges have announced the winners of the competition's first phase ahead of the launch of the second phase.

This year saw another batch of high-quality entries from all over North America and the judges were understandably hard-pressed to pick out just a handful in each of the four brand categories. The judges gathered at GM's Design Center at the automaker's headquarters in Warren, Michigan, where they whittled down the shortlist.

The nominated finalists, listed with their schools and usernames, for each brand are:

Buick
Edward Tseng of Art Center College of Design (edwardtseng) and four students from the College for Creative Studies: He Wang (James Wang), Gihwan Kim (Gihwan Kim), Ali Khanzadi (alikhanzadi), Byungwan Kang (infantry).

Cadillac
Alvin Tseng of Art Center College of Design (Alvint) and four students from the College for Creative Studies: Beomyoul Lee (Viverty), Euiseong Son (ESON), Namwoo Kim (namwoo7) and Adam Guy (Aguy).

Chevrolet
Namsuk Lee of the College for Creative Studies (N.Lee), Rick Reininger of Humber College (Double_R_Design), Eugenio Sellaro of the College for Creative Studies (Sellaro), Kinyanjui Migwe of the University of Cincinatti (K.migwe) and Wonsu Cho of the College for Creative Studies (Silverion).

GMC
Reymin de Leon of Humber College (Reymin D.) and Paul Mutter of the College for Creative Studies (PaulMutter).

Now the finalists must continue to develop both their interior and exterior designs into a final entry – with a deadline of 25 November – with advice from their mentors; a team of leading design experts from GM, Car Design News, and our competition partners: Alcantara, CGT and SRG Global.

This year's mentors for the two GMC finalists are Carl Zipfel and Jason Coffer, while Rich Scheer and Ryan Vaughn will be representing the five finalists for Chevrolet brief. Cadillac's mentors, Brian Smith and Aaron Deneweth, will be offering their advice to those chosen by the judges, while Buick's finalists will benefit from the advice of Guy Whittla and Heung-soo Kim.

Acting as mentors across all four brands will be Drew Meehan, Lilana Nicoghosian, Matt Srugis and Dario Ascari.

As this year's prize, GM is offering a total of five students a paid internship (with housing included) at their studios in Warren, Michigan.
One winner will be picked from each brand
and the judges will also choose one additional overall winner.

This year's judges are: Mark Adams, Executive Director, Global Cadillac and Buick Design, Ken Parkinson, Executive Director, Global Chevrolet and GMC Design, Owen Ready, Editor of Car Design News, Lilana Nicoghosian, Design Manager at CGT, Patrick Ayoub, Creative Director at SRG Global and Sara DeTullio, Chief Designer of Alcantara's Trend and Design department.

The judges will be meeting in early December to decide which of the finalists will make the final five. They will then be invited to attend the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January where their work will be displayed to the professional design community before the winners are announced.

By Rufus Thompson