CDN and GM launch new interactive competition for students in North America

Multiple internships on offer with CDN-GM Interactive Competition

Car Design News is pleased to announce the launch of the Car Design News-GM interactive design competition, a collaboration with GM and our partners, Dassault Systèmes and Faurecia. Eight student winners will be awarded internships at GM's design studios in North America in 2012 as the principal prizes, whilst our partner, Faurecia, will be choosing its own additional winner and offering this student an internship at its studios in either the US, Europe or Asia. 

The competition is open to students studying at college/university level in the USA and Canada, on any design course, and to former students who graduated from these courses within the period April 2010 to March 2011.

Students display and update their ideas and work-in-progress on the competition's website, where the interactivity comes from the ability of observers to comment and suggest specific amendments, and from GM mentors who will publicly guide and support the students. This iterative process allows entrants to change and refine their entries as often as they wish up to the closing deadline, and lets others watch that progress.

Dave Lyon, Executive Director of Interior Design at GM,who will be one of the judges, said: "Feedback and interaction are a natural part of a designer's world, but this competition takes that to a whole new level. The entire design community can help push and guide the creativity of the students, and I'm really excited to see what will result.

"I believe this helps puts GM at the forefront of innovation in the design process."

The competition mirrors the one just completed in Europe in collaboration with Opel/Vauxhall, which saw two students honoured at the Geneva Motor Show and receive paid internships at the OEM's design center in Rüsselsheim.

Like the earlier one, this competition will run in two parts: the initial phase (Spring/Summer 2011) asks students to design a vehicle interior; while the second phase (Fall/Winter 2011) asks them to design an exterior. Entries can be made to either or both phases.

Here is our summary of the competition, and some advice to students. See all the detail on www.cardesigncontest.com

Choose your brief
GM's four brands - Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC - have each set a brief. Students may choose to submit entries for as many of the briefs as they wish, but our advice is that you may find it easier and increase your chances of success by focusing on just one brief/brand.

We encourage you to read each brief in full. Each brand has prepared an extensive outline to guide you, to give you an insight into what each stands for, and to provide an explanation of what the judges are seeking. You can find the Buick brief here, Cadillac's here, Chevrolet's here and GMC's here.

In addition to the GM briefs, our competition partners - Dassault Systèmes and Faurecia, will be looking at your work with their own criteria. In order to help you understand what they're looking for, they've created their own briefing guidance notes, which you'll find by clicking on their logos on the front page. Their judges and mentors will be looking at your work, regardless of which GM brand brief you choose, and offering you advice. At the close of the competition, Faurecia's judge and mentor will be looking across the spectrum of entries, and naming their own winning student, with their choice also being offered an internship at their studios in either the US, Europe or Asia.

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By CDN team