CDN and Opel/Vauxhall Interactive Design Competition Update

Seats, relationships, city life, the virtual world and new materials exploration: one month into the Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition, launched on 11 October, these are a few of the themes student designers are exploring, in answer to the question 'What do you think is our lounge style?'.

The competition, a collaboration between Opel-Vauxhall and Car Design News, is an interactive design competition for students who are studying design – of any discipline – at a college in Europe. The winner of the competition will work as a paid intern at Opel/Vauxhall design center in Rüsselsheim.

This week, the four judges began to comment and interact on the site. Watch out for their ‘Tips from the top' blogs, which will appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the site's home page. Judges are commenting on individual entries and giving guidance on how to develop ideas, which is why we are encouraging students to upload their ideas as they develop them throughout the course of the competition, rather than on the December 10 closing date.

Over 200 students have so far registered to enter and follow the competition.  Unsurprisingly, given the lounge theme, seats are a primary concern in many of the entries. Entrant Albizu gets straight to the point with the statement at the top of his board: "the seats: the main part of car interiors". Meanwhile, Iranzo uploaded a simple, elegant structure termed 'Opel.net' – an "ultra lightweight seating concept" which eschews upholstery and cushioning and has sparked an interesting discussion among fellow entrants and commentators. 

Victor Uribe was one of those to comment on Iranzo's concept; his own entry begins from the interesting starting point of questioning how we get into the car in the first place. Yet it's the digital world – and its potential effect on both the car interior and the experience of driving – that Uribe appears most keen on exploring. 

A special mention, too, to the competition's very first entrant, Gsagoo, whose board exploring how city life relates to technology, energy sources and inspiration shows what a powerful graphic a simple, monochromatic mood board can make.

Elizabeth Wetzel, Director of Interior Design, Opel/Vauxhall – based in Russelsheim, Germany – leads the judging panel. Wetzel was previously Director of Cross Brand Strategy Design, where she led two of General Motors' Global Design Departments – Color and Trim, and Interior Components & User Interface. She is joined on the panel by Anne Asensio, Vice President of Design Experience at Dassault Systèmes in France. Also judging are Guy Bird – renowned design editor and writer, for Wallpaper*, Design Week and Intersection (to name just a handful of his titles) – and the editor of Car Design News, Eric Gallina.

Don't forget that even if you're not a student, or you're outside the EU, we want you to get involved by commenting on the site. This week, we've added functionality to allow tagging on individual entry images, so you can comment on and address a specific element of an entrant's mood board or design. 

Commenting is easy. Simply register on the site and, once you've received your details and logged-in, hover over an individual entry board to bring up an orange pin. Click exactly where you want to place the pin and comment, and add your thoughts. Alternately, you can simply add your general comments below each entry.

Remember, the person judged to have made the greatest contribution to the community wins a year's membership to Car Design News.

The competition is a collaboration between Opel/Vauxhall and Car Design News, to use social media and web-based tools to help develop car designs. The competition is supported by our partners, Dassault Systèmes and Dinamica by Miko

Keep those entries coming in, and good luck!    

www.cardesigncontest.com

By CDN Team