Design Contest: Peugeot Design Contest 2007 winner announced

The 'Flux' concept by Mihai Panaitescu, a Romanian design student studying in Turin, has been announced as the winning project in the fourth Peugeot Design Contest. The runners up in second and third places were 'Njooy' (Wesley Saikawa from Brazil), and 'Allscape' (Gustavo Ferrero from Venezuela).

At 20 years old, Mihai is the youngest ever winner of the Peugeot Design Contest. Flux is a fun vehicle that suits a variety of lifestyles and is at home in an urban environment. The sophisticated engine ensures a quiet driving experience, while the Flux stands out without being ostentatious. Mounted on large wheels, the Flux provides excellent postural comfort for its occupants, wraparound seats with multiple settings, and is ergonomic. The simple design creates a feeling of serenity regardless of the distance to be covered. It is also a hi-tech vehicle with a non-polluting fuel cell engine, in-car communication facilities and high-performance lighting, based on LED technology. The Flux came out on top as the 'P.L.E.A.S.E.' car due to its originality, the quality of its presentation, and its consistency with the theme of the competition.

For the fourth edition of the design competition, Peugeot invited designers to submit their vision of a car with the ability to please: 'P.L.E.A.S.E.' Over and above designing a car that would please in a purely abstract sense, they were asked to comply with a set of precise specifications: imagine a type of car that affords pure driving Pleasure through its Lightness and its Efficiency while remaining Accessible through its Simplicity and Environmentally-friendly in its design. This theme met with a large response, with a record 4,029 projects submitted to the competition website.

The three-stage selection process ran between October 2006 and February 2007. Initially, 30 projects were short-listed by members of the Peugeot Style Centre. These were then put forward for an online vote, to determine a list of 10 finalists. The prize winner and runners-up were selected subsequently by a panel of judges chaired by Frederic Saint-Geours, the Director General of Automobiles Peugeot.

The winning project will be built as a full scale model to be exhibited at the next Frankfurt Motor Show, and will also feature as the star of a future game on the Xbox 360.  The winner also receives a cheque for 6,000 Euro, with the second and third placed designers receiving 3,000 Euro and 2,000 Euro respectively.

The first three phases of the competition ran from September, and will be followed by the presentation of the La Griffe trophy on 6 March at the Geneva Motor Show. There will be a further three phases before presentation of the winning project at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2007:
- the full scale project production phase, from March to September 2007
- parallel integration in a future Xbox 360 game, from autumn 2007 to the beginning of 2008
- presentation of the concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2007

The panel of judges was composed of Xbox and Peugeot representatives, including managers from the Peugeot Design Centre, as well as journalists and internet users who voted online. The competition broadened its international scope with 113 countries represented. 70% of projects were submitted by designers from countries outside Western Europe.

The 10 finalists (in alphabetical order):
Allscape (Gustavo Ferrero, Venezuela, aged 29)
Cub (Ka Dan, China, aged 26)
E - MOTION (Dario Gagula, Germany, aged 23)
Flux (Mihai Panaitescu, Italy, aged 20)
Liion (Cristian Sano, Romania, aged 27)
Miawoo (Noumid Bendifallah, France, aged 23)
Njooy (Wesley Saikawa, Brazil, aged 27)
Plaire (James Ma, USA, aged 35)
Speedlite (Nemanja Lilicic, Yugoslavia, aged 23)
910 (Ertug Yenidemir, Turkey, aged 25)

Peugeot Design Contest website:
www.peugeot-concours-design.com

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