Finalists announced in Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive competition exterior design phase

Car Design News is pleased to announce the finalists in the exterior design phase of the Car Design News – Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition. Pierin Giacomo and Victor Uribe of IED school of design in Turin (who are finalists in the interior phase) are joined by Jadir E Minutti, from IAAD in Turin, Italy and Lina, from Creapole school in Paris, France.

The approaches of the students to the exterior design phase differed greatly, and because of this the judges felt that four, rather than three, students merited being invited to Geneva where the winner of the exterior design phase will be announced, together with those for the interior phase which closed in December 2010.

The second phase of the competition, which launched on January 4th 2011, asked students to design a ‘Lounge Exterior' for the Opel brand, based on one of the three interior finalists' visions, designed by Victor Uribe, Chiayuan Lu and Pierin Giacomo.

Judges were seduced by Lina's ‘Opel/Vauxhall Diary', through which she told a story, writing a series of ideas, letters and poems to the brand in a journal format before developing an impression of her final design in a water color format. "I like the idea of writing to the brand," said competition judge Anne Asensio, VP of Design Experience at sponsor Dassualt Systèmes. "She's talking to the brand - she's actually writing a letter to Opel/Vauxhall, which is interesting; it shows her expectation of the brand to be human."

Pierin Giacomo is a finalist of the interiors phase, so it was unsurprising that his exterior design is based on his organic-themed interior. The exterior design of his ‘Interior Revolution' is a very convincing continuation of the interior design and, most importantly, the judges felt he had interrogated and understood the brief. "[This design] has the concept flexibility that's part of the brand," said Liz Wetzel, Director of Interior Design at Opel/Vauxhall. "There is some real sculptural artistry going on," she added.

Jadir E Minutti's ‘Opel Andromeda' proposal took the judges' breath away with his sheer volume of work. Most importantly, despite being judged to have been highly futuristic, the judges thought that Jadir had really "addressed the question" according to Liz Wetzel. Anne Asensio added that she "was really impressed with this entry, as there are lots of authentic Opel references."

As with the interior phase, Victor Uribe is also a finalist. Developing an exterior for his interior design ‘Lounge in Motion', Victor's work greatly impressed. Eric Gallina, Editor of Car Design News, was "impressed with the amount of thought that has been put into how the idea is communicated", while Guy Bird suggested that "Even though it's polished, there's a little bit of humanity, like the masquerade mask [shown in one of Victor's sketches]."

The four finalists will be joined at the judging ceremony in Geneva next week by Albizu, who has been tipped as the judges' "one to watch" for the future.

The announcement of the winners for both the interior and exterior design phases will take place on Wednesday, March 2nd, at the second press day of the 2011 Geneva motor show on the Opel/Vauxhall stand. The winner will receive a top of the range iPad. The exterior design finalists listed above, together with Albizu, join Victor Uribe, Pierin Giacomo and Chiayuan Lu who are the interior design phase finalists, who stand the chance of winning a paid internship at Opel/Vauxhall's Rüsselsheim design studio in Germany.

Car Design News would like to wish all of the nominated finalists the very best of luck. Stay tuned to www.cardesignnews.com for the announcement of the winners on March 2nd. To view all submitted enteries, take a look at www.cardesigncontest.com

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.

By CDN Team