Interior Motives announces shortlist for Student Design Awards 2009

Interior Motives magazine, sister publication of Car Design News, has revealed its shortlist for the seventh annual Interior Motives Design Awards. Handed down by a ten-strong panel of industry experts, the shortlist will be further reviewed before three finalists and a winner for each of the eight categories - and the overall competition winner - is ultimately selected and awarded on the eve of the second press day of the Frankfurt auto show.

This year's competition, which saw a record number of entries from 60 schools and 30 different countries, was judged by a panel of industry experts, including Flavio Manzoni, Creative Design Director at VW Group; Ralph Gilles, Vice President of Product Design at Chrysler; Frank Stephenson, Design Director at McLaren; Dr. Mike Ma, Vice President & Design Director at the Geely Automotive Research Institute; Alfonso Albaisa, Vice President of Design at Nissan Design Europe; Adriana Monk, Design Director at Wally Yachts; Li-Chih Fu, Director of the China Automotive Design Institute; Wolfgang Muller-Pietralla, Head of Future Affairs at Volkswagen AG;  Michael Warsaw, Vice President of Industrial Design, Marketing and Advertising Sales for Johnson Controls; and John Puskar, Interior Design Director at GM Europe.

The judges worked individually in their own studios around the world, assessing each entry through the images and explanations provided by entrants. The identity and origin the work they reviewed was hidden behind a code number, thereby assuring unbiased results. Following this review, the judges cast their votes for each of the entries and compiled a shortlist of candidates. The full list can be found at the Interior Motives Awards website.

Themed 'Sustainable and Clever', students were asked to devise entries that adhered to the following four briefs: Chinese car 2.0, which asked the entrants to create the next-generation vehicle designed specifically to serve the needs of young, design-aware Chinese consumers; Inside out, where students were asked to design a true dual-purpose interior; HMI 2.0, which called for students to tap into the latest technologies - drive-by-wire; gesture, iris and voice recognition - and use it to create a new kind of driving experience; and global car for a global crisis, which asked entrants to develop a new kind of vehicle that was suited to the unpredictable financial and physical climate of the future, paying close attention to cost of ownership, versatility and the vehicle's carbon footprint.

All finalists - and the competition winner - will be honored at a special Interior Motives Awards event on September 16th at the Cocoon Club in Frankfurt, Germany. The winners of each of the eight categories will be awarded a trophy and a $500 cash prize, while the overall winner will receive a further $5000 prize and the ultimate accolade - becoming the Interior Motives Student Designer of the Year.

Registration details for the event can be found by clicking the link below:
Register for Interior Motives Design Awards 2009

By Eric Gallina