L'argus European Design Competition 2004 announced

The competition has been run since 2002, asking students at European design schools to design original utility vehicles. The 2003 competition recieved more than 350 submissions from students of Europe's best schools of art and design. This year there are two major new features: extension of the competition to design students in the new European Union countries, and greater freedom for entrants, with a theme allowing more room for creativity.

A convertible utility vehicle is a car whose primary function is to carry goods but which might be adapted to as many situations as possible and thus meet, through its different configurations, the many requirements of users as well as the diverse purposes for which it may be needed: for business or leisure use, quick trips in town, Sunday outings to the country, carrying bulky or hazardous goods, breakdown services, emergency services, etc. Projects are to be based on a light utility vehicle and from this main configuration convert to other types of vehicle and uses (for example sports car, motorcycle, motorhome, towing vehicle, racing car, etc).

Projects will be judged by a panel made up of L'argus staff, design journalists, professional designers from major carmakers and independent agencies, and design experts. They will vote for the winner on November 29th, 2004.

The winner will receive ?3000 and an internship offer. The runner-up will get ?1500 and the designer in third place ?500. The best project designs will be exhibited on November 29, 2004 at the Eiffel Tower.

Ideally, participants should produce from 2 to 5 drawings of their projects, viewed from different angles (exterior, interior, close-up of particular functions, etc). Drawings are to be accompanied by a written presentation describing and explaining the relevance of the project (material chosen, interior layout, structural design of the vehicle, ergonomic characteristics, dimensions, special functions, etc).

The choice of presentation style is left to the participants: pencil, gouache, computer-generated pictures, reworked photo-montages, coloured perspective drawings, sketches, etc. The different forms that the utility vehicle can take should be clearly distinguishable, illustrating the type of vehicle, functional details and overall visual design.

Submissions can be made online at www.argusauto.com from September onwards, by email: concoursdesign@argusauto.com or by post: L'argus Design Contest, c/o Hopscotch, 40 rue d'Aboukir, 75002 Paris, France

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