Peter Schreyer to receive 2014 EyesOnDesign Lifetime Design Achievement Award

Peter Schreyer has been chosen by a panel of his fellow designers to receive the 2014 EyesOnDesign Lifetime Design Achievement Award.

Schreyer, Kia and Hyundai's chief design officer and one of three presidents, directs the design strategy for the both Kia and Hyundai. He's the first non-Korean to hold the position of president and is one of the highest-ranking designers in the industry's history.

He's transformed Kia from a maker of bland, affordable cars to a worldwide design leader.

A Transportation Design student at the Royal College of Art from 1979-1980, he graduated under an Audi scholarship and promptly joined the carmaker. During his time there he helped establish a classic Bauhaus-inspired design language before leaving Volkswagen and Audi in 2006 to head up the Korean carmaker's global design operations.

In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from the RCA for his contribution to automotive design, only the third automotive designer to receive the award at that time, the first two being two design legends, Sergio Pininfarina and Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Only previous winners vote for the EyesOnDesign Lifetime Design Achievement Award, which is a distinguished group including Shiro Nakamura, Willie G. Davidson, Tom Gale, Jack Telnack, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Bob Lutz, Bruno Sacco, Chuck Pelly, Marcello Gandini, Nuccio Bertone, Chris Bangle, Walter de'Silva and last year's recipient, Wayne Cherry.

He'll collect his award in June at a black tie gala at the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in metro Detroit during the annual EyesOn Design event.

By Rufus Thompson