Auto(r) 2010 Design Conference

tags: Auto(r) | in: Conferences 11 May 2010

A short report from the 2010 Auto(r) Automotive Design Conference which took place in Zagreb, Croatia, on last March. The list of speakers of this second edition included a number of designers and professionals from the car design industry.

(cover image: Lamborghini Zalamero Concept by Dario Dropucic)

Held on last 20-21 March 2010, Auto(r) is a newly-established automotive design conference that started last year and has been the largest automotive design conference in Europe in 2009.


Article Photography Credits: Laurent Nivalle

Like the first edition, this year’s event took place in Zagreb, Croatia, this time at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It featured two days of lectures, panel discussions and workshops which attracted car and design enthusiasts from the region.

The conference also hosted a design challenge, won by amateur Croatian designer Zdenko Vukoja.

Auto(r) 2010 speaker list included Maarten de Bruijn (Silvestris), founder of Spyker, inventor of their unique styling and designer of all Spyker models until 2005 and Sebastien Stassin (Kiska) motorcycle designer that created KTM X-Bow.

Auto(r) also hosted two world renowned automotive design theoreticians: Giancarlo Perini (Car Styling) gave design overview of Geneva motor show 2010 and Enrico Fagone (Scuola Politecnica di Design) has spoken on past, present and future of automotive design.

Francesco Carbini (Scuola Politecnica di Design) exposed clay modelling profession; Kemal Curic´ (Ford) made a presentation on the Ford Iosis Max and Nemanja Lalicic (ex Honda) on his work, including the Stola Phalcon.

Marko Lukovic (University of Arts Belgrade) has spoken on his experience of winning the Peugeot Design Contest and Dragan Zegarac (Volkswagen) on LED technology and “night design”.

The Workshop was guided by Dario Dropucic (freelance designer) and the panel discussion by led by Boris Ljubicic, the most famous Croatian designer.

The KTM X-Bow caught big attention as it was exposed in front of the venue and occasionally driven by speakers.

The Conference was supported by Scuola Politecnica di Design, City of Zagreb, Renault, Volvo, Ford, Auto Design & Styling magazine.

The list of speakers included:

Maarten De Bruijn (Spyker, Silvestris) – Dutch designer end entrepreneur, co-founder of new Spyker and designer of all models until 2005 when he left to start Silvestris and produce boats.
Francesco Carbini (DaimlerChrysler, Moto Guzzi, Audi, Ford, BMW, MINI, Italdesign Giugiaro, Yamaha) Clay modeller and lecturer at Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milano.
Dario Dropucic (freelance) – Croatian with Scuola Politecnica di Design Transportation design degree.
Enrico Fagone (Car & Transportation design, founder and editor in chief) – One of world’s most influential theoreticians on automotive design.
Nemanja Lalicic (Stola, Honda, freelance) – Serbian designer in 2008 transformed Maybach Exelero concept into Stola Phalcon Coupe for Arab oil sheiks.
Marko Lukovic (winner of Peugeot Design Contest 2001., Zastava, freelance) – Winner of the most famous automotive design contest in the world, organised by Peugeot and Assistant Professor at two universities in Serbia.
Giancarlo Perini (Car Styling, founder and Editor for Europe) – One of the world most prominent journalists specialised in automotive design. 1969-74 he was marketing and PR director at Italdesign.
Sebastien Stassin (Piaggio, Honda Motorcycles, KTM, Kiska) – Motorbike designer credited for style of extreme car KTM X-Bow.
Dragan Zegarac (Volvo, Volkswagen) – Design Project Manager in Volkswagen design department.