LA Auto Show Gives Preview into Design Competition

14 December 2004 - When the organizers of the Los Angeles Auto Show invited car designers based in the area to conceptualise ‘the ultimate LA machine’ as part of the show’s Design Los Angeles theme, a dazzling array of interpretations and creative ideas emerged. All 13 entries will be revealed on January 5 and the winner announced the following day, but in the meantime the organisers have provided a sneak preview of the competition by releasing one of the entries – the Hyundai NTT, or ‘Entity’, submitted by the Hyundai/Kia America Design Center at Irvine, just south of Los Angeles.

With a built-in surfboard forming the roofline, the banana-coloured Hyundai NTT may look unusual, but as the design studio points out, "It’s not only a vehicle, it’s a way of life."

Despite the element of fun, a great deal of prestige is being attached to the competition. For several months, automotive design studios in southern California had debated – and some had even held competitions internally – to determine which two-dimensional concept would represent them.

According to David O’Connell, Chief Designer at Mitsubishi Research & Design of North America, it has been hard to keep all his designers from becoming involved. "Projects like this are really fun to work on, because they are truly blue-sky in nature," O’Connell explained. "Yet at the same time, they are firmly grounded in real-world challenges that require real-world solutions."

The Design Challenge participants are:

Three esteemed design academics will judge the competition: Tom Matano, Director of the School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University (San Francisco); Imre Molnar, Dean of the College at the College for Creative Studies (Detroit); and Nathan Young, Executive Vice President of Art Center College of Design (Pasadena).

Frank Stephenson Opens Designers’ Conference

The Design Los Angeles theme doubles as a conference for car designers on January 6.

A number of programs, speakers and breakout sessions have been developed in close collaboration with the automotive design community. Opening the inaugural conference as the featured speaker is Frank Stephenson, Director of Concept Design at Ferrari Maserati Group.

Appointed to his current post in July 2002, Stephenson’s influence has been seen in the Maserati MC12 and the all-new Ferrari F430, which makes its North American debut at the LA Auto Show. Previously, he spent 11 years at BMW, where he began as senior designer in Munich before taking over as chief designer and penning the new Mini Cooper.