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CDOTY awards presented at Auto Design Night Geneva

The 2009 Auto Design Night was hosted at La Sip in Geneva. Click for larger images

CDN Editor Eric Gallina (left) presents Chris Bangle and Adrian van Hooydonk with the CDOTY award for the Concept Car category

Dave Lyon of General Motors Design (right) accepts the CDOTY award for the Chevrolet Camaro, winner of the Best Production Design of 2008

The Aston Martin design team, with Design Director Marek Reichman (right, foreground) and Elizabeth Rooke of Color andTrim (center)

Auto Design Night was a chance for designers to catch up with one another in a casual setting (David Wilkie, left)

Car Design News, in partnership with Interior Motives magazine, hosted the fourth annual Auto Design Night event at La Sip nightclub in Geneva last night. With more than 300 attendees reading like a who's who in automotive design, designers were able to reconnect with old friends and make new acquaintances in a comfortable and inviting environment.

Peter Birtwhistle. Chief Designer Mazda Motors Europe; former Lotus and McLaren designer Peter Stevens (center) and CCS Chair Larry Erickson (right)

BMW 5 Series GT designer Christopher Weil (right) and interior designer Oliver Helmer (center) take in the awards ceremony

Stefan Lamm, Chief Designer Exteriors, Ford of Europe, laughs it up at the event

Bettina Weiss, Proof Design and Innovation (left) and Laura Blossfeld-Smith, Ford Vehicle Personalization (right)

Interior designer Adam Bazydlo, chief interior designer Amko Leenarts and chief designer Pierre Authier from PSA (L-R)

Dr Rajesh Nellore, VP of PSA India (left) and Gautan Sen, consulting editor of Business India publication (center)

One of the highlights of the evening's festivities included the presentation of the fourth annual Car Design News Car Design of the Year Awards (CDOTY), recognizing the most publicly acclaimed concept and production car designs of 2008. Car Design News Editor Eric Gallina presented the award to BMW Group Design in the Concept Car category and General Motors Design for the Production Design category.

Accepting the award for the Best Concept Car Design of 2008 was Chris Bangle, former BMW Group Design Director, and his successor Adrian van Hooydonk. Both accepted the award on behalf of the entire design team that worked on the innovative GINA concept car, which earned 35 percent of readers' votes in our online poll.

This is the second year in a row BMW has won the CDN Concept Car Design of the Year award. Last year, Adrian van Hooydonk accepted the award for the BMW CS concept unveiled in Shanghai in 2007.

Having completed the GINA in February 2001, Chris Bangle commented on how the structural shape, covered by a revolutionary flexible textile cover, opened up new possibilities for the future potential of automotive design. Adrian van Hooydonk also acknowledged the extreme freedom the new material offers designers, adding that the award meant a great deal to the team.

Dave Lyon of General Motors Design in Michigan, USA, accepted the award for the Chevrolet Camaro, which won the Best Production Design of 2008, acquiring 26 percent of readers' votes. Lyon commented about a classic Camaro he had once owned and spoke about how the new model, which he now currently drives, brought back fond memories of its iconic ancestor. He acknowledged the team in GM Design North America and Australia that worked hard to keep the production design faithful to the concept car unveiled at the NAIAS in 2006.

The next Car Design News designer night event, called Car Designer Night, will take place during Auto Shanghai 2009 at the I Bar in Shanghai's Intercontinental Hotel this April. The venue will also play host to this year's Interior Motives China Conference.

To register for these events follow the links below:
Car Design Night
Interior Motives China Conference