GM's four brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC have each set a brief, of which students can choose to answer one or several. It's traditional to focus your design efforts towards the close of a design competition, but GM, and our sponsors, Dassault Systèmes and Faurecia, have mentors standing by to guide your design work, so we encourage you to begin uploading work as soon as you can.

We know it can be daunting to be one of the first to upload your work, showing your raw ideas publicly, so we're now offering an extra incentive to upload work - the first ten students to upload an entry will receive a one year membership to Car Design News, or if you're already a member, we'll give you a 12 month subscription to our sister magazine, Interior Motives instead.

Remember, your first upload doesn't need to be a finished design. All good design process begins with an exploration and critical analysis of the brief. Your first submission to the site shouldn't be your final design, so don't worry about the need to include design sketches and ideas in your entry at this point.

Your initial entry might consist of:

• Acritical analysis or diagrammatic exploration of the brief;
• Insights into the market segment the vehicle might target;
• Who the customer will be; or
• Thematic explorations - such as mood boards and inspiration images.

You can constantly update your entry throughout the competition and archive old entries that you replace or decide you're unhappy with.

We'd stress that GM is using this competition to identify the next generation of leading designers in North America, so by starting to upload early and updating your entry frequently, you stand a much better chance of being spotted by the mentors and judges and building a relationship with them.

GM is offering eight internships as prizes at the end of this competition, for which you will get paid. For more inspiration, you might want to check out the European competition we recently held with Opel Vauxhall.

Don't forget, you can enter the competition regardless of what design subject you're studying - you don't need to be a car designer. To submit an entry, you'll need to first register and tell us where you're studying, and from there you can submit an entry. If you have problems uploading, please don't hesitate to contact the competition administrator, Ashleigh Ralfe or myself, Joe Simpson via e-mail.

We look forward to seeing your first entries and wish you the best of luck.

Check out the briefs, register for the competition, upload an entry and comment on the work of others now at www.cardesigncontest.com

Related Articles:
CDN and GM launch new Interactive Design Competition for Students in North America