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There was no doubt that a new sense of optimism was in the air at the Detroit Auto Show. William ‘Willie' G Davidson, Senior Vice President and Chief Styling Officer of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and one of the chief judges of the awards, spoke of "a renaissance in design taking place right now". He said: "As this industry reinvents itself, design becomes more important to visually tell the story of the future. New alternative powertrains create new opportunities for designers to give birth to new design direction. I think that the challenge is going to be to develop vehicles that have strong brand identity and are ‘cool'. I've spent most of my life trying to do that with our two-wheelers. If these new style vehicles can get people emotionally wrapped up in them... [then] we're going to move forward."
Chief judge Tom Matano, Executive Director of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, echoed the positive vibe. "Designers are always very optimistic about the future - you can see that on the show floor today," he said. Matano added that he was also impressed with the selection of smaller cars being shown at the Detroit Auto Show. He stated that while consumers had historically, never really had the passion to own small, economical cars, "now, they are the cars you really want to own and be proud of".
EyesOn Design panel judge Anne Asensio, Vice President Design Experience for sponsor Dassault Systèmes and former Executive Director of Advanced Design at GM, talked of an industry with "greater responsibility" and one that could "think beyond boundaries". About 80 per cent of the vehicles at this year's Detroit Auto Show had, according to Asensio, been designed using the company's CATIA software. Asensio rallied the designer audience and called for "fresh perspectives" and "innovative use of software" and stated that the automotive industry was in the midst of a revolution in design tools that would radically change its development, design and production processes. "Social innovation," Asensio commented, "is at the core of transformation."
The EyesOn Design awards are presented by the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology (DIO) - an internationally recognized non-profit organization that supports the visually impaired and facilitates research related to the eye. The next EyesOn Design event - the Automotive Design Show with the theme 2010: The Evolution of Automotive Design - takes place in Michigan in June.
Related Articles:
GMC Granite concept - Detroit 2010
Audi A8 - Detroit 2010
EyesOn Design Awards 2009
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