Michelin CCS competition winners announced
The 30th annual design competition shows off its top three entries
The long-running Michelin Challenge Design Competition for the College for Creative Studies (CCS), now in its 30th year, has just announced this year’s winners. The lucky students received scholarships as part of a $35,000 donation from Michelin to support the school’s Transportation Design program.
Ten students from the CCS Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) program entered this year’s challenge, which centered around forecasting mobility in the year 2050 by defining a visual landscape of a thriving and sustainable global community.
“Defining the future of mobility and the impact of how new mobility systems will change the visual landscape of a thriving and sustainable community are important discussions to be having,” said Ben Ebel, chairman of the Michelin Challenge Design program. “Just as the automobiles of the 20th century were at the forefront of radical change in the creation of suburbs, interstates and landscapes of grids and parcels, how will the next generation of vehicles impact landscapes and the movement of people, goods or services?”
Using the book 50 Cars that Changed the World as a reference, CCS students were asked to create new vehicles that will operate in integrated system networks for personal or public travel across local or global landscapes for the year 2050. The most significant criteria for each of the vehicle concepts is the social impact they will introduce as described through an imagined future context where people are fully connected and society has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence safely and responsibly.
The panel of top designers who judged this year’s event were Robert Bauer, design studio manager, Nissan Design America; Brandon Faurote, head of Chrysler design, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles; and Craig Metros, design director, North American Truck, SUV and Commercial Vehicles, Ford Motor Company.
The three winning entries are showcased on the pages on the right – take a look there at the students’ sketches and accompanying videos. They’re all fascinating and well-conceived concepts with very different takes on future mobility.
The next global Michelin Challenge Design theme “Inspiring Mobility: Start With Why” is open to all and invites participants to inspire users by successfully identifying one of the following emotional needs: joy, trust, security or freedom; and designing a mobility solution that will invoke that emotion for users in one of the following megacities: Berlin, Mumbai, New York, Sao Paulo, or Shanghai, in 2035. Entrants can register now at www.michelinchallengedesign.com.