Students challenged to design electric truck of the future
Ram’s annual competition aims to tap the creativity of young students and perhaps bring future designers into the industry
Ram is leveraging the creative energy of high school students to put forward their interpretation of the brand’s next-generation electric pick-up truck.
The Drive for Design project has now been running for 11 years straight and is led by VP of design for Ram Trucks, Mark Trostle, who himself won a similar programme back in 1987 – a fair illustration of how contests like these can put students on a path into car design. This remains a focus of the contest for this year, Trostle tells Car Design News.
“The overall objective of this contest is to educate students and parents about the many career paths available in automotive design. If you talk to most automotive designers working today, they had no idea that this was a career option and most were encouraged to pursue engineering. This allows us the opportunity to not only inspire young artists but to also speak with their parents and help guide them on art schools.”
As could be reasonably expected, many that get a taste of design through contests – and internships – like this, end up coming back. “We’ve worked with many students over the years and some have interned in our studios,” notes Trostle. “In fact, our 2016 winner currently works on the Ram Truck interior team and contributed to the interior of the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept.”
While activities like these can help to usher in the next generation of talent, is it also a genuine opportunity to unearth new ideas that could feed into production down the line? Trostle suggests that there is indeed a different kind of creativity that students in this age range can bring.
“Looking back over the last ten years of this contest, I’m always impressed by the skill set of that these young artists demonstrate. They’re not afraid to push boundaries and take risks,” he explains. “While some [designs] can be over the top and some are simple, we appreciate both because we’re looking to see who has talent and can truly take it to the next level.”
This year’s Drive for Design contest will challenge high school students in grades 10-12 to sketch their vision of the next-generation electric truck from Ram. The winner gets a chance to intern at Ram’s exterior design studio in Auburn Hills over the summer; all entries must be submitted by 21 April 2023, with one overall winner and two runner-up finalists to be selected.
Alongside some handy tech prizes, second- and third-place finishers get a scholarship to the College for Creative Studies’ four-week summer program, VisCom 1, in Detroit.