Design students honoured at Coventry awards show

Coventry University’s Automotive and Transport Design BA has cemented itself as one of the premier courses for those looking for a job in car design. This year’s flock of graduates had the chance to showcase their work in the stunning (and recently renovated) Delia Derbyshire building, with an impressive mix of clay, 3D-printed and animated models on display.

As always, students were on hand to talk through their work – we will have a deeper feature on our recent visit to chat with many of them – and at an awards evening supported by industry sponsors, many were given additional plaudits. While the ultimate goal is to get a placement with an OEM, supplier or design consultancy of any kind, the awards place a spotlight on who industry players see as a cut above the rest.

The following students took home the honours from this year’s awards, with an outline of their project and supporting materials to boot.

CONTECHS - STEVE OLNEY MEMORIAL AWARD

Created in honour of Steve Olney, a founder of Contechs who sadly died in 2005, is based around the personal values of open-mindedness, cooperation and teamwork within design and engineering. The panel includes current Contech director and one of Steve’s sons, Sam Olney, who will be assessing technology, craftsmanship and innovation. A cash prize is on hand, alongside a further donation to a charity of the winner’s choosing. Past winners have gone on to work at the likes of Rolls-Royce, Volvo Cars, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW’s Designworks.

First place: Zicheng Cui

Created in partnership with Hyundai, Cui’s project was partly inspired by concepts like the Grandeur and N Vision 74 and is seen as the “next step” for the brand’s parametric pixel design language. There is some clever work on the exterior design, with a bonnet that fades out toward the front thanks to what he calls “smart glass.” Rather than a defined cut off between the headlights and the bonnet, the two blend together. The design took about a year to put together, with the CAD modelling accounting for around two to three months. Although Cui sees himself landing a role in exterior design, there is a fair effort on the interior too, with details that can be seen through the purple-tinted windows. The centre console, he tells CDN, is inspired by an old CD player and feeds into Hyundai’s retro-futuristic aesthetic of late. And like the Audi Activesphere concept, there is a transparent lower panel that helps to bring the outside in.

Second place: Yongkang Song

Taking the crossover between automotive and architecture to new levels, Song’s project ‘Carchitecture’ blends the two seamlessly. Designed to slot in as part of the home itself – visible and by no means hidden away – the vehicle leans heavily on glass and could almost be described as entirely DLO. Accenting the exterior are gloss black beams to create the structure, with red tail lights framing the roofline. Inside the pod itself and the user experience is designed as a chill-out zone, providing a cinema-like cocoon with television and reclining chair or a home office. When driving, the centre console is minimalistic (this is an autonomous concept of course) and was created on the basis that driving is seen as a leisure activity in the future.

Third place: SeungHyun (Elyza) Cho

Thinking very much outside of the box, Cho’s project centres around a theme park-like experience where the vehicle is used to battle virtual dinosaurs in 2035. ‘Codi’ is a two-player first-person shooter, where one steers and the other fires as dinos pursue the vehicle. Cho had two different ideations at first, one designed to hide the car and other to prepare it for battle – she went for the latter. That is plainly obvious, with a giant cannon mounted on the rear inspired by a tank (the other concept would have been much sleeker and less loud on the exterior). A rather impressive supporting animation was done in just two weeks, Cho told CDN.

DRIVE DESIGN

Winner: SeungHyun (Elyza) Cho

A multi-award winner on this list, Cho also took home the Drive Design award for the project outlined above, dubbed ‘Codi’. Several of her colleagues were also namedropped for their efforts.

Special mention: Natanael Ioschici

Special mention: Xinhao Wang

Special mention: Rhys Hill

SP1 DESIGN

Shift into Greatness – Dominic Wilcox

Wilcox presented his project, Shadow, at a time where he has already secured the next step in his career – not at a car company, but a tank company. This clearly fed into his design which centres around a dystopian future where robots have taken over (there is a little more nuance to the story, but for brevity…) The vehicles he has designed are utilitarian, destined for things like mine clearing and rescuing civilians. They travel in a convoy and, when viewed from side profile, almost create the appearance of a single vehicle. Speaking to CDN, Wilcox explained how he was inspired by the movement of a Jaguar, which also influenced the name of the project (the collective noun is a Shadow of Jaguars.)

Sleek Surfaces – Daniel Sekyere

This award was for the student that demonstrated skill in CAS modelling. Daniel Sekyere’s project ‘Ambient’ – a retro-futuristic grand tourer designed for 2050 – was judged to have been the best in show on that front. He describes the project as sitting in a future where “the design language dials back to some form of traditional automotive sculpturing, while maintaining elements of futuristic design.”

Immersive Innovation – Jonathan Feddis

Feddis describes his project ‘Inertia’ as the future of sustainable mobility. Many other designers make similar claims, but what makes this special is that the concept is fully recyclable – and made out of fully recyclable materials, too. (Emphasis on ‘concept’: Intertia is propelled by magnetic levitation and looks like a cross between a scandi architectural installation and a spaceship from Star Wars. This award celebrates skilful 3D visualisation, which is demonstrated in detail within Feddis’ supporting material.

ATD (Automotive & Transport Design) AWARDS

Best Design Innovation: Dimitar Stanev

This mobile workspace is designed for young digital nomads with flexible schedules and an urge for the outdoors. There is plenty going on, including seating that is integrated within the exterior itself.

Best Design Creativity: Qianqian Zhang

Zhang’s project originally began as a CMF exercise, she admits, but quickly evolved into more of a complete vehicle. That focus on materials is clear, with the use of corn-recycled leather, orange-peel and Karuun, which is derived from palm trees. Zhang told CDN that “CMF designers have a responsibility to push innovation from suppliers.”

Best Digital Development: Adam Smith

There were plenty of eVTOL concepts on show, but it was Smith’s use of digital tools that got his over the line for this award. The vehicle has a striking exterior but it is the cabin that catches the eye, with materials like bamboo, hemp and vegea [sic] leather rounding out a calm CMF strategy.

Best Manual Development: Donato Santoro

Another air mobility concept, Aere envisions a time where sky stops, hubs and ports are dotted throughout a city. While there is plenty of digital artwork, Santoro also went to the trouble of producing a clay model alongside his final visualisation.

Best Design Concept: Duola Jin

Blind dates in Shanghai – it is certainly a concept with a clear target market in mind. This fully autonomous pod is designed to help singles find love during their commute, repurposing time that might otherwise involve solitude or, conversely, crowds of people.

Best Animation: SeungHyun (Elyza) Cho

If two were not enough already, Cho also took home an award for an excellent supporting animation with her project, Codi. Although the skills to find a role in animation are clearly there, Cho told CDN that she would ideally like to land a job in concept design, handling a wide mix of tasks.