2015 World Car Award Finalists
The short lists are now in for the 2015 World Car Awards.
To get to this point, a panel of five of the most highly respected designers in the industry had the formidable task of narrowing the field for the jury to vote for. Masatsugu Arumoto of Japan, Silvia Baruffaldi of Italy, Gernot Bracht of Germany, Tom Matano of USA, and Sam Livingstone of the UK. Each brings a unique strategy and strength to the task at hand as well as a passion for automotive design.
Bracht: “At first, it is a spontaneous ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’ decision. There are cars you would never vote for because they are against your own design philosophy.”
Baruffaldi: “I start deleting the less significant models first, in order to narrow the selections. Then comes the more difficult part, to pick up only five of the remaining nominees.”
Judging the quality of a vehicle’s design comes down to a certain balance between proportion and shape, as well as between form and function. In addition to these key elements, notes Arimoto, “being consistent with the brand’s identity.” Matano adds “I always look for a ‘newness’, indicating a new direction in design, or the innovative approach of blending function/technology and aesthetics.” For Livingstone, standout candidates are “the ones that move the discipline of car design forward in useful, relevant (for today and tomorrow) ways, and that are well executed.”
When it comes to “genres” and car design – from SUV to sport coupe to luxury limo – this is not something the panel focuses on when judging candidates. The same criteria applies for all candidates, the panel agrees. “I do not pay much attention to categorization, because it is not important for customers,” says Arimoto. “…Good design can be done in any category. People fall in love with a car not because of its categorization but its design.”
The only time categorization becomes more pertinent is as we move forward, into the future. Boundaries with car categories are becoming increasingly blurred. “Broadly I see more ‘mash-ups’ of existing genres,” observes Livingstone, “particularly those that sit around the lifestyle end of the crossover/SUV space…”
When inquired about the potential of a new “autonomous drive” category within the World Car Design of the Year Award, Baruffaldi commented, “Autonomous driving is definitely the issue of the future: It will be interesting to see, for example, how the on-board space will be reorganized… But probably, at the beginning, the autonomous features will simply be added to the cars as they are today, so adding an additional category won’t be immediately necessary.” Tom Matano agreed, adding “I still believe that the criteria for what is good design doesn’t need to change. If an autonomous vehicle changes proportion due to what it does, inside and so on, we will be judging the correctness of that proportion.”
The finalists for the 2015 World Car Awards were announced earlier this year, a diverse representation across a wide range of vehicles. The design panel eagerly awaits the final results from the jury’s vote in April at the New York Auto Show in April. What makes the awards so significant, notes Matano, is that “the jurors come from a truly global scope. It’s truly global and very neutral.”
Click here for the full 2015 WCOTY report
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