To drive a Volkswagen is to experience passion. Engineering and fueling passion is at the heart of Volkswagen. And it caught the eye of the panelists at the World Car Awards 2015, landing the Volkswagen Passat as a finalist for World Car of the Year 2015.
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 explains that “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.” Conversely, Baruffaldi says she starts “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.”
The panel says that the final decisions come 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.”
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