The closing evening of the Design the Italian Way competition took place on September 20, 2007 in the new Fiat Group Automobiles’ Style Centre headquarters. Participants in this competition launched on November 30, 2006 came across eight of the world’s leading design schools.
The idea for this award was a joint effort that involved not only Style Centre designers but also the Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo brands and their respective Product, Engineering & Design and Human Resources management teams. The 200 students, of 12 different nationalities, who participated in the competition, were divided into three groups - one for each brand - and in total they presented 100 projects.
A winner for each brand was then chosen from designs submitted by each of the participating schools. All of them will participate in a Fiat Group Automobiles programe providing hands-on experience, courtesy a study grant covering five months in the Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo Style Centers.
The awards covered the Best Italian Design for the Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo brands; Best Innovative Material Use; Best Future Vision; Best Overall Communication. For the Fiat brand the briefing students received was to develop a concept for the future Panda and to create a family of models around the Grande Punto.
As regards Lancia, students were asked to reinterpret the brand’s concepts of refinement, glamour and technology in an innovative key, developing two different concepts belonging to the same product family of a compact mainly for town use and a versatile, small-size MPV.
There were three concepts for Alfa Romeo: a large, versatile sports model; a flagship incorporating a new stylistic approach while still meeting the expectations of traditional customers; a small, zippy car, fun to drive and with an affordable price.
The winners:
Best Italian Design for the Fiat brand: Fiat Panda - Danilo Tosetti, Luca Seren Gay, Enrico Vercelli - Istituto Europeo di Design, Torino (Italy)
Best Italian Design for the Lancia brand: Lancia Aemila - Naoya Tsukamoto, Tatsuya Yamamoto, Chen Yi Kai - Tokyo Communication Arts (Japan)
Best Italian Design for the Alfa Romeo brand, ex aequo: Alfa Romeo - Mahan Ghose - National Institute of Design (India) and Alfa Romeo Area - Carmelo Giannone - Istituto Europeo di Design (Italy).
Best Innovative Material Use: Panda Splash - Federico Weber, Danilo Mangini - Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
Best Future Vision: Fiat Panda - Danilo Tosetti, Luca Seren Gay, Enrico Vercelli - Istituto Europeo di Design, Torino (Italy)
Best Overall Communication: Fiat Panda - Danilo Tosetti, Luca Seren Gay, Enrico Vercelli - Istituto Europeo di Design (Italy)
Fiat declares the ‘Design the Italian Way’ Competition upshots Picture Gallery
[Source: Fiat]
