CAR DESIGN AWARD 2017, THE WINNERS

The design teams of Jaguar for the I-Pace Concept, Ford for the GT and Land Rover for its product range design are the winners of the Car Design Award 2017, the new edition of the historical, coveted Oscar of world automotive design instituted in 1984 on the initiative of the magazine Auto & Design and its founder Fulvio Cinti. The award ceremony took place in Turin on 7 June as part of the Parco Valentino Turin Motor Show. “We are delighted to host the return of this prize that resonates worldwide but whose roots are here in Turin”, said Andrea Levy, President of the Show’s Organising Committee. The Car Design Award was assigned for fourteen consecutive editions up to 1997. The award was then revived in 2016 in a completely renewed incarnation, faithful, however, to the spirit that had always characterised it: to reward the authors of projects that have made a significant contribution to the evolution of car design. Today as before, the winners are decided by a jury of experts representing the most prestigious world car magazines, thus ensuring an objective judgment on the world car design scene. The Car Design Award is divided into three categories: two of them, “Concept Cars” and “Production Cars”, are historical and they are now joined by a third, “Brand Design Language”, an award to the design team that has worked best to maintain the consistency and transversality of a brand’s formal language over the entire product range.

THE 2017 WINNERS:

• For the Concept Car section, the Jaguar design team for its I-Pace project;
second place goes to Cadillac for the Escala, and third place to Renault for the Trezor.
• For the Production Cars section, the Ford design team for the GT;
second place goes to Land Rover for the Range Rover Velar and third place ex-aequo to Alpine for the A110 and Kia for the Stinger.
• For the Brand Design Language section, the Land Rover team;
followed by the Mercedes-Benz and Citroën design teams in respectively second and third places.

“In bringing back the Car Design Award we wondered if it might not be fair to also reward the design team that more than any other has been able to give substance and consistency to a brand’s styling idiom over a time span longer than just a single model. Land Rover has done an excellent job in this regard”, said Silvia Baruffaldi, editor of Car & Design and President of the Jury of the Car Design Award. Entirely new with respect to the “historical” editions are also the trophies, designed and made specifically by Brembo, partner of the award since its return. “The relationship between Brembo and design, which has been strong and active since the company’s origins, is evolving constantly. Our relationships with customers today are increasingly proactive and direct and allow us to combine family feeling, creativity and aesthetics with the needs of quality, reliability and absolute performance”, noted Alberto Ferrari, Marketing Manager of Brembo at the awards ceremony. An exceptional endorsement came from Walter de Silva, designer and past winner who commented on continuity with past editions. “Receiving the award was particularly important for me and the Alfa Romeo Style Centre team”, he recalled in his speech at the awards ceremony this year. “It was a reassurance for our work, at a time when design had not yet achieved the media exposure it knows today”.

THE JURY

Organised by Auto&Design magazine, the Car Design Award is assigned by an international jury consisting of representatives of some of the most prestigious automotive magazines from around the world:

Silvia Baruffaldi (Auto&Design, Italy)
Bernd Wieland (AutoBild/AutoBild Klassik, Germany)
Todd Lassa (Automobile Magazine, USA)
Christophe Bonnaud (Automobiles Classiques, France)
Luca Ciferri (Automotive News Europe)
Juan Carlos Payo Calderon (Autopista, Spain)
Dhruv Behl (AutoX, India)
Tetsuya Kato (Car Graphic, Japan)
Jun Miao (Car and Driver China)
Zeca Chaves (Quatro Rodas, Brazil)
Charlie Turner (Top Gear, UK)

JURY MOTIVATIONS

CONCEPT CARS, JAGUAR I-PACE
“The Jaguar I-Pace is a manifesto of electrification on wheels, epitomising revolution not only in emissions, but also in proportions and an innovative use of the vehicle on the part of passengers. The Jaguar design team has made convincing use of emerging technology applying it to a product that stands out not only for its architecture, but also for its innovative style and the adoption of intelligent packaging”.

PRODUCTION CARS, FORD GT
“The Ford GT delivers a visual impact that few supercars can rival. Designed to optimise aerodynamic efficiency and performance in every parameter, it’s a true realisation of form following function, and rarely has that ethos delivered such a well-resolved aesthetic result. From the dramatic tapered cockpit to the flying buttresses, every angle on the GT captures the imagination and sets your pulse racing a little faster”.

BRAND DESIGN LANGUAGE, LAND ROVER DESIGN
“From the rugged Defender to the luxury Range Rover, Land Rover design has evolved constantly to the point that the range now includes six products – Evoque, Velar, Range Rover classic, Range Rover Sport, Discovery, Discovery Sport – all with very different personalities and characters. At the same time, they are all unmistakably Land Rovers: they are closely linked to the brand’s roots and retain the values of previous generations. In short: constant innovation that respects brand identity”.

2017 FINALISTS