ALTHOUGH South Africa lacks any form of recognised training programmes for aspirant car designers, it has produced a surprisingly large number of celebrated international designers. And we get letters monthly from youngsters who wish to follow in the footsteps of locally born designers such as Gordon Murray (ex-McLaren), Oona Scheepers (VW Group) and Keith Helfet (Jaguar, Optimal Energy etc.).
CAR magazine is proud to announce the Design a Car competition, in association with Johannesburg’s highly rated Luma Animation Studios and …XYZ DESIGN in Cape Town.
The aim with the competition is to provide a platform for South Africa’s young car-design talents to showcase their abilities. Using CAR’s Facebook fan page, readers will be able to vote for their favourite submitted designs and thereby directly influence the outcome of the competition. But we’re also happy to announce that the final judge, the person responsible for picking the winner out of the top three, will be none other than ace Jaguar designer, Wayne J Burgess.
What does the winner get? Besides recognition from one of the world’s top car designers, the winner’s design will be turned into a spectacular three-dimensional animation by Luma and be the star of a short promo film with a vehicle designed by CAR’s own staff. Furthermore, the winner will also receive an internship at Cape Town’s …XYZ DESIGN Studios where he/she will be exposed to the realities of work as a product designer in South Africa – a necessary springboard, as there are no car-design jobs in this country.
How does this work? Interested parties must submit their complete entries (see The Brief) by no later than 25 September 2012. Soon after, all the complete entries will be simultaneously uploaded to our Facebook fan page for voting. If your entry is not complete, it will not be uploaded for voting. The closing date for the casting of votes is 23 October 2012. The three design submissions with the most votes will then be announced in the December issue of CAR (on sale 19 November). Burgess will then decide on the final winner, who will be announced in the January 2013 issue of CAR (on sale 17 December).
The more creative, detailed and professional your entry, the more likely you are to succeed. There is no limit on the number of entries you can submit, but each must be complete. Good luck!
This competition is open only to South African citizens.
Remember to follow progress on the competition in CAR magazine for the next six months.
THE BRIEF
Your brief is to design the following: A compact, four-seater Jaguar with strong green credentials but maintaining the brand’s premium/sporty image, for market introduction in 2015.
We need these sketches/renderings with scaling information: head-on front view, rear view, profile, front three-quarter view, rear three-quarter view and top view. You also need to give your car a name and provide us with full contact details. Submit to [email protected] with "Design a car" in the subject line.
ABOUT LUMA ANIMATION
Luma is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed digital-content-creation studio based in Johannesburg. From its inception in 2001, Luma has been producing television commercials for the South African market, and has since gone on to produce a variety of digital content for the local and international markets, including an animated commercial for Mini (Countryman).
Luma specialises in character animation, photorealistic visual effects, motion-graphic design as well as high-resolution print renders for magazine ads and billboards. Its own internally developed animated series Bun & Bunee has been sold to Disney XD Latin America and was shortlisted as a finalist for Best Animated Series, Family Category, in the Kidscreen Awards earlier this year. Luma’s awards include Loerie and Promax, and it has been featured in Motionographer and the AdForum Top 5.
The Design a Car initiative was the brainchild of Luma’s MD Paul Meyer, a self-proclaimed petrolhead. Go to www.luma.co.za for examples of its animation work.
ABOUT … XYZ DESIGN
… XYZ DESIGN is a Cape Town-based, award-winning design firm, globally recognised for its leading-edge, innovative design solutions. Established in 1999, it has received worldwide acclaim for products such as the wind-up radio for the Freeplay Foundation and the Four-seconds condom applicator. Its products feature in the permanent collections of international design museums, including the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (New York City), the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London). Visit their website here.
THE JUDGE: Wayne J Burgess
In his current role of studio director, Wayne John Burgess manages the creative design team responsible for all Jaguar production vehicles, including the recently announced F-Type, XF Sportbrake and XJ Ultimate models.
He previously occupied the position of chief designer for Jaguar sports sedans and later also sportscars. He held a similar position at Aston Martin Lagonda, whereto he was seconded from Jaguar Design by Ian Callum (who, at the time, held the title of joint design director for Jaguar and Aston Martin). In this position, Wayne designed the exterior of the Aston DB9 and did the initial design concept for what was to become the Aston Vantage, while also supervising the design development of the interiors for both vehicles.
Upon joining Jaguar Cars as principal designer in 1997, Wayne's first job was to design and deliver the exterior of the X-Type to production, and he subsequently designed the livery for the Jaguar F1 CAR (2000 season) as an enjoyable diversion from his usual work.
Prior to working for Jaguar, Wayne spent over two years with Omni Design International, working on a variety of vehicle exteriors/interiors for various automotive manufacturers, including Rolls Royce, Bentley and Rover Group.
Wayne's first role in the car industry was that of designer for LTI Carbodies, working on a replacement for the London taxi, which ultimately became the TX1.
In his spare time, Wayne is the lead guitarist for the metal band, Scattering Ashes.